Multiple spelling mistakes on a menu

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Do spelling mistakes on a restaurant menu bother you?

If you went to a nice brunch restaurant and were paying £17 for 'egs Royale' or £12 for a 'toasted chesse sandwich' or £5 for a 'croissant pasrty with canied lemon' would the spelling mistakes bother you more?

At this restaurant all of the owners and staff speak English as a first language, the menu writer did not use spellcheck before ordering hundreds of copies from the printing company.

YANBU - The spelling mistakes would bother me
YABU - I don't mind

I do mystery dining - visiting restaurants and feeding back on service/experience. Most places are chains with standardised menus but if it's an independent, or one in a chain (like pubs) where all pubs have their own menu, I definitely feed back on poor spelling and grammar. It looks unprofessional.

I love the weird mistranslations on chinese and curry restaunt menus - I remember a favourite being a curry described only as "thoroughly garnished."

But if it's written by people for whom English is their first language, I would think they are too sloppy on details to be trusted with the basics.

If you don't even check your menus for errors, how am I to have confidence in food hygeine, cross contamination, any of a thousand things a decient kitchen needs to keep on top of.

I would infer poor attention to detail and poor judgement, neither of which are good traits in restaurant management. The menu writer made mistakes, they didn't use a proofreader, and they used a cheap online printshop rather than a local business that would have queried the errors. None of this points to a well-run establishment.

Eaten Mess! I’m dying…

Ceaser Salad is my one.

A seafood shack place near us used to have muscles on the menu …

Sometimes the spelling mistakes are deliberate though, in order to give the impression that English is not the owner’s first language. Makes the place seem more authentic.

Not a restaurant story but a large shopping centre had some large advertising posters for a very well known holiday company. Instead of having 'relax and be entertained in our live lounge' the poster had lice lounge, which is a whole different thing! Made me laugh

Either the holiday company was cheap and didnt pay for their poster to be accurately checked (some companies charge to spellcheck etc) or the company did not get it proof read before printing.

It wouldn't bother me on a menu as such but I would notice it, just like when people are selling 'draws', use 'yous' etc. I notice, I don't saying anything but I notice! 😂

I would cross my fingers that they were able to understand local ordinances wrt hygiene, sanitation, etc.

My brother and I went to a pub once where sausages were on the menu and the recipe apparently included ‘several different species’. My brother asked the waitress what species they were but she was unable to tell us. We assumed it was meant to say spices but just in case we gave them a miss…

I'd be a bit surprised to see spelling mistakes on the menu of a high-end restaurant, but I seriously doubt there's a correlation between food quality and linguistic accuracy of the menu in your average pub, café or normal restaurant. Lots of people are just bad at spelling. I'd rather they were good at food in a restaurant.

It looks unprofessional. YANBU.

I would assume the food would be shit.

Although I did laugh when I saw a menu offering Fussily Alfredo.

I hope mine would be prawn, I mean pawn. Or a stinking bishop if I fancied a bit of cheese.

If you didn't know that people fish from boats at Dungeness and that there is also a Nature Reserve there at Romney Marsh it could be quite concerning.

I will never forget seeing Dauphin Oise potatoes offered on a menu.

A while ago Lidl had a sign for celery storks...

You would be missing out! There is an amazing fish shack in the summer months on Dungeness beach, the woman who runs it has a dad who is a local fisherman and the fish is delicious. It is also one of the few places in the country where you can do cod fishing from the beach, they do it at night from little pop up tent along the shoreline.

Yes! I was a hotel/restaurant receptionist for a spell - personal favourite errors by my colleagues include: rack of lamp, anal glaze (for anglaise) and I kid you not, cococunt ice cream

I'd notice. Most of the cafes/restaurants in my local high street (not town centre) are independents with staff who speak English as a second language.

However they could get their menus proof read and (speaking as the daughter of a printer) a decent printer will spot most potential errors and check whether that was what the customer wanted or not.

Was the ice cream covered in coarse matted hair?

As OP mentioned above, if you know you're bad at spelling then you get someone else to check it before releasing it for printing. It's called attention to detail. A top-notch chef doesn't want to create a poor impression for diners before they've even tasted the food!

There's an upmarket tea room-type café near me, and it should have paid to have the menu proofread.

It wouldn't make me not eat there but I would point them out to my partner. I'd assume that the owners were ESL or dyslexic tbh.

I think it’s arrogant not to get someone to look at something first before you print loads of copies. My spelling and grammar are good, but I am only human and would get someone I trusted to take a look before I sent documents to print.

I don't understand why someone would put in so much effort and attention to detail when it comes to decor, tableware, etc. and then not give a shit about the menu and how it comes across.

Even if you are dyslexic or just bad at spelling there are quite a few options. Hell, you can stick it online and people will happily correct it for free!

A marketing trick perhaps, order something just so that you can point out the spelling mistake.