This document introduces the concept of "Menu 6", which proposes that restaurant menus should be limited to only 6 items. It argues that current restaurant menus suffer from "menu bloat", padding menus with mediocre options instead of focusing on their specialties. This leads customers to have difficulty finding the high quality dishes. Menu 6 is presented as a philosophy that prioritizes quality over quantity, allowing restaurants to excel at a select few dishes rather than trying to satisfy all preferences. It is posed as a solution that could eventually replace traditional large menus if adopted over time.

1. Menu 6
Mark Wilson

2. Menu 6 is a philosophy, an ideal,
and a way of life.
It is a new way of envisioning the
world which will soon transform
our society.

3. Menu 6
• The problem

4. The problem
Restaurant menus of the modern age

5. The problem
Restaurant menus of the modern age

6. The problem
Restaurants of the modern age suffer from debilitating menu bloat.
In an attempt to satisfy as many customers as possible, restaurants pad their
menus with mediocre options which do not represent their specialties.
When competing with another restaurant to capture as many customers as
possible, size matters…
creating a vicious cycle of menus bloated with inferior choices.
These items distract and divert from the true quality the restaurant offers.

7. The problem
Our society has come to fetishize choice,
personalization, and individuality.
The result is great difficulty navigating the structure
imposed on us by the modern restaurant to find the
excellence, beauty, and quality which makes us proud
to be part of human civilization.

8. The problem
This problem has existed for centuries.
Societies have devised various strategies to cope.

9. Menu 6
• The problem
• Partial solutions

10. Ask the waiter
At most restaurants, just ask and the waiter is
happy to distill a lengthy menu down to a few
special dishes which the staff recognize as the
standouts.
Most waiters will also earnestly indicate which
dishes are not particularly good.
These “not special” dishes are the menu bloat.

11. Chinese restaurants
When advertising a restaurant in China, region is
used to communicate what the specialties are.
Shanghainese
Beijing
Sichuan
Mongolian
Cantonese
…

12. Restaurant Week
During Restaurant Week, a restaurant demonstrates
the quality of its best offerings to encourage
customers to return.
This is often an opportunity for the chef to distill his
menu down to a few items which he truly excels at
and can comfortably produce in large quantity.
Restaurant Week is Menu 6 week.

13. Yelp

14. Partial solutions
The prevalence of these partial solutions
indicates a systemic problem.
Only a complete solution can bring us out of the
Dark Ages of the restaurant menu and usher in a
new Age of Enlightenment.

15. Menu 6
• The problem
• Partial solutions
• The complete solution: Menu 6

16. The complete solution: Menu 6
The theory of Menu 6 holds that no restaurant
should offer more than 6 items on its menu.
Beyond 6 items, a restaurant has expanded
beyond the core dishes it truly excels at.
This applies equally to cocktails, desserts, etc.

17. The complete solution: Menu 6
Menu 6 is a philosophy of quality as paramount.
Menu 6 is the belief that the key to the best
possible restaurant dining experience is to limit
a restaurant to its best possible dishes.

18. The complete solution: Menu 6
Menu 6 is a normative claim that
quality is better than quantity.
Enjoying what the chef excels at is better than
satisfying the particular preferences you bring
into the restaurant.

19. The complete solution: Menu 6
Menu 6 is a first step.
At first, it will be an alternative menu alongside the
more traditional menu given to less sophisticated
customers.
Over time – perhaps decades – society will embrace
a preference for quality and recognize its reliance
on Menu 6 alone, and we will eliminate the menu
as we know it today.

20. Menu-6.com