I travel a lot for work. As such, I eat out a lot. As such such, I look at a lot of places’ menus without physically being there (since I don’t know the area, I don’t know where to eat, so I look at the reviews and images posted online).
A restaurant’s soup selection will likely not be the thing that decides if I eat there or somewhere else, but sometimes soup is the only side dish that sounds appetizing, and if I don’t know what kind of soup the restaurant serves I’ll probably just pick somewhere else.
Or in a similar vein, they list soup on their menu, but it’s only one soup and it’s “soup of the day”.
On one hand, you know they HAVE soup, which is a slight improvement over not listing any. But you still have no idea what it is.
Reminds me of a customer complaining, “no, I’ve had soup du jour before and this is not it!!”
If they only serve a single type of soup per day but listed all of them on the menu, the staff would definitely have to deal with disgruntled customers who don’t understand why they can’t order the thing they’re reading off the menu.
That’s when you gotta pick up the home and call but is it really worth the effort?
Nope!
A lot of places do soups and salads based on seasonal availability, and IMO having something on the menu that’s unavailable is a worse customer experience than not having them on the menu and having the waiter/waitress tell them the daily offerings.
This is what I love in Germany, they have soup and salad everywhere, even in the most unlikely of restaurants.
Most restaurants here have soup and salad as well, I just have no idea what kind
