New menu items can be fun and exciting for both restaurants and customers. Many people don’t often realize where these new menu items come from though. Do they get picked at random? Does the restaurant CEO decide what they want on the menu? Is there a survey that customers complete?

Let’s take a look at who (and what) guides the decisions regarding new menu items at your favorite restaurants.

 1. The Customer

If you’re a customer, congratulations, your favorite restaurant brand knows you’re the most important element in deciding on new menu items. Restaurants take customer feedback and suggestions very seriously (if they know what’s good for them) and that includes suggestions for new menu items. Not every suggestion can be implemented, but every suggestion is weighed and used to determine what menu items, or types of menu items, will be considered.

Restaurants have various ways to make your opinions heard. From Twitter and Facebook to email and even suggestion cards that get filled out by-hand, there’s always a way to get in touch with you favorite restaurant and give them your feedback.

2. Available Equipment

Quite often, new menu items are chosen based on equipment that’s already available in each restaurant location. That’s why burger restaurants offer new burgers, pizza places offer new pizzas, etc. If a proposed new menu item requires the installation of new piece of large equipment to each location in order to cook it, there’s chance that the equipment (and therefore the menu item) might not fit.

The best new menu items, from the perspective of the restaurant, are ones that fit into their established kitchens. Restaurant brands ask themselves if a proposed menu item can be prepared using equipment that is already installed at all (or most) locations. If the answer is “yes,” then that menu item has a better chance of being implemented.

3. Franchise Owners

Big brands with many locations often give franchisees choices when it comes to menu items they offer. If you see a restaurant TV commercial with a disclaimer like “not available in all locations” or “availability varies by market” it’s a good indication that locations have been given a choice when it comes to offering that item.

Sometimes, franchise operators are required by the brand to pay for any new equipment associated with a new menu item, and if an operator isn’t interested in shelling out the money for the equipment, they won’t be required to sell the menu item.

4. Other Restaurants

When a restaurant brand offers a new menu item, you can almost always be certain that their competitors won’t be far behind. Competitors may wait to see if the new items is popular before jumping into the mix to compete, but trust us when we say restaurants are always paying attention to what’s being offered on the menus of their various competitors.

So there you have it. As you can see, a lot goes into deciding what new menu items get offered in your favorite restaurant. Got a new menu item you’d like to see in your favorite restaurant? Let us know in the comments!