+1
I don’t run into MP that often but unpriced specials are a common theme in NYC… and it is common for them to be somewhat higher than the rest of the items on the menu… and waiters sometimes seem offended if you ask the price…
I’m sure glad waiters aren’t that rude in California. Cop an attitude and I’ll get up and walk
out. My home comes with a working kitchen. I don’t NEED a restaurant, ever.
Honestly, by the time I’ve perused the menu I’m not inclined to spend the extra time to rethink my decision after asking the market price on something. So I never order from that part of the menu.
The only place I go to at all regularly which does this is Marea. Anyone have opinions on their MP items?
True…and I’m so happy that you’re back to posting regularly.
The problem with not ordering the specials is sometimes they’re “special”. They are either a chance to get something different at a place one frequents, or they offer a protein etc that is not commonly sourced by the restaurant. The other night I had a stuffed rabbit. My issue with the specials is that even if one is told about them early on, when first getting menus, sometimes there are so many of them that one can’t even remember all the details. I’m always the one that has to ask to be told details a second time.
I do think that restaurants should try and avoid making customers ask the prices. There is still something a bit uncomfortable about that in certain situations. I think the staff should state the price of each special as they detail it. My wife and I always ask the price before ordering a special. I HATE it when the waiter says he isn’t sure and acts put out when he’s requested to go and confirm. A couple of weeks ago a waiter told me, regarding an appetizer price, “I’m not positive, but it’s about $13”. So I didn’t push it. When the bill came it was $18. I was a bit miffed. I do think some restaurants in L.A. and New York seem to be abusive in charging more for the specials than is in line with other similar menu items. I’ll go one more and say that Italian restaurants seem to be the leaders in this realm. I remember going to a high end place and ordering their swordfish special. The rest of the fish was around $35 and when the bill came mine was about $60. The other night we dined in a place that I know can charge a premium for custom items. One of the people we were with, who the rest of the group intended to pay for, requested a custom seafood pasta. I’m thinking oh boy, let’s see what this is going to cost. In the end there was perhaps a $7-8 upcharge, so not bad.
MP doesn’t bother me for something less than fine dining and if it’s on a price volatile item like lobster. It might not make sense, but I think people feel more comfortable asking the price on MP items than they do on specials.
I’ll tolerate it in some places. French Coastal spots where the menu is printed for the year, or even more (no vintages on the wine list is a clue) the same with Chinese casual spots.
Anywhere else, list the price, even on a blackboard or something.
It annoys me a lot less than Champagne trolleys with no listing or pour size. Led by a London restauranteur with 6 or 7 stars to his name I will ask just to make a point in that case.
I think this sez it well.
But, I always ask…not willing to take a chance. Glad the place takes advantage of what’s different and available…but I’m not willing to take a risk of way overpaying for the experience.
I spend a lot of time in Maine where seafood reigns (and rains, at times). The same items are generally on the menus…fried clams, Maine scallops, lobsters. They’re there on the menus all the time; but the markets do fluctuate…depending. So, I understand the need for the place to not commit to a price and say “MP” (which is the question on this thread).
Specials…are a related, but different issue, I think. They shouldn’t be something that can appear on a printed menu that doesn’t change all the time…and, obviously, cheaper, smaller places can’t change the menu all the time. But, they should be on a blackboard or menu insert, with prices…who can remember them all anyway when a server goes through a whole list. And, having to ask the price adds to the confusion, as , for me, it’s almost always a “defensive” move: I just don’t want to get ripped off or spend twice as much for something I can live without very easily.
“MP” though is a logistics necessity, I think. I never see it used where it doesn’t make sense, though. But, some things are very volatile price-wise…a fact of life with fresh foods…and seasonal foods.
I never have a problem asking a price…though I’d rather not. I do have a problem when this could be easily avoided…like putting them on a chalkboard or insert.
Ink for each character is so expensive now, and eco-unfriendly too.
Rather than print “$26” on the menu, for a hit-and-run recipe to elevate (AKA,
dispose of) chicken parts which have been “brining gently in an award-winning
marinade” (AKA, re-found accidentally in their own hazy, goober-like fluids after
three weeks in the warmest part of a refrigerator, termed sous vide methode
nouveau), the manager can simply print “MP”.
The new $38 tariff is besides the point, you uninformed, to-be-wowed, financially
endowed but interpersonally submissive diner.
Obviously, what is “special” at one place may just be another place’s attempt to repurpose food that near the end of its useful life. ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
But I completely agree with the point of having to remember all the friggin’ details of the specials. This is one of the main reasons I prefer a small insert into
the menu (a card or a one-sheet Daily Specials insert). I can read the description AND the price at the same time as I read the rest of the menu and make my decisions all at the same time. But when the specials aren’t announced until later in the process, it makes it more difficult (esp. as we get older, more feeble, more demented, more hard of hearing, etc.).
Getting back to Market Price, how hard is it to have a display board or card stand at the table listing market prices if you have items that vary so drastically in price that you need to resort to MP? Obviously, it’s not difficult at all. Just like not announcing upfront the price of “specials,” not listing the price of Market Price items is at least in part a way to extract $$ from customers who wouldn’t order the item if they knew upfront what the item cost.
Of course, borrowing from another thread, I’m not “Musigny rich.”
Bruce
Boy, I’m sure glad I don’t eat where you guys eat.
One of my big issues.
Why?
We were in Baltimore Inner Harbor at lunch. Spending a day before flying out to Bermuda. Walked into a place for lunch. Everything on the menu in the 10 to 12 range. See crabcakes with the MP price designation. Here in Mobile at the time a pair of crab cakes would run $10 at lunch. So I ordered without thinking to ask. Got the bill and $26 for the two small crab cakes. That was 25 years ago and to this day I won’t order anything market price without asking and won’t generally consider anything on a menu that is listed MP unless it really really piques my interest.
Why when the server is handing out menus or taking drinks can they not say MP on the fresh whatever is $20, fish of the day is Red Grouper and it is $27 and here is a card of today’s specials with the prices listed. Instead we have a whole bunch of back and forth while they check their notes, ask the kitchen for MP and can’t remember what the fish of the day actually is TODAY.
MP doesn’t bother me as you just have to ask the price. I am not a fan of the practice but it isn’t a deal breaker either way.
JD
Yes…it would be nicer if they could print the menu daily and leave out the “MP”…but it essentially says “ask”. Not a “deal breaker either way” as you say.
Better to be informed…and that invites asking, so…
The key to this dilemma is to hammer back 2-3 martinis and start in on a bottle of wine before you order. That way you could care less what the waiter thinks, what the price is, or for that matter, what you are ordering.
The question on this thread is whether “charging MP” is an issue , ie, it is unfair or inconsiderate or whatever for a restaurant to do that.
Oh. Then have a 4th martini to get over the unfairness of it all.
90% of restaurants I go to will tell you the price (never seen MP other than whole fish, lobster or shellfish, btw) as the recite the MP items. “Today we have XXXX oyters at $x, and YYYY Oysters those are $y” etc., or have inserts or chalkboards with prices. Other than that, I ask. I can see unease -kinda- in front of a client, but I don’t understand the discomfort thing with the waiter. I care about their opinion of me and I’m not going to ask so they won’t think I’m not rich??
For me it’s just an annoying extra step. And the one restaurant I go to that does this neither recites nor shows it. So I order something else.
When I was younger and watching every dollar I was also caught by ordering a special one day only to find out it was twice the price of the next most expensive entrée on the menu. I learned my lesson then, never went back to that restaurant, and always ask the price before ordering. But that experience left a really bad taste in my mouth and the impression that not listing the price is an attempt to gouge inexperienced diners.
I agree they should list/tell MP, I just don’t get the big deal about it or the reluctance to ask, that’s all.
I rarely order a special unless it really strikes some cord (or if it is something new and different at one of my regular places). Specials annoy me more than MP.
I find many restaurants are (to my view) purposeful about hiding the price so they can bang you. Mostly, I have found more often than not there is no real reason for these specials to be priced so differently than the rest of the menu.
I’m supposed to remember all the details of 4 appetizer, and 4 entree specials that you just rattled off?
If they don’t give prices at the end of the litany, I make them tell me even if I am not interested. “What are the prices for those?” “which one?” “all of them”
What restaurant ingredients (including realty and workers) are not sourced around Market Pricing?
What restaurant dishes and hospitality are not sold around Market Pricing?
Nada, nada, nin quien.
MP is a signature of self-designated, self-important food curators whose own over-precious,
Fashion Week-photogenic food does not turn eventually into municipal sludge.
I think certain costs are relatively fixed. You know your labor costs and the cost of your rent. But truffles, for example, can vary greatly in price.
I’m having dinner with a well known chef this weekend, I’ll try to remember to ask him his views on the topic.