[vharuck]

If you went to higher-class restaurants, small menus are the norm. I'm no expert, and my wife only has a culinary degree from 10 years ago gathering dust, but some possible reasons:

- A smaller menu lets the chefs focus on learning to make those dishes at the expected level of quality. These items also usually require more skill and knowledge to just be passable.

- It's not so much that fancy places have small menus, as it is that non-fancy restaurants can have bigger menus. Their kitchens can have an assembly-line style that optimizes simplicity and time, letting them hire cheap cooks. When every dish is "throw each part in the oven/fryer/pot, wait 10 minutes, put on plate," adding 50 dishes doesn't put as much strain on the cooks.

[cheerlessbog]

I assume that budget restaurants with large menus make heavy use of freezer and microwave. So a short menu is usually a good sign.

[azepoi]

Yes you can't have a very large menu with fresh seasonal ingredients.

[AtlasBarfed]

They're just Sysco resellers... the second highest margin items on menus are desserts, which are almost always Sysco microwave desserts or similiar preps.