Filling in the Blanks

Forty years ago, this was a common scenario at the world's most refined restaurants: A couple goes out to dinner, and the waiter gives the man, presumed host and breadwinner, a menu with prices, while the woman gets one without. The tradition of menus without prices, also called blind or guest menus, persists today, but more as a quirky vestige of a bygone era—restaurants have had to adapt to modern social mores without making presumptions that offend the customer. Here, we have compiled a short list of some of the best restaurants around the world that continue to offer blind menus—much to the delight, surprise, and confusion of their customers.

This Parisian standby preserves a longstanding practice of offering menus without prices. "This is an old tradition in France in elegant gastronomic restaurants," Caroline Mennetrier, senior director of public relations for the hotel, says. The restaurant has even watched the menus play a part in marriage proposals, as nervous fiancés-to-be sweat through elaborate meals, including pink champagne, caviar, and truffles, ordered off the priceless menu by unsuspecting girlfriends.

At Spondi, blind menus are given to women, children, and business guests every day. But what happens when it is hard to tell host from guest? Recently, a man hoping to surprise his male partner for their anniversary requested one menu without prices. To distinguish between himself and the object of his affection, he let restaurant manager Christian Potelle know he'd show up in a red tie and a blue shirt.

Alumni of Boston College still enjoy bringing guests to their college club's Harbor Dining Room. "Our members appreciate the gesture that allows their guests to order based on their desires, not the pricing," the member relations director Caitlin Chiacchia says.

The Epicure restaurant (formerly called Le Bristol) at the Bristol Hotel may be newer than most of Paris's storied restaurants, but they have a steadfast policy with menus—only the guest who booked the table gets one with prices, and all others receive theirs blind. Guests at Epicure seem to accept the treatment rather than question it: there have never been any complaints.

The three Michelin-starred La Pergola, in Rome's Cavalieri Hotel, provides menus without prices upon request—often as a surprise to a dinner partner or for a special occasion. It's a nice touch that adds to the rarefied aura of Chef Heinz Beck's restaurant.

At Michaels, which still provides all parties with a mix of menus with and without prices, director of marketing Tom Mikovits has noticed that the traditional courtesy of a guest menu does not always translate well in changing times. "About 10 to 15 years ago, the maitre d' noticed an infuriated woman approaching him from a party of two ladies and three men," he says. "When she arrived at his stand, she started yelling at him because she was the CEO of a major company and the rest of the guests were her employees."