Reviews without prices: threat or menace?

To make this more about process, aside from the $ issue, it just feels to me like whenever @catholiver makes a suggestion that’s “unpopular,” her comments gets taken as some sort of attempt at a directive and then there’s a collective response of “STOP TRYING TO CONTROL US!”

I comment on it (and have commented on it previously) b/c I totally don’t see her posts that way. But I appear to be alone in that perception.

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I don’t either, it’s just her writing style. Which I’m cool with

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But is it really this difficult to google it if somebody is interested in the actual prices. When you read FTC you are sitting already in front of an iphone/laptop and it takes literally 15 seconds to get the prices.

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it’s not even a matter of looking it up, @rlw posted a direct link to the restaurant’s website with the menu and prices in his report. replying with a one word “price?”, which will just get a reply with the same link that’s already in the OP, just seems like trolling to me.

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almost all of my reports will have a link to the restaurant’s website with menu and prices at the bottom. and if the website doesn’t list prices, e.g. felix and mother wolf, I post a picture of the menu.

if somebody wanted to get an idea of prices the website will have the most accurate data, not some however old post on ftc.

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I just did the Manzke one, since it was mentioned previously. I Google’d “Manzke,” and, my bad, I didn’t show the restaurant at all on the first page of hits. So then I did “Manzke restaurant.” The restaurant’s website is the 6th hit. No pricing info on the webpage. Click on “Reservations” to go to Open Table. STILL no pricing information on the first Open Table page. Click on “Reserve.” A new window pop ups, and it’s toward the bottom of the window.

So, yes, that actually does seem a bit difficult, TBH. Honestly, the more expensive the restaurant, it seems like the more clicks it takes to get pricing info. And then read what I found below when looking at Al’s Place menu. Does that sound simple to you?

Only @catholiver can comment on her own motivation.

I didn’t read the original thread b/f I first commented, but I’ve looked at the original thread just now. Did you cross reference the “sample menu” in the link w/ what was pictured? Only 4 of the first 7 items pictured in @rlw’s report were actually on the sample menu (I didn’t do a full search).

And then the bottom of the sample menu says family style is $83/person.

So what does the $83/person mean? Do you get “X” number of dishes for that price and how does that work w/ the 2 vs. 4 portion mentioned in the review?

I love reading @rlw’s reports and b/c of the restaurant’s website is super confusing, I actually think just a statement of “X” amount per person would actually have been super helpful. Do I think that should info be a rule? Of course not. Do I think less of @rlw’s post b/c they didn’t include that? Again, of course not.

But, honestly, sometimes the math is actually not so simple. In one real-life example, you have a single price-fixe menu that took like 6 clicks and 4 windows to find. And for Al’s Place, you have a menu structure seems to be missing some info (a la carte vs. family style vs. ___?). Using Majordomo as an example, if you go w/ enough people and know what to do order, the price per person isn’t nearly as hefty as one would expect.

it’s on the home page. link is in the first post of the manzke thread.

The price is on their webpage - $225/person - as I said it takes about 15 seconds

Okay, fair enough about Manzke.

So how about the Al’s Place menu?

@rlw said he picked the family style option, which is currently 83pp according to their website. which I can almost guarantee wasn’t the price when @rlw ate there 5 months ago.

Thanks for the info.

So my only questions after all of that would be

  • So all 10 dishes + dessert are included in the family option?
  • Did you feel full after that, or did you need a bang-bang?

I think the above are reasonable questions.

But to get back to the original off-topic post, I guess I wonder why people just didn’t respond to the original question she asked. Yes, it’s on the website. That’s nice. But would simply writing that it was $83/person really have taken that much more energy than the Let Me Google That or posting a link to the website?

Or, if it bothers people that much, why not just ignore the post altogether?

Prices posted in reviews are potentially out of date. Some place gets a Michelin star, or another one, and the prices go up dramatically. There’s no compelling reason to post them if current prices are online.

AL’s (AL as in chef Aaron London) Place’s sample menu has prices. Menus | Al's Place

People talk about the price of specials at McDonald’s all the time. There’s a whole topic basically devoted to that.

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The first post in the AL’s Place topic describes a family-style meal in detail.

catholiver asked “Price?” pilgrim responded " Menu and prices here "

Question answered, complaining was off-topic and got rude so I split it here.

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They’re all there.

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Well, not quite. The third quote you posted wasn’t in the original post. And, yes, I realize I’m a bit petty there.

Look, all I’m saying is that, if people are that peeved about it, just tell the “offending” poster to go back and read the original posts more carefully. It seems more straightfoward to me. It certainly works on/for me.

And also, as I said, I hadn’t read the original thread b/f writing my thoughts. I didn’t realize there was a 4-5 mo gap.

I admit I certainly seem to have put my foot in it, and I appreciate that posters here pointing out my errors in a diplomatic way. Genuine apologies and thanks.

I wrote and I quote:

“Price?”

"those are pretty much “if you have to ask, you can’t afford it” splurges.

I suppose I/we could afford to eat anything/anywhere but we don’t.

And if you write up a meal you had, it’s a freaking review. They’re generally not good enough to be published anywhere other than here but they’re still “reviews.”

Enough said. I’ve been off-site all day and, boy, is this nonsense. Get over yourselves.

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No.

When you asked “Price” PorkyBelly’s response was " search? ". Which I split off here since it was kind of rude. The response I left there was pilgrim’s helpful " Menu and prices here ".

My comment about “if you have to ask” was posted in this topic, two days later, responding to paranoidgarliclover’s odd statement that " the general vibe of the board is to not discuss $."

I was interested in knowing if this was a meal for multiple people as it seemed a whole lot of dishes for just one or even two. As far as price, it saves at least some of us some money if we find out that it’s beyond what we’re WILLING to pay. Not ABLE. Thanks for your work here. It’s appreciated.