[mgkimsal]

The PDF menu already looks good, they already put a ton of time into it to get it exactly right, and they don't want to duplicate that effort.

Well... why bother cleaning the outside of your restaurant - washing the windows, trimming the landscaping, cleaning around the dumpster, etc? They've already put so much effort in to making the inside of the restaurant look perfect, why duplicate that effort?

A good website - fast loading, clean info, nice pics, optimized for the web - gets people to decide to spend money with you by coming in. A nice custom menu gets people to decide how they'll spend money with you (and how much).

This shouldn't be an either/or decision, but it appears the majority of owners don't think this far ahead. Given the little I've known about restaurant owners (worked in a few restaurants growing up), this is not at all surprising.

[jcnnghm]

They do that stuff because it doesn't really cost money, and because if they don't, they will always have empty tables. It's as simple as telling the existing staff to go do it.

The good website you are describing probably costs at least $5k, which is more than they have to spend. It also means they have to find someone that can do the work, tell them what they want, pay them, manage them, and evaluate the output. It's time consuming and expensive.

[gaius]

Restaurant menu design is a highly specialized field, and there are many companies around that just do that. Everything makes a difference, the layout, the fonts, etc etc.

[JoeAltmaier]

Um, many don't clean outside. I can't count the number of restaurants I've had to walk thru a minefield to reach from their parking lot. Old broken kitchen equipment parked out in the rain, broken cement, rusty signs, litter under every half-dead bush and tree.