Restaurants Have Ways to Stop You From Splitting Meals

Looking to split entrees or stick with starters to save on your next dinner out? Restaurants are on to you. After years of pushing small, shareable plates, and rising prices that have prompted some customers to split dishes to save money, restaurants want you to order more. So they’re introducing hard-to-share menu items and asking servers to nudge diners to load up on extra small plates.

It’s an attempt to keep customers happy—and checks high. In 2023, 49% of restaurants reported lower check averages and 53% reported lower profits compared with the year before, according to the James Beard Foundation, a restaurant-focused nonprofit. At the same time, dining out has grown more expensive: The latest consumer-price index showed the cost of food away from home climbed 5.3% over the 12 months ended in November.

Restaurants don’t want to forbid splitting, says Abraham Merchant, chief executive of a New York-based management company with 17 affiliated restaurants. Instead, his restaurants are trying subtle strategies like creating single-bite items, like a duck confit spring roll meant for one, without getting rid of splittable options, like roasted carrot hummus. “It’s a struggle," he says.

“We discourage as gently as we can." When diners share fewer dishes, linger too long or don’t run up bills with alcohol, it can be tough to offset expenses like higher labor costs, says Anne McBride, vice president of programs at the James Beard Foundation. In 2022, 21% of diners said they split an entree to lower the cost of a meal within the previous six months, and 58% said they would keep doing so, according to market research from Datassential. Kylie Monagan, a partner at Civetta Hospitality, made a discovery after digging into eight