Monday, April 5, 2010

Decoding the $$$$

Money talks, especially when it comes to picking a good restaurant.

We here at Hungry For Love NYC literally just stumbled onto the key for the price breakdowns over at MenuPages, after previous endless seeming searches for this very cipher yielded fruitless results. Eureka!

This is their key for price per average dinner entree:
$ = Less < $7
$$ = $7.01 -$12.00
$$$ = $12.01 -$18.00
$$$$ = $18.01-$25.00
$$$$$ = Greater > $25

Meanwhile, the folks at NY Magazine's restaurant search feature, prefer the more tasteful, subtle, and frankly "If you have to ask darling, you can't afford it" ranking system of:

$$$$ = Very Expensive
$$$ = Expensive
$$ = Moderate
$ = Cheap

Now, I love NY Mag, but really? As we say, Thank you Captain Obvious.

Finally, Hungry For Love NYC's own restaurant recommendation feature offers the following price points, appearing to fall somewhere in between:

I was starting to feel astonished at my own seemingly gold-plated system in comparison to MP, until I realized that their price is "per entree," whereas we are the bigger picture of "each," which frankly, can include an app, an entree, and maybe some dessert or a drink for good measure. Phew.

Bottom line is, your best bet is taking a look at the menu itself to get an idea of costs. It also helps to look at photos of the restaurant, if available. Then you'll know what kind of dining situation you're about to get yourself into, be it $$$$ = Expense Account or $ = Keeping It Real.