Prices on the menu: what does research say about your guests' choices, and where does misleading begin?

The layout of your menu nudges guests' choices a little, but less than much advice promises. Research shows that guests choose a dish more often when it is at the start or end of a section. For boxes, a prominent price position and expensive decoy dishes, trials found no measurable effect.

What is certain are the rules and the sums. The price on the menu is the price the guest pays, including VAT and costs they cannot avoid. You calculate your margin on the price without VAT: 9% for food and non-alcoholic drinks, 21% for alcohol.

In this article

1. Can a menu steer your guests' choices?
2. Does it matter where a dish appears on the menu?
3. Do guests order more without the euro sign?
4. Does an expensive dish make the rest of the menu look cheaper?
5. Should you choose a price ending in .95 or a round amount?
6. Do attractive descriptions sell better, and when do they mislead?
7. What do you keep per plate after VAT and purchases?
8. Which price does the law require on the menu?

Can a menu steer your guests' choices?

A little, and mainly through the order. Much advice on menu engineering comes from practice. Menu engineering is the work of looking at how often each dish sells and what it earns per plate, and adjusting the menu accordingly. Trials in real restaurants are scarce, and they do not give a clear picture.

Two trials found no effect of layout. In a restaurant at a large university in the north-east of the United States, researchers changed where the prices appeared on the menu. The average bill did not change. Making two dishes more prominent on the menu did not change the chance that guests ordered them (Reynolds, Merritt & Pinckney, 2005).

In another trial, researchers swapped the contents of pages 2 and 3 of a three-page menu. They followed sales over four months and found no difference in sales per dish (Kincaid & Corsun, 2003).

Does it matter where a dish appears on the menu?

Yes, according to a study from Israel. A dish at the start or end of its section was chosen more often than the same dish in the middle. Of all the times a dish was chosen, 55% fell in the version of the menu where it was at the edge, and 45% in the version where it was in the middle. The researchers call that about 20% more popular (Dayan & Bar-Hillel, 2011).

The first study was an experiment with 240 students in Jerusalem, who chose from a menu without prices. The second ran in a small café in Tel Aviv with seven tables. The café used a different menu every other day, each on 15 days, and the staff recorded 951 orders of coffee with alcohol, soft drinks and desserts.

The result is clear, but it has limits. It concerned drinks and desserts in one café, the researchers counted orders and not sales or margin, and they could not explain the effect. They write that you can easily test it in your own business: change the order and see what happens.

So put the dishes with the best gross profit per plate at the top or bottom of their section. Gross profit per plate is the price without VAT minus the cost of the ingredients. After a few weeks, check the sales figures in your till system to see whether those dishes sell more often.

Do guests order more without the euro sign?

Perhaps a little, but the evidence is thin. In a trial at lunch in the restaurant of the Culinary Institute of America in the United States, tables received one of three menus: prices with a dollar sign, bare numbers, or prices in words. Guests with the bare numbers spent more than guests with the dollar sign or with the price in words (Yang, Kimes & Sessarego, 2009).

The researchers are cautious themselves. Next to factors such as the size of the party and the time at the table, the format of the price was not an important predictor of what guests spent. And the result may apply only to lunch in that one restaurant (Yang, Kimes & Sessarego, Cornell report, 2009).

If you leave out the euro sign, make sure the price stays clear. For products offered for sale, the Besluit prijsaanduiding producten (the Dutch price indication decree) requires the price to be understandable, unambiguous and expressed in euros (Besluit prijsaanduiding producten, article 4). One line on the menu, such as ‘all prices in euros, including VAT’, removes any doubt.

Does an expensive dish make the rest of the menu look cheaper?

This has hardly been studied for restaurants, and the trials that exist found no effect. The idea comes from consumer research. A decoy is an extra option that is slightly less attractive than the option you want to sell. In a classic study, such an extra option made the better option the favourite more often (Huber, Payne & Puto, 1982).

Researchers tested this on menus. They added a vegetarian dish that was 30% more expensive than the vegetarian dish they wanted people to choose. In two online trials, this did not lead more people to choose the target dish. The researchers point out that the choices were not real, because nobody ate or paid (Attwood, Chesworth & Parkin, 2020).

An anchor is a high amount the guest sees first, so that other prices seem lower. Research with 16 trials with real payments, with 21,997 participants in total, found that anchors worked less reliably there than in paper experiments. Low anchors had more influence than high ones. It concerned customers who could choose their own price, not a menu (Jung, Perfecto & Nelson, 2016).

An expensive dish on the menu is allowed, as long as guests can really order it. If you offer a dish at a price and then refuse the order, with the aim of talking the guest into another dish, the law treats that as misleading in all circumstances (Dutch Civil Code, article 6:193g, under f).

Should you choose a price ending in .95 or a round amount?

Choose the last digit that fits the image of your business. According to research in a hospitality journal, guests link prices ending in 0 with quality, and prices ending in 9 with good value. Guests use those signals when they choose where to eat out (Naipaul & Parsa, 2001).

That research is about what guests think of a price, not about how much they spend. A price of € 18.95 instead of € 19 brings you five cents less per plate. The last digit is therefore a choice about the image of your business, not a way to earn more.

Do attractive descriptions sell better, and when do they mislead?

A description helps the guest choose, but the evidence that it sells more is weak. The most often cited research is a 2001 article on descriptive names on the menu (Wansink, Painter & Van Ittersum, 2001). In 2018, Cornell University found that the lead researcher had committed academic misconduct, including misreporting research data (Cornell University, statement of 20 September 2018). So do not rely on the figures from that study.

What is certain: a description must be accurate. A commercial practice is misleading if the information is incorrect or can mislead the average consumer, for example about the composition, the production method and the origin of a product (Dutch Civil Code, article 6:193c).

So do not write ‘homemade’ next to a dessert you buy ready-made, and do not name a region or country if the product does not come from there. An honest description that tells the guest what they will get works without risk.

What do you keep per plate after VAT and purchases?

Always calculate from the price without VAT, because you pay the VAT over to the tax authority. Food and non-alcoholic drinks in hospitality are subject to 9% VAT, also for takeaway (Belastingdienst, food). Alcoholic drinks are subject to 21%, also when you charge an all-in price for food and drink (Belastingdienst, drinks). How to split a package is explained in the article on VAT in hospitality.

The CBS average is a useful point of comparison. In 2024, eating and drinking places spent 32.4% of their sales without VAT on purchases (CBS, table 81156ned). That is an average across all businesses, not a standard. How to work out your own percentages is explained in the article on purchases, staff and rent as a share of sales.

Link that sum to the menu. A dish that sells often but earns little per plate does not belong in the best spot. Put dishes there that earn a lot per plate and that your kitchen can make quickly and well. If you want to raise prices, first read how to know whether a price increase is wise.

Which price does the law require on the menu?

The price the guest pays, including VAT. In an offer to consumers that states a price, such as a menu, the price including taxes is essential information (Dutch Civil Code, article 6:193e). A price without VAT on a menu for consumers can therefore be misleading.

The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) puts it like this: you state a consumer sales price including VAT and additional costs. Costs the guest cannot avoid, such as compulsory service charges, belong in the price. You may list extra options separately from the price (ACM, stating prices).

The ACM has pointed this out to the hospitality sector before. In a letter to Koninklijke Horeca Nederland, the hospitality trade association, the ACM mentioned in 2019 tourist tax that was not included from the first price on a website, and booking fees that were not shown with the price. The ACM can impose a fine or an order subject to a penalty without prior warning (ACM, letter to KHN on price transparency, 2019).

For products you offer for sale, the Besluit prijsaanduiding producten says the same: the sales price is the price including VAT and all other taxes (Besluit prijsaanduiding producten, articles 1 and 3). Products supplied as part of a service are listed in annex I of that decree as an exception. For a meal served at the table, the rule in the Civil Code is therefore the main one. The outcome is the same: the guest sees in advance what they will pay.

Sources

• Reynolds, D., Merritt, E. A. & Pinckney, S. (2005). Understanding menu psychology: an empirical investigation of menu design and consumer response. International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration, 6(1), 1-9. doi.org
• Kincaid, C. S. & Corsun, D. L. (2003). Are consultants blowing smoke? An empirical test of the impact of menu layout on item sales. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 15(4), 226-231. doi.org
• Dayan, E. & Bar-Hillel, M. (2011). Nudge to nobesity II: Menu positions influence food orders. Judgment and Decision Making, 6(4), 333-342. doi.org
• Yang, S. S., Kimes, S. E. & Sessarego, M. M. (2009). Menu price presentation influences on consumer purchase behavior in restaurants. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 28(1), 157-160. doi.org
• Yang, S. S., Kimes, S. E. & Sessarego, M. M. (2009). $ or dollars: effects of menu-price formats on restaurant checks. Cornell Hospitality Report, Center for Hospitality Research, May 2009. Report, not a journal article. ecommons.cornell.edu
• Besluit prijsaanduiding producten (Price Indication of Products Decree), articles 1, 3 and 4 and annex I, in force from 1 January 2023, accessed 29 October 2026. wetten.overheid.nl
• Huber, J., Payne, J. W. & Puto, C. (1982). Adding asymmetrically dominated alternatives: violations of regularity and the similarity hypothesis. Journal of Consumer Research, 9(1), 90-98. doi.org
• Attwood, S., Chesworth, S. J. & Parkin, B. L. (2020). Menu engineering to encourage sustainable food choices when dining out: an online trial of priced-based decoys. Appetite, 149, 104601. doi.org
• Jung, M. H., Perfecto, H. & Nelson, L. D. (2016). Anchoring in payment: evaluating a judgmental heuristic in field experimental settings. Journal of Marketing Research, 53(3), 354-368. doi.org
• Dutch Civil Code (Burgerlijk Wetboek) Book 6, article 193g, in force from 16 July 2026, accessed 29 October 2026. wetten.overheid.nl
• Naipaul, S. & Parsa, H. G. (2001). Menu price endings that communicate value and quality. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 42(1), 26-37. doi.org
• Wansink, B., Painter, J. & Van Ittersum, K. (2001). Descriptive menu labels' effect on sales. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 42(6), 68-72. Cited as an example of research you should not rely on. doi.org
• Cornell University, Statement of Cornell University Provost Michael I. Kotlikoff, 20 September 2018. statements.cornell.edu
• Dutch Civil Code (Burgerlijk Wetboek) Book 6, article 193c, in force from 16 July 2026, accessed 29 October 2026. wetten.overheid.nl
• Belastingdienst, Voedingsmiddelen (Food, 9% VAT), accessed 29 October 2026. belastingdienst.nl
• Belastingdienst, Dranken (Drinks, 9% and 21% VAT), accessed 29 October 2026. belastingdienst.nl
• CBS, Bedrijfsleven, arbeids- en financiële gegevens, per branche, SBI 2008 (Business sector, labour and financial data by branch, table 81156ned), branch 56 Eating and drinking places, 2024, own calculation (cost of sales € 9,251 million divided by net sales € 28,541 million), accessed 29 October 2026. cbs.nl
• Dutch Civil Code (Burgerlijk Wetboek) Book 6, article 193e, in force from 16 July 2026, accessed 29 October 2026. wetten.overheid.nl
• Autoriteit Consument & Markt, Prijzen vermelden (Stating prices), accessed 29 October 2026. acm.nl
• Autoriteit Consument & Markt, ACM wijst Koninklijke Horeca NL op tekortschietende prijstransparantie (ACM points out inadequate price transparency to KHN), 15 November 2019, with letter ACM/UIT/520161. acm.nl