Lunch menu available at dinner?

I have seldom been able to take advantage of lunch specials, prices, portion sizes, or different items available during M-F lunch time exclusively. And why are they discounted? Alot of people who eat at full service restaurants during the week were probably on expense accounts and could purchase anything

I would like to see lunch menus/prices available at dinner. Maybe during the week M-Th? I like to eat out and do so once or twice a week or more but feel kinda cheated all these years

We don't go out to lunch from work because we are so far away from alot of restaurants. If we don't get it to go - which we don't - it can be a 2 hour lunch. I do bring my restaurant leftovers for lunch the next day.

I realize restaurants need to make money, but maybe we would order more foods if the menus were scaled back some.

Thanks.

Ellen - you can get this effect at some restaurants. Uptown Cafe (and Lou Lou I think, Marsha?) offer half/small portions of pasta dishes at dinner-time. I seem to recall a few others having similar option. Also, sharing tapas is a way to get lunch-sized portions for lunch-sized prices. Try Mojito or De La Torres/La Bodega.

I have seldom been able to take advantage of lunch specials, prices, portion sizes, or different items available during M-F lunch time exclusively. And why are they discounted? Alot of people who eat at full service restaurants during the week were probably on expense accounts and could purchase anything

I would like to see lunch menus/prices available at dinner. Maybe during the week M-Th? I like to eat out and do so once or twice a week or more but feel kinda cheated all these years

We don't go out to lunch from work because we are so far away from alot of restaurants. If we don't get it to go - which we don't - it can be a 2 hour lunch. I do bring my restaurant leftovers for lunch the next day.

I realize restaurants need to make money, but maybe we would order more foods if the menus were scaled back some.

Thanks.

The problem with attempting to do this is simply logistics.

Restaurants that are open for more than one meal a day (specifically those that offer different menus for each service) maintaining levels for each service/menu item are set on par stock levels: involving predetermined amounts of prep that can be accomplished by x number of cooks in a set amount of time, etc... Extra space (that likely doesn't exist) to "bulk up" and store prep for lunch menu items during dinner service, in addition to staffing enough cooks to prep more product; it simply becomes a cost eater and becomes more difficult to maintain than is made up in the difference in revenue.

Beyond that, most staff from doesn't work both services.
So your lunch crew hardly handles the dinner food prep and vice versa.

You essentially double the work load of your crew, double their mise en place, double the space needed, double the amount of dishes that each cook needs to know how to prep/cook...

Unless you can forecast that you have the space, staffing, etc. to maintain such an undertaking...
You're essentially asking a restaurant to start over and re-work it's methods for day to day operations.

It may be a feasible idea for re-branding the restaurant entirely, but for a short term basis, it's a nightmare for everyone involved.


I've worked in a few restaurants where we'd occasionally open for lunch/brunch for some holidays, or for a week during some event. It's hellish, choatic, and very tough to pull off without adding extra employees. Those extra employees often will cost more (total) hourly than can be made up through the boost in sales.

Excellent explanation, Ethan! Really helps folks to know it's not just arbitrary ...

Thanks,
Deb

At Lou Lou we virtually have the same menu for both lunch and dinner - the exception being that sometimes we have a "fancier" set of specials for dinner (more expensive ingredients/higher price point), but the core menu stays the same. Unlike a lot of places, we also stay open all day, so there's not a couple hours in the afternoon where we're not cooking food, and having the same menu all the time also cuts down on storage space and prep time (like Ethan said). But, for instance, we might run a house-made chicken salad sandwich for a lunch special, but we'd consider that a little too mundane for a dinner special, so we'd put the chicken salad away until the next lunch service.

And yes, we have "large" and "small" of all our pasta dishes and soups, so you can definitely get the small version at dinner.

I worked at Red Lobster on Breckenridge Ln. as a hostess recently (my shift was 4-10 P.M.) When I was hired this summer, Dinner Menus were given out at 5,then 4, eventually 3PM! I got lot of grief from servers for not knowing the new time. Guests that asked for the lunch menu are given them if asked per managers and corporate policy, but as said earlier, it hurts the businesses,servers bottom line. But you can just ask, nicely

I know at least one local restaurant, Longhorn Steaks will let you order an item off the lunch menu anytime. I love their grilled liver and onions but it's only on the lunch menu, when we go at supper time I just ask for it and it's no problem to get it. It's one of the few places in town I can get good liver and onions and my wife won't let me cook them at home.

From my past experience, lunch was always very fast-paced. Tables were in and out very quickly and therefore turned quickly.
However, dinner diners tend to take their time, including having pre-dinner cocktails, different courses, and just generally camping out. Therefore, offering lunch prices at dinner would result in a large loss to the restaurant because they would be making a minimal amount on the ticket while being unable to turn the table.