MenuMine Trend

Menu item counts for Dessert Beverages (non-alcoholic) are up anastonishing 62% on a “same chain” basis, as the variety of types andflavors of this profitable menu part have soared.

On a “Same” Chain basis, over the past 5 years, there has been a 39% jump in Cheeseburger Item Count. Top 10 are up 26%, indicating greater variety and growth in different types of Cheeseburgers, below the Top 10.

Implanted in everyone’s mind are the warmth, aroma and comfort of holiday or weekend dining at home. Images and smells abound, and indeed will not go away, of family congregating at home while the bird is in the oven or the roast is slowly cooked. While comfort foods are frequently side dishes or prepared entrees, the comfort foods we like best are slow cooked, braised or roasted entrees. Comfort Foods now are found increasingly on restaurant menus in part because no one has the time to slow cook at home.

Some chains have become very adept at creating “Monster Desserts” or desserts that have everything. They may be viewed as excessive by some, but usually they end up being shared by two or more diners. Monster Desserts are somewhat equivalent to appetizer sampler platters and they fall into the same class as four cheese pizzas and triple decker burgers. Good examples of Monster Desserts are Friday’s Brownie Obsession, Red Lobster’s Fudge Overboard and Bahama Breeze’s Bananas Supreme. Each layer represents a different taste certainly and also a different texture, creaminess and mouth feel.

Believe it or not, most appetizers are not fried.  To some diners this may sound blasphemous, but fully 60% of all appetizers on the menu are the non-fried variety.  Restaurants without deep fryers as well as those with the equipment will attest there are hundreds of popular non-fried appetizers.

Overall, 65% of all foodservice establishments menu sandwiches (not counting burgers and dogs).  Category incidence ranges from a high of 79% in non-commercial segments to a low of 53% in cutting edge independents.  The count of sandwiches per chain menuing is also very high. 

Cutting across all ethnic boundaries from India to Indonesia to Japan, Korea, China and everywhere in between, Asian Cuisines make up over half the world's population.  When modified or mollified by western preferences, Pan Asian Cuisine reflects the assortment of foods and the fusion of ingredients available to mainstream diners in American restaurants.

Foods of the Mediterranean have been shaped over many centuries by trade, conquest, religion and migration.  The cradle of Mediterranean cuisine was Persia (Iran) and Mesopotamia (Iraq).  Mediterranean culture and foods were then developed in the middle east (Egypt, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Palestine) before traveling north to Crete, Turkey, the Baltics, the Greek Isles and west to Sicily, Southern Italy and Spain. 

Taste and Flavor is the main reason restaurant diners select one menu item over another.  Unless food tastes good, no one buys it.  Health concerns are also important, but they are secondary to the palate.  Diners are now more health sensitive than ever.  Even though the latest manifestation of healthful dining, low carb, turned out to be a craze, other health buzz concerns are part of the same healthful eating trend.