Rant: Just Give Me The Menu!

I, like many people, often check a restaurant's website to peruse their Menu. I like to see the type of dishes they offer, and see what might entice me. Plenty of others do the same, and sometimes select a restaurant based on the menu they see online. It should be a simple thing, but often now it's not. 

Recently, there's been an issue when I've tried to view a number of restaurant menus online, an annoying obstacle put in place. The only way you can view their menu is if you start an online order. I don't want to order anything. I don't want to invest the extra effort in viewing the menu through the online order system.  I just want to look at the menu, like I always used to do.

I understand restaurants want more business, and having an online order system can help them do so. I have no problem with that, and encourage them to do so. However, I do have issue if the only way I can view the menu is if I start an order, although I really don't want an order. 

Just Give Me The Menu!

I've heard plenty of others complain about this same issue so I know I'm not alone. And I suspect some restaurants have lost business because of this matter. When some people select a restaurant based on their menu, and you make it more difficult for them to check out the menu, then they are less likely to choose your restaurant. Their frustration may lead them to seek elsewhere. 

It's an easy fix to this problem. A restaurant simply needs to add a single page on their website with the menu. Then a person can click on that page and view the menu, without having to start an online order. It's not a complex issue, and certainly much simpler than it was to add an online ordering system. And you can easily keep both, the menu page and the online ordering system. 

Such online ordering systems should be able to provide statistics to the restaurant, possibly including how many people have started an order but never finished one. Do you know how many of those unfinished orders were just due to people wanting to view the menu? And how many of those unfinished orders were due to other reasons, such as the complexity of your system, or other problems with the system? The statistics might be more helpful if they didn't have to include those who just wanted to check out the menu. 

Who else is with me on this issue, wanting just to see the menu without having to go through the online ordering process?