Why will Irish restaurants not offer fruit salad?

reprazant

Boulevardier wrote: »

Faith, I dont believe things really work that way. I really don't.

Do you believe then that a restaurant will put something on the menu and, if it does not sell, continue to buy the ingredients and leave it on the menu, not matter what the cost in wastage?

I also remember fruit salads being on the menu when young but like many other dishes, such as melon as a starter, it has gone as it is generally not what people want.

hardCopy

the beer revolu wrote: »

My issue with restaurants is that most only seem to cater for the idea of a high calorie treat. I regularly eat in restaurants when away working and often struggle to find things that aren't deep fried,smothered in cream or butter or some badly made sauce. Sometimes, when at home and don't feel like cooking, we eat out and have the same problem ordering, simple well cooked food.
I rarely order dessert but probably would if smaller sized (and priced) ones were on offer. I probably wouldn't order a fruit salad for dessert but I do find the fact that most hotels now offer fresh fruit salad as part of the breakfast buffet is a really great thing.

BTW, Banana should never go in a fresh fruit salad!:eek:

This is true of all courses, not just desert. I had to live in a hotel for 6 months (oh the humanity!) and you just can't get a moderate calorie dinner in most places, even salads in most places are huge, drowned in oil/dressing and full of bacon and croutons.

SBWife

hardCopy wrote: »

This is true of all courses, not just desert. I had to live in a hotel for 6 months (oh the humanity!) and you just can't get a moderate calorie dinner in most places, even salads in most places are huge, drowned in oil/dressing and full of bacon and croutons.

Just order like a neurotic NYC woman, dressing on the side always and either hold the other toppings or have them on the side also. Most places will give you the fish grilled no butter with steamed veg and a side of plain potatoes if you ask for it, or do an equivalent treatment for steak or chicken. And no they won't spit in your food, most staff understand that the menu is designed to make eating out a treat and will make changes for those of us who are forced by circumstances to eat out daily.

Sofiztikated

Boulevardier wrote: »

There have been a lot of "why don't you just ask" answers on this thread, but these are missing the point that I intended to make (perhaps my thread title did not properly reflect this) which is: why do low calorie desserts (such as fruit salad) appear so seldom on Irish restaurant menus?

I find it hard to believe that at a time when obesity is rampant and when the government are considering (wrongly in my opinion) putting calorie labelling on all restaurant menus, Irish restaurant menus are continuing to almost exclusively have full-on desserts, and are making very little attempt to alternate these with lower-fat choices. Sorbets are probably the nearest you will get in a lot of places.

The result in my experience is that about half of restaurant customers simply do not order any dessert. Some of that is for other reasons, but dessert choice has got to be relevant.

I may be missing something, but would it not be a win-win for everybody if restaurants reconsidered the make up of their dessert menus?

Restaurants spend quite a bit of time on their menus. Especially dessert menus. It's all (or at least should be) designed to work together, and compliment other items, as well as giving a choice. It's not just a case of "Ah, **** it, jelly, icecream, cake, dessert menu done!"

The reason fruit salad doesn't appear is because a) it is considered old fashioned, as has been pointed out a number of times. Food fashions change. Fruit Salad (as a dessert) is a very 80's/90's thing, back when fruit was exotic, b) a fresh fruit salad is time consuming to prepare, especially in bulk. You can purchase it premade from suppliers, such as Pallas, but then you're dealing with preservatives and such, and often high sugar content. c) It just doesn't sell that well. Which do you think a restaurant will sell more of? Fruit Salad, or a chocolate torte? Chocolate will win, 9 times out of 10.

If you fancy a fruit salad, ask for one. Most kitchens will have the ingredients there. And if it's not on the menu, then it will be freshly made, rather than sitting in a bucket for 3 days, after coming from a delivery lorry being sloshed around for 6-8 hours.

hardCopy

SBWife wrote: »

Just order like a neurotic NYC woman, dressing on the side always and either hold the other toppings or have them on the side also. Most places will give you the fish grilled no butter with steamed veg and a side of plain potatoes if you ask for it, or do an equivalent treatment for steak or chicken. And no they won't spit in your food, most staff understand that the menu is designed to make eating out a treat and will make changes for those of us who are forced by circumstances to eat out daily.

I'll always go for steak and greens with sauce on the side if I'm trying to cut back but it's an expensive way to eat.

I'd love to see a menu that had an option for each item to be served as a 500 calorie portion, people who don't want to count calories can order from the menu at will and people who are calorie conscious could order whatever they want without trying to work out how much of it they should leave on the plate.

Calories on the menu can be a good idea but it's not much help if the lowest calorie option is still over 700 calories.

BailMeOut

At Ballymaloe in the middle of their very decadent desert tray is a really simple fruit salad dressed with lime juice that is unbelievably good. I think after such a large rich dinner the simple fresh fruit salad is a welcome ending. It does not even look that good but definitely leave room for it if ever there.

rubadub

lookitsme wrote: »

i agree with you on ordering desserts in a restaurant, if they offered a starter at the end of a meal i would be happier.

I can't imagine any restaurant would refuse to serve you a starter after your main.

68Murph68

Boulevardier wrote: »

Faith, I dont believe things really work that way. I really don't.

As someone who has family in the restaurant and hotel trade, the number one consideration when coming up with a menu is maximising profit.

Supply and demand is a key factor in this.

If you have a fruit salad on a menu, potential customers will look at it and say - it takes little to no skill to prepare a fruit salad. They will have a reasonable idea of the cost of the ingredients and will base the price they are willing to pay for it on these factors. Basically you are not going to be able to sell many fruit salads at a price that returns a decent profit margin.

lookitsme

rubadub wrote: »

I can't imagine any restaurant would refuse to serve you a starter after your main.

i would probably agree with that.

Qualitymark

Avoca has fruit salad, though it's with the salads rather than the desserts. A good few salady places do the same - Kilkenny too, I think.