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The sneakiest techniques restaurants use to rip you off
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Even though there are more and more high quality restaurants in Hungary, unfortunately, there are still some places that try to draw us into spending more money than we normally would with sneaky tricks. Penzcentrum.hu collected some of these tricks so that the next time you’re in a restaurant, you’ll know what to watch carefully.
When on vacation, we tend to indulge in going to restaurants more often. You should keep in mind the following points on these occasions as there are many tricks that routinish restaurants use to hustle us into spending much more than we would want to. Here come the sneakiest techniques!
They forget to list the currency
You can see menus where they forgot to write the currency after the prices. This is never an accident since if the guests don’t see the currency, they basically forget that they are spending money. We are more probable to spend on something if we don’t realise that it is money after all, and we can also concentrate on the food.
Chicanery with numbers
Most prices end on a 9 in Hungarian shops (e.g. 199 forints). When we look at these prices we immediately know that the product costs more than we would think at first. This is why using number 5 as an ending is much more affective (e.g. 195 forints) because people will find this menu much more friendly and familiar.
Detailed description of the food
According to some research, we find food with detailed, witty descriptions much more attractive than food with simple description. Some surveys have shown that marketing can be increased with 27% when restaurants give detailed descriptions. Nicely phrased sentences whet our appetite just by reading them.
“Granny’s cake”
Restaurants are well aware that there’s nothing better than mom’s or granny’s cooking. They try to manipulate us with the power of nostalgia in some namings since who wouldn’t want to relive the beloved tastes of their childhood? So we are more prone to buy “grandma’s hearty homemade cookies”.
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This is a very negative item. Travellers who want to explore other parts of the world, are naturally curious and would question anything which did not feel “right”. Personally, I set a budget and we spend it! This is no different wherever we travel, including the many times my wife and I visit Hungary. If we have been to a restaurant and the food is good, the service is good and the surroundings pleasant, obviously we would return! However, if we kept going back to the same places to eat and drink, we might as well stay at home and go to our local pub.
This year when we visit Budapest, we will be adventurous and check out the “ruin bars”
We have seen good service and very bad service in Budapest but mostly in shops and this is where you should focus your criticism!
Even so, this is usually down to the language barrier. Köszönöm.
Restaurants the world over do exactly the same. Tourist restaurants and restaurants for locals alike. This list is nothing unique to Hungary. The best rule to find a good restaurant when travelling is wander off the tourist streets. In Budapest that basically means avoiding anywhere in and around the Vaci utca.
You really have to be living under a rock to not know about these things. But you have left out one of the most important methods restaurants use — taking drink orders as soon as you sit down at the table. Beverages, especially those with alcohol, are the among the highest-margin items on the menu. Bringing your drink at the very start of your visit means there is a better chance you will order another drink by the time your food comes. (Interestingly, I am constantly surprised in Hungary how many servers don’t immediately ask if you want another drink when your glass is empty. These restaurants are losing lots of money!)