Restaurant menu

[nokidshere]

I'm looking for somewhere good and interesting to go for dinner and have been looking at lots of different places. Whilst they are all different they nearly all have one thing in common - the current trend for a list of ingredients rather than the name of a meal.

"Scallops, apples, walnut, celery, cider" for instance tells me nothing about what sort of dish I'm getting. Only what's in it.

So for dinner tonight I had crusty bread, cheese, black pepper, spinach!!

AIBU to find it irritating and slightly pretentious?

You're getting scallops dressed with apple, walnut, celery and cider. Either as a sauce or a salad

Oh that mats really wanky.

Lamb, potatoes, carrots, spinach

Now is that a roast or a lamb stew?????

I once went to a restaurant where each course was on the menu as a 2-3 line section of a story.. you had to guess what it was

I guess some people would like to know exactly what they're eating. Others might have allergies to a specific ingredient, like nuts.....

YANBU. Sounds pretty wanky.
It is unreasonable to expect people to spend time and money on a meal that they may / may not enjoy, because the menu gives no real clue to what they'll be eating.

Scallops and walnuts tells you exactly what you're getting. But you'd rather the dish has a name like shepherds pie because you know what that is.

That works great if you know shepherds pie is made with lamb and is a pie with no crust. I much prefer the "wanky" way, you know pretty much what the dish will be and the details of how it's prepared make for a nice surprise. Each to his own I suppose.

I can understand this if you're eating at a foreign restaurant were you really have never eaten the dish I don't know what's in it. I think even local things can be hard for people to guess if they don't live here. Toad in the hole for example may seem obvious To someone who grew up in the UK, but to a foreigner, it might make them think of a frog and I don't know what the whole would be.

Inevitably in restaurants like this you will end up with dehydrated apple "dust", celery "foam" and walnut "soil" and 1 measly scallop sitting artfully in the middle.

Toad in the hole for example may seem obvious

Yes, I remember my mother translating it literally for a French exchange student, and me trying to explain it wasn't literal crapeux, but saucissons.

I blame Nando's for starting this awful trend. "Half chicken, coleslaw and spicy rice"? Yeah, but what actually is it I'm ordering??

Pretentious fuckers.

I like menus that give a name and a description. So something like

"Waldorf scallop salad: scallops tossed with apple, celery and walnuts with a cider dressing"

If you're at a place that's nice enough to have this new way of menu writing, the server will always know a lot about the dish and can tell you anything you like to know. There's no need to be embarrassed about asking the details of the preparation. Servers are used to addressing these questions -- so pick the two or three different items with ingredients that most sound like something you'd enjoy, and ask about them! Your server wants you to be happy with your meal, not feeling uncertain.

It's a stupid idea. Do they have tiles instead of plates as well?

Nandos, pretentious? About the most unpretentious place I can think of

What's pretentious about Nandos?

Yeah this is definitely an affectation of a certain type of fancy restaurant menu. Probably started as a reaction against OTT flowery descriptions - pare it back to the most basic words. But it's become as much of a cliche as 'Hand-dived Scottish scallops, pan-seared and resting on a bed of organic Kentish apple and celery julienne with a toasted walnut crumb and reduction of cider sourced from the McGregor orchard'

Nandos, pretentious? About the most unpretentious place I can think of

🤦

I love that kind of wanky restaurant

Wanky pretentious crap

It irritates me too.
If you want a list of dish specific ingredients ask the staff it shouldn't be on the menu.

If you're at a place that's nice enough to have this new way of menu writing, the server will always know a lot about the dish and can tell you anything you like to know. There's no need to be embarrassed about asking the details of the preparation. Servers are used to addressing these questions -- so pick the two or three different items with ingredients that most sound like something you'd enjoy, and ask about them! Your server wants you to be happy with your meal, not feeling uncertain.

I'm not embarrassed at all merely irritated that my favourite restaurants have succumbed to this way of presenting their meals. I'm very used to eating at very nice restaurants but when I am paying a hefty price tag for my food I do not want to spend time asking the server what I'm going to be Eating. I want to look at the menu, make my choice and order it. A description of the dish rather than a list if the ingredients is infinitely better in my book!

And to answer another question from someone else, I always send back food and ask for it to be plated on a proper plate if it comes served on anything else. If I have eaten there before I ask them when I order to make sure my food is on proper plates