We understand that restaurants have an overhead to consider when setting their prices. It’s not free to run a restaurant, after all. We can also wrap our brains around the idea that to offer a lower price point for menu items that are more costly to prepare, it’s necessary to charge more for items that don’t cost as much. Balance.
Still, some of the stuff customers spend money on at restaurants land in “ripoff” territory. On a Reddit thread discussing the best examples of such things, chefs sounded off with their own experiences.
A Bowl of Soup
If you visit a restaurant with a particularly delicious soup, you might find yourself opting for the more expensive bowl versus a cheaper cup of said soup. Just keep in mind that the shallow bowl the restaurant gives you might hold the same amount of soup as that “smaller” cup.
Restaurants rely heavily on presentation to influence ordering decisions, and soup is a prime example. A wider bowl feels more indulgent and satisfying, even when the portion size barely changes, allowing restaurants to charge extra without increasing food costs. It’s a subtle pricing trick that most customers never notice — but once you do, you may think twice before paying more for what’s essentially the same serving.
Cheesecake
If you save room for dessert when you dine out, you probably want to indulge in something you don’t have universal access to outside of that restaurant’s four walls. Countless chefs on Reddit admitted that restaurants often buy their cheesecakes already made from the grocery store, and they add sauces and syrups to them to dress them up before plating and charging $10 for a slice.
While there’s nothing inherently wrong with serving pre-made desserts, the issue is the markup and presentation. Restaurants often rely on fancy plating and menu descriptions to imply something scratch-made, even when the dessert came frozen out of a box. If you’re paying a premium price, it’s worth asking whether you’re getting a truly homemade treat — or just a dressed-up grocery store cheesecake with a restaurant-sized price tag.
Certain Sushi Rolls
Pay attention to the descriptions when you read the menu at your favorite sushi joint, guys. One Redditor explained that the only difference between her restaurant’s California roll and their specialty Volcano roll was the way the roll was cut and the spicy mayo it was topped with.
Oh, and the Volcano roll came with a heftier price tag. We’re not mathematicians, but we’re pretty sure that Volcano roll didn’t have almost $4 worth of spicy mayo on it. You’d be better off ordering a Cali roll with spicy mayo on the side at that point.
The ‘House Wine’
The resounding Reddit response among chefs is that you can’t always trust the house wine at restaurants. One Redditor commented, “We buy tiny wine bottles for $7 and sell for $37. Spaghetti Factories house wine is Franzia box wine.”
Others were quick to agree, lamenting that house wine is commonly just the cheapest wine the restaurant has in their arsenal — their finest cardboardaux, as another Redditor put it.
Mayonnaise
That little dish of mayo on the side might seem harmless, but according to a chef on Reddit, restaurants can buy a bulk container for about $15 and turn it into nearly 500 small servings, charging roughly 50 cents each — adding up to around $300 in revenue for something that costs pennies per scoop.
When a single condiment delivers a 20x markup, it’s no wonder some diners feel nickeled-and-dimed before the fries even hit the table — especially when those small charges add up fast over the course of a meal.
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…And Other House-Made Drinks
House wine isn’t the only beverage that you might raise an eyebrow about at restaurants. “We used to sell a house-made drink with a ton of stuff we could make behind the bar for basically nothing. The cost to us, per pour, was $1.89. We sold it for $12,” commented one Redditor.
The user also pointed out that marking the price of cheap-to-make drinks or menu items is a practice that allows for more affordable pricing on the items that are expensive to make and sell.
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