The Better Way To Ask Your Server About Their Favorite Dish

It's so disheartening when you've readied yourself for a night out, waited with bated breath for your meal, only to be disappointed with your choice. You want to avoid ordering the wrong thing at a restaurant, and part of that process might include bringing your server into the conversation. It's a server's job to have a good (if not great) grasp of the menu — after all, few frequent that restaurant quite as much as they do. With that said, it's awfully tempting to ask your server what their favorite dish is — just make sure to go about it the right way.

Rather than asking for your server's favorite dish, you should ask them what their usual order is instead. This might seem like a semantic change alone, but it will likely elicit a much more candid response. Finding out what the employees order gives you a good idea of which menu items give you more for your money than others. Additionally, your server wouldn't keep ordering that item if it wasn't tasty. And who knows, maybe they'll even recommend ordering something off-menu to give you that personal touch.

Most servers will do their best to help you make a choice that you'll be pleased with, but asking them for their favorite dish can be a more loaded question than you'd assume. Sometimes this is simply due to the fact that a particular server may not have tried the majority of items on the menu, sticking to a few dishes that they know they like. Other times, there might be another force pulling the strings from behind the scenes.

It won't be proclaimed to you, the customer, but it's not uncommon for restaurant managers and owners to encourage servers to recommend pricier menu items. This can be due to a desire to get rid of certain ingredients or pursue higher profits, and there's also the chance that the expensive meal really is the server's favorite. You don't want to be recommended menu items that aren't worth the price. Avoiding the question of favorites in lieu of regular orders can help you avoid shelling out extra dough when you could get an equally delicious and more budget-friendly meal instead.