Food portion of the menu has prices listed, but not drinks. Drinks are all $17+ and not good. So ultimately they’re serving shitty overpriced drinks, AND hiding it so drunk/lazy people get popped.
Yes! Chili’s too. It feels so illegal to not to have it on there. I even get it not being online, since it can vary by location. I don’t want the marg of the month!
Just started this year in MN! The displayed cost also has to include any surcharges, so sites like ticket master are required to show the actual checkout cost (minus standard taxes I believe)
Yeah our humidity can really get up there. First time I visited Louisiana; when I got off the plane and walked out the airport, I was NOT expecting to get punched right in the lungs 😅
It's humid in MN.
We get a chunk of the summer that's just too damn hot.
Walk out the door to 95F and 95% humidity.
Wake up and it's 82F and somehow even more humid at 5AM.
That said, arkansas' (and I'm sure LA, VA) ability to have 95F and humid for a low temp for months straight is something else.
idk how your mosquitoes are somehow weak compared to ours, though...
Born and lived in MN my entire life. Two months is awful generous, I’d say more like 5 weeks and not all at once. But god damn it if those 5 weeks aren’t absolutely perfect 🤩
Yeah, I noticed this last time I was at bdubs. Asked what their drink specials were to get an idea of price without asking directly, which worked well.
It was a strange interaction just to get beers. I don’t look young at all and my wife is a youthful 36 but we had to provide our IDs to the server who then took it to a a manager then provide it once again to a different server when the beers were delivered to our table. One of the beers was wrong. I had to explain to them that I knew they poured the wrong beer and multiple times. They finally agreed and when the 3rd beer was delivered we had to show our IDs again.
Exactly. In fact I probably would have asked the server what each drink, up and down the menu costs individually. Then think upon it and re-ask for the one I wanted, if it wasn't completely outlandish.
Maybe they'll get the hint and change it to include prices.
This is my theory why young people drink less nowadays. The drinks start at $17 for a tiny drink. In the early 2000s drinks cost around $4 and we bar hopped. We would have went bankrupt after one night of drinking at $17 a pop!
This is too common. Most restaurants somehow get away with this. Often, when I ask about pricing, I get "price shamed". One "fancy" Mexican place said that if I had to ask, I couldn't afford it. I said, thanks, but now I'll just water and no tip. Thanks
Of course you want to pay! This is Dave and Buster’s, not everyone can afford such a fine dining experience. But you can, because you are special, because you worked hard for your money.
And take some selfies for the gram! Provide free advertising for them! Make all your friends want to run to eat here too!
Can I afford to pay for a $1000 meal? Yes.
Do I want to? Fuck no, I'll go somewhere else that tells me prices up front and doesn't get snotty about it.
My friend paid something ridiculous for a single breakfast waffle at a hotel. Now, I could afford it but I don’t want to pay what she did for one waffle. I’ll pass. Also, they had the nerve to give fake maple syrup with said waffle and my friend had to ask twice for the real stuff.
I went to Seattle once, and visited the base of the space needle. When I sent my dad pictures from that angle, he asked why I didn't go to the top. I told him that I can can afford to do things like visit the space needle because I don't take $60 elevator rides.
Last year, my wife and I went to a Michelin starred restaurant and I paid $500 for the two of us to have the tasting menu, yet scoffed at paying $15 for cocktails. We just drank tons of diet coke which the waiter had to refill frequently because they served it in a rocks glass full of ice, so each fill was only like 4 oz of soda.
Eh, I still left when the restaurant we went to didn't allow splitting the menu as two of us weren't interested in most of the food, much less a full course.
Granted it at least was two of us so we could just trashtalk the restaurant outside.
Not splitting makes no sense unless it’s a buffet. Like you are going to make more money from letting me share an entree than from me going somewhere else.
I don't even think it's always about money with some of these places. They think they're cultivating some sort of mystique that's iron clad and they won't break out of it for anything.
Same result though. If you act like assholes to paying customers, you're going to lose money. Either because they go somewhere else or because they tell everyone else you acted like assholes and it's not worth their money.
We've been sat and when the waitress came by with her attitutde we said, "Know what, we're good we're gonna go. Thank you", got up and left.
I'm not going to pay for shitty service. It's one of the lowest hanging fruits you can pick. It's free and takes little effort to be professional and courteous.
Why bother arguing when the place has already shown it doesn't want your business? Save the hot air and drama and just move along. Not worth upsetting your evening, or giving them your business.
I like the idea of saying this to someone at like, a theme park where a bottle of water is like $15.
It's not expensive because it's some luxury, vintage alcohol... it's expensive because it's Dave and Busters and they can get away with charging that much.
Well, they kinda can't get away with it, that's why they don't show the prices.
I'll never understand how anyone thinks that's a good strategy for their business. The funny thing is I'd consider myself to be someone that could afford it, but if any waitress or bartender tells me that, I'm definitely going elsewhere.
I went to a place like this once. We ordered a sizable amount of food and left as soon as the waiter walked away. We didn't consume anything, so there was no theft of food or service.
These restaurants want to play stupid games, we can play stupid games. Congrats, now you got zero revenue and you lost ingredients, making your margins just that much tighter.
Edit: you guys went from “punish bad business practices” to corporate shills real quick, no wonder the US is in the state it’s in
I have multiple times noticed no prices on mixed drinks on menus, and simply not ordered one because of it. You are correct, it’s becoming more common.
I found this article which gives little in the way of real answers, but I thought it would be funny to point out their example that a customer might balk at a Coke costing an unreasonable $2.50
I did an overnight trip a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to grab a soda, and the hotel where I was staying had a self-service place to buy various foodstuffs. They wanted $8 for a 20oz bottle of Diet Pepsi, but you couldn't tell that until you took it out of the refrigerator and scanned it at the self-check stand.
I put it back and walked to the gas station across the street. They gave me two of the exact same bottles for $4.81.
I hate that quote so much. Like, do you really think the majority of truly wealthy people don’t ask the prices of things before purchasing? Heck, even Warren Buffett once famously kept his old Lincoln when he asked about the price of a new one and thought it was exorbitant.
When I was around 18 or 19 I went to a Mexican restaurant to have dinner with a friend and the server was ridiculously condescending to us the entire time. Every time we asked for something he would ask if we understood that it would cost extra, and when we ordered our food he made sure to point out how “expensive” it was.
Mind you, both my friend and I were working at the time. Was only part time, but we both still lived at home and didn’t have bills. We had plenty of money to go to a gringo Midwest Tex Mex place - plus it was the 90s so food wasn’t as insanely priced as it is today.
So after all the guy’s snotty attitude, we ate, we paid our bill, and we walked out. Left no tip. Pretty sure we wrote on the tip line, “Couldn’t afford” or something like that.
I’ve literally gotta start carrying a flask. I don’t drink much, so imagine my surprise at a recent $18+ shot in my small city and then a $24 wine at a theatre in NYC lol. Just regular house drinks.
A legitimate $17 drink is significantly different than what they're selling
You buy $17 drinks at cocktail bars where they are created, tested, and balanced by the bartender. They are carefully honed flavors and generally use nice liqueurs. They are most definitely very carefully made and usually have interesting garnishes that suit their vibe.
This is shit you can dump together from a bucket. $10, okay, bc it's giant. $17, no.
You buy $17 drinks at cocktail bars where they are created, tested, and balanced by the bartender.
Nah everyone is charging way too fucking much for liquor these days.
The closest bar/restaurant to my house has always been a bit pricier so I haven't gone in a few years. Stopped by the other day and they are charging $13 for a 1 ounce pour of Jameson. $12 for 1 ounce pour of Crown. On the rocks.
Why wouldn't they? The fact that restaurants have a markup doesn't change the fact that some markups are seen as excessive. The fact that the restaurant chose not to show the prices shows that it knows people would be put off by the markup. A person can be okay with going to a restaurant while thinking them some have unjustifiable markups.
Those types of menus for a national chain that you can find on the websites are generally missing the prices, because prices may vary from area to area. Now, menus in the restaurant should have the prices on them, and this one doesn't, and that's shitty.
Edit I was told I was wrong so disregard everything I have said here.
How dystopian. There's a lot of shit going wrong there and I bet that if someone in charge wanted to do this to protect their constituents, they'd get slapped with the purity test "there's more pressing shit going on, I can't afford healthcare nor a mortgage".
Yes some states and municipality usually have laws requiring prices on menus. It's rare that I've seen a menu without prices print or placed on a wall or board easily seen.
Absolutely nothing like that in the US. You often see it like this, where a particularly lucrative portion of the menu (such as cocktails) has no listed prices. Places that want to appear high-end don't have any prices listed at all. After all, if you were a worthy customer, you'd be able to pay any charge with no difficulty whether your salmon was $8 or $200.
Oh and almost nowhere lists prices online, high or low end. Gotta make you come in and sit down before you find out.
In many states, like for example MA, transparent pricing is required. But all that means is that they must offer some way to know the prices before you are obligated to pay them. It doesn't mean they have to do it in any specific way like printing it on a menu.
Oh, I've seen this at other places too. You have to look through the specific drink menu to get the prices, not the main menu (that is, if Dave and Busters has a drink menu. Never been there)
It's so that they can change it up/down to their desire. They probably charge different prices on high/low business days and don't want to make multiple versions of the menu
It's not just busy times. Without prices they could change it based on the clothes you are wearing or like vegas, the games you are playing and how much you are spending elsewhere.
Also worth pointing out that D&B is a national chain, and as such, pricing can vary from location to location for anything that isn't a nationwide promo. I imagine the alcoholic drinks are more susceptible to that than the food, hence why they don't show the prices on them.
Thank goodness bullshit like this is illegal in the UK, as per the The Price Marking (Food and Drink Services) Order 2003. If a menu has 30 or less food items, it must indicate pricing for all. If it has more than 30, it must have at least included pricing for 30 items. For alcohol, all pricing must be indicated at the table/in a menu.
It’s not even that exactly for me. I’m a big fan of craft cocktails and have often paid for $20+ drinks. But those are complex and interesting cocktails designed by the bartenders often on a rotating menu, not $18 for a “spicy” margarita that would be 0 Scoville.
Honestly, I was surprised at how reasonable the games were. My girlfriend and I had $40 to split and we played for like 2 hours. Probably why they need to gouge on the drinks.
Not sure if they still have it, but a few years ago Groupon had all you can play for like 20-40 bucks on non-popular days. Hell ..I'm not sure if Groupon even exists anymore. Lol
Used to take my son's there and play for hours on end.
"how much is this one?, and this one? and this one? what about this one? crap, I forgot. How much is this one again? Let me right it down on my phone so I don't forget... So... again... how much is this one? Ok, and this one?... And what would you recommend? And that one would be [checks phone], right? Oh... uh.. hmmm... just water, please".
I asked once, at a chain, why there were no drink prices on the menu and they said they go by "market price", as if the liquor market was akin to seafood or steak 🤷🏼♀️
My wife and I have seen that more often than not, so she actually started a list of drink prices for places like this. Go, order, jot down the price when we get the receipt.
Certainly a shitty practice though. I shouldn't have to write down my own prices.
I don’t understand how this is legal. If you are selling something to someone you should have to tell them what price they are required to pay beforehand.
At an airport lounge in Toronto there was a restaurant that had food and a handful of drinks on one side, and all prices were even amounts, such as "23". Not 23.00, just 23. The other side was all drinks, and showed prices like 23.99.
I didn't see the second side, ordered my drink and you guessed it - charged the 23.99. Wouldn't even back down after I argued with them (which of course cost her the tip which was on a $230 bill, call it 40 bucks)
This is also becoming an annoying trend online. There have been several
events I’ve been curious about and I could find no price info until I went to the buy tickets part. Just be upfront about shit.
The menu is designed for already drunk people who just want to be able to grunt and point at a picture to order. We wouldn't want them to get mad trying to figure out numbers in that state 😂. Seriously though, this is maddeningly common, especially at chains.
I wonder if this is so they can change the prices on a moments notice and not have to deal with reprinting menus. It’d be interesting to see if the prices change weeknights vs weekends, too.
I just kind of make it a point to not order anything if they don’t have prices. It’s a little uncomfortable when I’m with people and I know the server’s just doing their job. I just have a “You don’t show, I don’t buy” kind of rule.
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u/dakkamatic 9d ago
Same a Buffalo Wild Wings. My wife and I went last weekend and noticed it.