The food joints in Chicago

The food joints in Chicago

The three food joints that I chose are:

1. Mundano Restaurant in Lincoln Park, Chicago.
2. My Chef Catering in Chicago.
3. Corky’s Catering in Chicago.

The menu formats for the three restaurants were mostly similar; these similarities not necessarily cutting across all three. The menus for My Chef Catering and Corky’s Catering, for instance, had a distinct resemblance in that they both created different menus based on the events for which they cater for. Corky’s Catering had several menus;  a lunch and picnic menu, St.Patrick’s day menu, wedding menu, and the main menu that offered the usual breakfast, lunch, and dinner options. My Chef Catering, also, had a variety of menus based on seasons and events, though, are much more ambitious in their choice of varieties compared to their counterparts. They had several menus to pick from; Super Bowl menu, formal dinner menu, November and December specials menu, Valentine’s menu, wedding menu, among others. All the restaurants offer a brief description of the meals provided in the menu; for instance, a continental breakfast at Corky’s Catering includes breakfast croissants, assorted muffins, and assorted juices. A meal of savory churros at Mundano’s Restaurant, on the other hand, contains manchego and herbs as some of its ingredients. The menus for Chef catering and Corky’s Catering both also employ the use of photos sparingly, to make the menu more appealing. The two, also display prices alongside the listed meals.

The menu presentations were also different, to some extent. Mundano’s restaurant, for instance, opted for a slightly blander menu compared to the other two. The menu consists only of the names of the dishes on offer and a brief description, without incorporating any flashy graphics that the others go for, with elaborate pictures of the meals on offer in the restaurant. The graphics have the effect of making the menu more appealing to the customer. While the other menus display prices for each food item, the online menu for Mundano has no such information, only showing the meals and their description. Also, the menus for Corky’s and My Chef have their meals categorized into various seasons and events, hence menus for each, while that of Mundano’s has a single dinner menu whose only underlying theme is the serving of South American dishes.

Some of the meals in the menus, especially from Mundano’s, had names in their description that I was not familiar with. These included:

1. Smoked Walnut- Used together with butter and cheese and are also used as toppings for meat.
2. Charred Escarole- Used as a salad.
3. Horniny Soubise- Consists of slow-cooked rice and onions.
4. Nappa Cabbage- Oblong-shaped and sweeter cabbage.
5. Salsa sauce- A traditional Mexican sauce
6. Cheese curds- This is a younger form of cheddar.

The Mundano’s menu is ideally suited for its South American customer base. It is logical to assume that the natives of South America or those willing to partake of the dishes are, in some way, familiar with the dishes on offer, hence there is no urgent need to display pictures on the menu. The menu, also, is highly specific in its description of the meals; thus suits even new customers that have not tasted the dishes before. The menus for My Chef Catering and Corky’s Catering with their flashy menus, too, also achieve their goal of attracting a wide range of customers to justify their diverse menu offerings that range from weddings to meals offered in certain seasons.