7 Reasons Why Expensive Restaurants Serve So Small Portions

Perhaps you too have had the frustrating experience of going to an expensive restaurant and receiving a tiny portion of food beautifully served on exquisite crockery. At such times, many people feel that they have paid too much and received a disproportionate amount of food in return. But there are reasons for that to happen.

In this post from awesome.club, we explain the reasons why refined establishments seem to be serving smaller and smaller portions. And after reading this post, it is quite possible that you will end up being more curious about fine meals.

In refined restaurants, it is common to find dishes prepared with more exclusive ingredients on the menu. For example, 450 grams of wagyu beef can cost more than R$1,000, while a kilo of caviar costs around R$50,000. Now imagine a dish with these two ingredients, plus Italian white truffles (about R$40,000 a kilo). The total cost would be extremely expensive!

Looking at this type of restaurant, which uses such quality ingredients, sometimes imported, it is easy to understand why the portions are so small. After all, customers need to see dishes on the menu that, despite being expensive, are relatively affordable.

Smaller portions can be styled more easily, making them more elegant in the eyes of customers. And this is important because, before eating with our mouth, we all love to devour a delicious dish with our eyes.

Generally, restaurants serve menus with a starter, main course and dessert. In certain cases, there are those who ask only for the principal. But in more refined establishments, the number of dishes can reach 12!

Among so many of them, it is possible to find snacks, starters, soups, salads, fish, main course, something to cleanse the palate, second main course, cheese, dessert and drink or delicacy based on puff pastry. Now imagine being able to eat all that in large portions. It’s for this reason that establishments decrease the portion size, so you can try a little bit of everything.

There is a French dish called Gargouillou, made with at least 16 vegetables prepared separately. The delicacy is often served as a work of art, capable of impressing any customer with its air of paints arranged on a canvas.

Now visualize the mission of arranging, in an already full container, the delicate pieces of vegetables. Certainly, the thing wouldn’t look as aesthetically appealing as the one shown in the image above. Because of this, chefs prefer to resort to smaller portions.

The first bites of a meal are almost always the best. This is because the taste buds are less sensitive while eating. Knowing this, chefs focus more on quality than quantity. Faced with smaller portions, we tend to taste each piece better, unlike what happens when we eat everyday meals, capable of making many people bored.

Being part of an exclusive event or owning a limited edition object is something that can cause a lot of people a stir. In these cases, the sayings that “less is more” and “the best perfumes come in the smallest bottles” have everything to do with it.

It’s no wonder that access to luxurious places and food causes this kind of sensation, especially when the dish contains small amounts of ingredients that, right away, we assume are of high quality.

Receiving a small amount of food can make us question the reason for such a choice. But participating in a dinner that features several different dishes makes anyone curious to know what surprise the next one has in store. And as we well know, expectation is something that makes all the difference!

What was the smallest portion of food you ever paid for? Was the price worth it? What was the best restaurant you’ve ever eaten at? Leave a comment with your experience!