Hong Kong restaurants, put more pictures on menus to win back customers and tourists
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Well, one simple idea is just to put more pictures on menus.
I know for many chefs and restaurateurs, adding images of dishes to menus is not considered very posh. In fact, some find it cheap and tacky, devaluing the brand and assuming clients are
illiterate louts . Fast food customers need visual boards to order, not fine dining's cultured clientele. But in multilingual Hong Kong, maybe that assumption is false.
Having been educated overseas, my level of Chinese reading is far from mother-tongue fluency. In a
cha chaan teng or local diner , sometimes I have trouble deciphering all the different dishes. Many of the Chinese characters might as well be Greek to me – which I wouldn't mind because I like Greek food.
The nostalgia-inducing menu at Luk Yu Tea House – all in Chinese and lacking pictures. Photo: Charmaine Mok
In more refined Chinese banquet palaces, the dish names are even more elaborate, sometimes poetic and vague. In such venues, being able to point to a picture and order is a great relief when I am unsure of what a specific dish consists of. And if the image looks good, I am more likely to try it than if I have no idea what is in it.
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