One more entry on my favorite subject (food) before I move on. I was browsing through some tourist website about Italy the other day, and noticed how every single one of the dozens of restaurants listed had a URL associated with it. We’re not talking about chain restaurants here (the only one of which I saw while in Italy was a McDonald’s) - these are madre and papa restaurants that are often hidden in small alleys and have about ten tables in them. Yet they have a website which, among other things, listed their menu and prices.

Why is it then that the equivalent is so hard to find here in America? Do a Google search for nearby places to eat, and I bet that more than half (not counting chain restaurants) will lack any type of website, let alone a menu. From a marketing standpoint, I can’t understand the reason. It’s not the cost, because a simple web page costs pennies. It’s not the time investment, because placing a menu online is as simple as taking two minutes to scan it. My only guess is that it’s being technologically oblivious - a scarily common occurrence even in 2007.

To me, it just seems like marketing suicide. I may be in the minority, but I will rarely drive to a specific restaurant without knowing ahead of time the menu options and costs. A lot of this is influenced by two factors: My wife is a vegetarian, and I don’t like spending more than $13 a plate. By looking at an online menu I can quickly decide if a restaurant is an option or not. If I do a search and can’t find one real result from that search, I’m extremely hesitant to eat at that restaurant unless it’s been highly recommended. It’s not just because I can’t see the menu either. In this day an age, any company which doesn’t show up on Google makes me question their validity. I mean come on, with people spending thousands on “Hacker Safe” logos on their websites to make them more trustworthy, the least a restaurant can do is have an actual website!

One thing I’d like to see more of are websites like Foodler, which offer online ordering for a variety of restaurants, without any surcharge. This is yet another concept which really needs to catch on, as it again costs the restaurant next to nothing yet provides a huge boon to the consumer, and will make them more inclined to eat at that restaurant int he future (assuming the service works!).