Picking a restaurant may be an art form, but one economist is trying to apply theoretical economic principles to make the process of selecting your next meal out worthwhile.
Professor Tyler Cowen suggests that diners avoid hyped-up eateries or places that focus too much attention on the atmosphere rather than the food.
While many might think that laughing, happy customers would be a good sign, Mr Cowen suggests the opposite- particularly when those patrons are beautiful women.
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The new hotspot? Economics professor Tyler Cowen says that restaurants in strip malls have lower overhead costs and therefore will be more willing to try new dishes
'The problem is that they will attract a lot of men to the restaurant, whether or not the place serves excellent food,' Mr Cowen writes in an article for The Atlantic.
'That allows the restaurant to cut back on the quality of the food.'
A number of his suggestions are counter-intuitive, but one common thread is that they all steer clear of popular and expensive pitfalls.
While a fashionable address may bring people into the restaurant's doors initially, it may also be its own demise because high rent is a constant fixed cost.
Roving restaurants: Food trucks require few staff and pay no rental fees
Instead of heading to a popular chef's new restaurant for the most adventurous cuisine, the George Mason University professor encourages daring diners to head out of the city to the strip malls of the suburbs.
QUICK TIPS FOR GOOD MEALS OUT
Choose less flashy locations: Strip malls have cheaper rents than downtown locales, so they will be more willing to try our differetn dishes. In Manhattan, this may mean going to a restaurant on a cross street as opposed to one of the main avenues. Overall, food trucks are a great bet because they have so few fixed costs.
Try the less popular version: Substitute lesser-known cuisines, like Pakistani or Vietnamese, for their more popular version, Indian and Thai respectively, to get a truly different dish.
Go for food, not the scene: Restaurants with loud, laughing crowds are likely more focused on the atmosphere and not the quality of the dishes.
Least appetizing, most surprising: By opting for the dish that is not well known or does not sound very good on the menu, you may end up pleasantly surprised when you stumble upon a gem. Chefs typically have to 'show off' less when they make a popular dish because everyone already knows what the meal should taste like.
There, rents are far lower, which allows restaurant owners to be more creative and adventurous in their offerings because they are not stressed about making high rent payments every month.
Same goes for places that have an army of staff, because those are costs that are not necessarily needed. More tightly-run restaurants will be more monetarily worthwhile.
The most adventurous eats come from places with the lowest overhead, and considering food trucks have the fewest staff and no permanent address, they certainly have the most incentive to try out new dishes without taking a capital hit.
If you are going to stick it out with the fancy, well-established restaurants instead, one move to make sure that you are getting a plate of their best talent is to order the lesser-known dishes.
By choosing something that does not have a great deal of name recognition, the chefs have less ground to stand on than if you ordered a popular dish that everyone has heard of.
As a result, the chefs need to 'prove' how delicious the dish is based solely on their own talents and not the pre-existing notions you have about the meal before you even take a bite.
Avoiding the hype is a rule that applies to both the cuisine as much as it does to locations.
Opting for Vietnamese, rather than the over-done Thai phenomenon, or choosing a Pakistani restaurant instead of an Indian one, will likely lead to an unique meal that will leave you focused on the flavors of the food as opposed to the hefty bill
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2130063/Avoid-beautiful-women-popular-locations-How-restaurant-selections-taking-counter-intuitive-tips.html#ixzz1s8FR7xoy
