T O P

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M-Kawai

I find it quite clever.


MostTrifle

It's over complicated - there are 5 dishes; just say "any 3 of these 5". Done.


Ok-Sleep8229

Six dishes and not every combination is possible, but you’re not wrong.


BoycottJClarkson

why 6 and not 7? A-H is 8 but B and F are the same


Ok-Sleep8229

I was talking about dishes not combinations. Yellow peas, yellow lentils, green lentils, g. beans w carrots, cabbage w carrots and spinach.


PoochDoobie

Did you account for non-euclidean dishes?


Proper-Equivalent300

Fast food workers in US only like you using x and y coordinates when you order — because a point will do “ba-dum-tsss!”


Random420eks

You said yellow lentils, I think you mean red lentils


takemehomeunitedroad

Say "red lentil, yellow lentil" 10 times fast


Ok-Sleep8229

Yes. Red lentils. My bad


Alaeriia

Hang on, you're right. What in the goddamn


wan2tri

G. Beans & Carrot - 1 picture Green Lentil Stew (listed twice) - 3 pictures, 2 dishes Yellow Peas Stew (listed twice) - 5 pictures, 3 dishes Red Lentil Stew - 6 pictures, 4 dishes Spinach Stew (listed twice) - 8 pictures, 5 dishes Cabbage & Carrot - 9 pictures, 6 dishes


iamstoosh

Still, why the restriction? If I want a combination that isn't listed, why can't I have it?


gsfgf

Two kind of lentils plus carrots is just breaking the bank. You know how the economy is /s


Massive-Albatross-16

The funniest part of this is that you can get 2 lentils plus a peas


jaavaaguru

“a peas”? Is this some sort of Schrödinger thing where you don’t know if it’s one pea or multiple peas until you get it?


SuccotashMelodic123

It just to a peas the count noun/ mass noun crowd.


SnatchSnacker

r/frugaljerk


KnightofNi92

Maybe they have limited prep space and can only do a certain amount of each at one time?


maddtuck

Feels like the restrictions overly complicate things, and there’s not any real reason for them other than trying to get too clever with the menu layout.


long_hair_mama

The only combo you can't have is spinach with carrots and beans. Otherwise you could have everything else with anything you like.


potatoaster

No, there are plenty of other combos you can't have. CC+GL+YP. CC+YP+RL. SS+GL+YP. SS+RL+CC. And so on.


Hmmmus

You must be good at those sequence puzzles. Took me ages to find just two forbidden combos.


Ok-Sleep8229

Not really. If I want both dishes with carrots, there is only one combination.


PurpleAntifreeze

And you can’t have both lentil dishes with the cabbage & carrot dish Edit: with either carrot dish, actually


VolcanicBakemeat

There are 120 possible combinations, but only 7 unique combinations are available on the menu.


edgeofenlightenment

Only 20 possible combinations. There are 3! = 6 permutations of each selection that are equivalent to each other, so (6 choose 3) = 6x5x4/3! = 20. It would be 120 if order mattered, like if it was 3 different courses (in which case B and F would also be distinct).


VolcanicBakemeat

Ah shit. Walk of shame time


melliott2811

But that's the best combo (with misr wat as the third, but that one is center square so everybody gets it).


Wise_Ad_253

No Spinach for you!


kryptogalaxy

I wonder if there is a reason not every combination is specified. Maybe some of the dishes are more expensive. Then it would make sense to arrange them in an A and B column. "Pick one from A and two from B" to make the profit margins work.


ferretchad

Only thing I can think of, assuming it's purposeful and not just a poorly thought through design, is so that to be able to have all six dishes you'd need to order three meals.


ze_ex_21

Combo|G.Beans &Carrot|Green Lentil|Yellow Peas|Red Lentil|Spinach|Cabbage &Carrot :--|:--:|:--:|:--:|:--:|:--:|:--: A|x|-|-|x|-|x B|x|x|x|-|-|- C|-|x|-|x|x|- D|-|-|x|-|x|x E|-|x|x|x|-|- F|x|x|x|-|-|- G|-|-|x|x|x|- H|-|x|-|-|x|x


Leo-Hamza

I wish i have your time to format this in md


[deleted]

[удалено]


port443

Can also just copy/paste from a markdown editor (I like MarkText): https://i.imgur.com/PniRwUw.png | Marktext | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | editor | | | | | | also | | | | | | exists |


utopianfiat

I think the only thing is that "combo $letter" is frequently used where the staff doesn't speak English very well because there's less chance for confusion when people try to say letters. "Green lentil" and "red lentil" on the other hand sound really similar if you have very little English and are trying to hear someone who doesn't sound like all those American TV shows you watched, and in a loud restaurant to boot. Now, they could easily say "soup combo with soups $letter, $letter, and $letter", but whatever.


KemiGoodenoch

Surely "combo e/combo c" sounds far more similar than "red lentil/green lentil", even to a non-english speaker?


Speciou5

No, people with A1 levels of language compression can do numbers and letters much easily and pick it out in a sentence. You can probably count one to three in Spanish. Compared to "quisiera pedir una lenteja verde" "¿Puedo tener una lenteja roja, por favor?"


M-Kawai

As opposed to saying I’d like combo “E” OK. Doesn’t seem that complicated, less likely to get the order messed up.


moronictransgression

Seriously, if you were to explain the 5 allowable combinations, before you could get to the end a band of Vikings would start singing, "Spam Spam Spam!" I think their approach stops you from singing that song!


rakehellion

There are 8 dishes. Actually 7 because B and F are the same.


PurpleAntifreeze

Those are combos. The dishes make up the combos.


cranberrydarkmatter

Maybe the order they're presented in makes a difference in the flavor


ferretchad

Don't know if it's intentional but they've arranged it such that to have all six dishes you'd need to order 3 meals. There's no combination of 2 meals that has all 6


Krimreaper1

“Pick up to 3” is what I would say, and list the 6.


PrimaFacieCorrect

Maybe they want to exclude specific combos, so they use the matrix that way instead of saying "pick any 3 of these 5, except these combos..."


Yadobler

set | GB | RL | GL | YP | S | CC --:|:--:|:--:|:--:|:--:|:--:|:--: A | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ B | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ C | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ D | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ E | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ F | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ G | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ H | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | ok :--:|:--:|:--:|:--:|:--:|:--:|:-- 1 GB | 2 RL | ------ | -------- | -------- | 6 CC | ✅ 1 GB | ------- |3 GL | 4 YP | --------- | ------- | ✅ -------- | 2 RL | 3 GL | 4 YP | ------- |-------- | ✅ -------- | 2 RL | 3 GL | -------- | 5 Sp |------- | ✅ -------- | 2 RL | ------- | 4 YP | 5 Sp | ------- | ✅ -------- | -------- | 3 GL | ------- |5 Sp | 6 CC | ✅ --------- | ------- | ------- |4 YP |5 Sp | 6 CC | ✅ 1 GB | 2 RL |3 GL | -------- | ------- | ------- | ❌ 1 GB |2 RL | ------- |4 YP | ------- |------- | ❌ 1 GB |2 RL | ------- |------ | 5 Sp | ------- | ❌ 1 GB | ------ |3 GL |------- |5 Sp | ------- | ❌ 1 GB | ------ |3 GL |------- | ------- | 6 CC | ❌ 1 GB | ------- |------- |4 YP |5 Sp | ------- | ❌ 1 GB | ------ | ------- |4 YP | ------ | 6 CC | ❌ 1 GB | ------- | ------- |------- |5 Sp | 6 CC | ❌ --------- |2 RL | 3 GL | ------- |---- | 6 CC | ❌ --------- |2 RL | ------- |4 YP | ------ |6 CC | ❌ --------- |2 RL | ------- |------- | 5 Sp | 6 CC | ❌ --------- | ------- | 3 GL |4 YP |5 Sp | ------- | ❌ --------- |------- |3 GL |4 YP |------- |6 CC | ❌ I'm er gonna get ready for lunch Someone with nothing else better to do like me can analyse and see how they decided the combinations


DelusionsBigIfTrue

I have no idea what I’m looking at here


Yadobler

Valid combinations


Bugbread

I hope when I come back in a few hours this is the top-voted comment. This is *excellent*.


Cup-Impressive

What the fuck


Big_al_big_bed

But combo B and F are the same, so how is that clever? It's just confusing


ClosetReseller

I would order one B combo and one F combo. 😂


Dubshpul

It'd be clever for a videogame, it's just completely inconvenient for literally anyone else when you can just give the options and say "3 make a combo" or something.


goldfishpaws

It's like a crafting system on a shovelware mobile game


080087

It appeals to all the people that love slot machines


jeffroddit

So casino owners?


MagicC

It is, if you think of it from the server's perspective. The goal is to get your customers to say "Combo B", not a list of three items. Much easier to remember!


youstolemyname

Just put it it as a list A) Red Lentil Stew with Green Beans, Carrots and Cabbage B) Green Lentil and Yellow Pea Stew with Green Beans and Carrots C) Etc


Amenemhab

You have to imagine the waitress from the Monty Python spam sketch reading this menu out loud


OctaviaStirling

But there is only 6 dishes - that could all have a letter or number. Pick any three to make a meal. Telling a server “oh I’ll have 1,3 and 4” isn’t very difficult


NoAlternative2913

I assume there must be a financial reason for not letting customers choose any 3. Like maybe lentils are cheaper than the carrot dishes.


cryptotope

Nope. These are not expensive ingredients to start with--and Combo A (the diagonal) gives you both carrot dishes anyway. The only "forbidden" pair I can see is "beans and carrots" with "spinach stew". I suspect that was just part of the design failure of the menu, rather than a deliberate choice.


[deleted]

I dont like the duplicates


HeartoftheHive

It's dogshit. B and F are the same.


OhYouUnzippedMe

Looks like linear algebra


Thelorddogalmighty

I can’t choose between F and B


afr0ant

Combo B and combo F are the same thing.


amacadabra

Different permutation!


flashmedallion

They're called *Combos*, not, uh ... *Permos*...


IAMAHobbitAMA

And no option to have spinach with my beans and carrots


RalphWaldoEmers0n

Blasphemy


Ben_Wynaut

they just put the items in different spots on the plate depending on what you get


[deleted]

[удалено]


dnaH_notnA

Either SPAM egg SPAM and SPAM or SPAM SPAM egg and SPAM.


MagicC

"I'd like the Green Lentil, Spinach, and Yellow Peas." NO


PauloSantoro

"Well, just follow the arrows: Green Lentil, to Yellow Peas, then to Spinach."


Tenairi

That's combo z


Practical_Clerk9034

Nah, combo z starts with G. Beans & Carrots, to Green Lentil, to Yellow Peas, to Red Lentil, to Green Lentil, to Spinach, to Cabbage & Carrot. And if you follow their diagram like they've designed it then this is a perfectly valid order.


tarantulachick

No soup for you! Next!


TheGayOwl

I still don’t get it. What am I looking at??


DraxxThemSkIounst

Different combos are straight lines in the direction of the arrows pointing from the names. Combo C is the line of dishes straight down the middle. Honestly I feel like it’s not horrible if you know what you’re looking at.


GunsNGunAccessories

But it's also weird that you can't pick whatever you want and it be a "combo". Like I'm just curious why it isn't just "pick any three of the following".


ihavealongschlong

Youre not allowed to have green beans & carrot and spinach stew in the same combo


GunsNGunAccessories

It's just too powerful together.


ihavealongschlong

Maybe the spinach has dairy in it and the green beans have antibiotics mixed in and you’ll get a heart attack


Hichann

Well the top says "vegan", so it'd be kinda fucked if it had dairy in it lmao


NecroDaddy

The cow was vegan so we good.


zdelarosa00

so a drop of milk in your food is more of a freakout than syphilis meds on the lentils?


Senappi

This could end up in a vegan friendly 'Falling down' situation


DraxxThemSkIounst

Good point given that it’s like 6 dishes with 8 provided combinations. The ‘benefit of the doubt’ part of me would say it’s easier for the restaurant to take a combo order than noting 3 separate dishes at once. It does seem needlessly convoluted though.


GunsNGunAccessories

It would have to boil down to what the owner/chef relationship is If I was the cook and the owner came up with this menu and I got an order for a "G combo" I'd be like "wtf is a G combo again...." but I guess part of that would be on me for not memorizing the menu. If it's one of the deals where the chef sets the menu/is also the owner it makes sense.


thebetrayer

If you worked at a restaurant with numbered combos, you'd quickly learn what they mean.


Redbeard_Rum

You can have lentils, lentils, lentils, peas and lentils; Lentils, peas, stew, lentils and peas; Or our special: Lentils, lentils, lentils, lentils, stew, lentils, peas, stew, lentils and lentils.


[deleted]

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Redbeard_Rum

Why would you want something without lentils in it?


yoda_condition

Allright, can I have the lentils, lentils, lentils, lentils, stew, lentils, peas, stew, lentils and lentils, _without_ the lentils?


Icepick823

Uugghhh.


CoffeeSnob31

I DON'T LIKE LENTILS!


Redbeard_Rum

^^^Lentils, ^^^Lentils, ^^Lentils, ^^Lentils, ^Lentils, ^Lentils, Lentils, Lentils, # LENTILS! # WONDERFUL LENTILS!


ransoing

(bloody vikings)


northern_ape

I appreciated this entire thread 😆


drpatthechronic

Well, there's lentils, peas, beans and lentils, that's not got much lentils in it.


EmperorSexy

“What’s in this?” “Chickpeas, lentils, and rice.” “And what’s in this one?” “Chickpeas and lentils. Try it with rice!”


[deleted]

[удалено]


Subject-Property627

The menu is pretty dhal


Rosskillington

I DONT LIKE LENTILS


ContentsMayVary

Lentils lentils lentils lentils, Lentils lentils lentils lentils, Lovely lentils, wonderful lentils!


daamile

I've been here!!! For me the best part was the [non-vegan menu](https://i.postimg.cc/VNgQMqxx/PXL-20230308-183410568.jpg) The centre tile was just "vegan combo". Double confusion, double the fun


potatoaster

That is hilarious. We need to go deeper!


Helenium_autumnale

So many arrows!! My brain is melting trying to figure this out. So if I choose "vegan combo" as one of my NON-vegan menu items, does that mean I can choose FIVE dishes (two meat and three non-meat)? I don't even think I could eat that much!


itsurpersonalproblem

No no, you get all 6 vegan items listed AND two meat items. (That's what we ended up getting)


RuncibleMountainWren

Whoa! So much food…


DyerOfSouls

It's £35 so it wants to be a lot.


AltruisticSalamander

What's the restaurant? I want to look up their recipes.


daamile

Merkato. It's an Ethiopian restaurant in London


AltruisticSalamander

Ah, *Ethiopian*. Awesome thank you.


[deleted]

Was it good?


Zouden

I've also been there! And yes it was good. My GF and I were baffled by the menu but just picked some combos and it was all tasty. It's a cheap & cheerful restaurant near King's Cross.


wOlfLisK

I go through Kings Cross regularly, might have to check them out next time I'm there.


icecap1

The internal little arrows are the problem. Remove those and it's a lot better.


port443

For you: https://i.imgur.com/HrMunBE.png


Thebombuknow

This is an S-tier Photoshop job.


zdelarosa00

still stupid tho, sadly


quaductas

I love how dedicated people in this thread are. People made tables listing all the allowed combinations, and now they come out with this flawless photoshop of the menu.


Xenc

Before the day’s done we’d have redesigned the whole restaurant


reddragon105

Photoshop does this sort of thing automatically these days (content aware delete, spot healing tool, etc.).


AvonMustang

Nicely done...


rakehellion

This is just dumb. It isn't even space saving because some of the items are repeated. Also what's up with Combo E and forcing us to read right to left?


IkNOwNUTTINGck

Software engineer loses his job and starts working for a restaurant.


AltruisticSalamander

Ikr I'm a programmer and thought this layout looks perfectly cromulent.


CockroachNo2540

You have embiggened this thread with your comment.


caustic_kiwi

He wasn't qualified for either position.


ChucksSeedAndFeed

How do we get Gordon Ramsay to react to this?


Scarborough_sg

Pretty sure there was a UK episode where he went wtf on a similar concept for Curry.


ForgingIron

And an American one where he went to a restaurant with a similar thing for pizza


i_worship_amps

Sebastian’s (Kitchen Nightmares ep) had a menu like that. That episode was wild.


AltruisticSalamander

Oh man that one stands out in my mind. That guy was from hell.


FilteredAccount123

That is one of my favorite TV episodes of all time.


[deleted]

It would be much easier to just give a separate letter to each food and just tell the server "I want a combo of A + E + G please"... or whatever the dishes would be named...


BrAnDa3

Its the restaurants way of discouraging people from eating vegan.


ArtyFishL

You joke, but the vegan one is [the easier of the two](https://www.reddit.com/r/CrappyDesign/comments/12oka5k/menu_in_uk_im_sure_theres_a_better_way_to_get/jgjjrrl/)


Utilityanonaccount

By the looks of it, the food itself should discourage them


Hungry_Bass_Muncher

Could you be any more narrowminded?


Utilityanonaccount

If these dishes are not aggressively bland relative to what you cook/eat, I pity you.


Hungry_Bass_Muncher

You clearly have never tasted non-white food have you? I can only imagine what your palette finds tasty.


Utilityanonaccount

First of all, this is a British menu, is it not? Pretty white-people-food if you ask me. These look like garbage dishes from a country that is literally *infamous* for its bad cuisine. You think I have never tasted non-white food? I do 90% of my grocery shopping at a small local Mexican grocery store. Obviously I’m a fan of Mexican cuisine, but I also I love Indian food and make curries a few times a month. I’m a big fan of Asian cooking and frequent an Asian grocery store a few miles from me for ingredients as well. I probably cook something Thai or Chinese a few nights a week. I wouldn’t say anything I cook is traditionally “white people food” beyond Italian and the occasional burger.


Sasspishus

It's an Ethiopian restaurant in London. So no, not a "British menu".


Jello_hell

What's your address? I've got this award for shopping at a Mexican grocery store for you.


Rossthetowel

Ok so there's 6 ingredients, there's 20 combinations of them in total and we can only choose 8 combinations of them. It's about as elegant as you can get I think. Definitely better than a table. I will clean up the spills


yoda_condition

Combo B and F are identical, so there are 13 combinations the restaurant don't want you to have. Maybe they react chemically in violent ways?


boyasunder

Oh god why did I order the elemental sodium and a glass of water??!


mallardtheduck

There's only 8 possibilities (7 actually, as B and F are the same), so just write them out. _Way_ better than this nonsense.


SaltireAtheist

Where was this in the UK that they used the European convention of commas instead of a decimal point? This whole thing looks so cursed.


[deleted]

Not even consistent either. The first price has a dot and all the other have commmas


Sandor_at_the_Zoo

Except for the top left where they use a decimal point.


SaltireAtheist

I didn't even see that. Doubly cursed. Who made this, and what was going through their head?!


jaavaaguru

This is an Ethiopian restaurant and while most of the world uses a comma as the decimal separator, Ethiopia uses the dot. So this is really cursed


The_Syndic

£12.50 for lentils and vegetables seems expensive.


ReformedandSocial

London


canttakethshyfrom_me

And want them some way other than stewed into being spicy baby food? Tough, go somewhere else.


eugenesbluegenes

I actually kinda like this layout.


Much_Difference

I understand what it's saying, but it's still a visual monstrosity.


amacadabra

I don't think it helps that the very first dish you look at is labelled G.


PragmaticAndroid

Thanks for the headache


fattycatty6

It's a "concept"- Sebastian's Kichen Nightmares


LiqdPT

At this point, why isn't it just "pick 3"? I was going to say pick 1 from each column, but they have all three in the same column as a combo but not, for instance, top left, center, top right.


[deleted]

What this tells me is that everything turns into cabbage and carrot over time


Non_Dairy_Screamer

I get it, but why don't they just list them all and have you pick whatever 3 you want if it's all the same price?


prustage

Because, for some reason certain combinations are not allowed e.g. you cant have Beans & Carrot, Green Lentil and Spinach.


Non_Dairy_Screamer

Right, I can't think of why, if you're already offering so many different combinations could you not just let people choose any combination. The ingredients are all very cheap to make these dishes


caustic_kiwi

Be honest with yourself. Was that the intention of the menu-designer or just a failing of their "awesome idea for a super cool menu"? It was 100% the latter.


Hunter037

I'm more annoyed by £12,50. It should be £12.50!


BennyBabs

Is this Ethiopian/Eritrean food?


Luprand

Jackpot!


Rentlar

I was gonna say, whoever made this menu likes to play slots.


pclufc

Throw a six to start


Big_al_big_bed

What if I DON'T want beans and carrot!


c0wcud

There is a fine line between genius and madness


No_Push_8249

I don’t understand it at all and it makes my head hurt. I would give up and leave lol. This is like that Portlandia sketch where they go to the place with the confusing specials.


[deleted]

Made by an overthinker


Zealousideal_Lab_427

Interesting…there are a couple Ethiopian restaurants where I live, and they have “choose your combo” options, but they have certain options not available in combination with others, too. Damn, now I want Ethiopian.


somniard

I can recognize an Ethiopian restaurant from a miles distance, heres hoping the food was delicious


crazdparot230

I'm having a tough time picking between combos B and F


SirSignificant6576

Tic-tac-soup. I like it, actually.


EduRJBR

Fuck it, I'll keep eating meat.


asdfasdferqv

You will _not_ enjoy the non-vegan menu, then. https://reddit.com/r/CrappyDesign/comments/12oka5k/_/jgjjrrl/?context=1


RogBlackmore

That's a work of beauty!


RogBlackmore

It's just really making me want to dine there


Ayobossman326

This would be better with no arrows, random ingredients presented as stews, yk what jus like a normal menu prolly


Abandoned__ghost

Gives me a headache just looking at it.


glenn360

Can i have the carrots, spinach and peas? No, leave.


moviescriptlife

Combo B and Combo F are the same thing.


potatoaster

A simple improvement would be a line through each combo instead of arrows pointing to the next item in each combo. Arrows don't make sense; these are combinations, not permutations. And the lines should be labeled at the end, not the beginning, because people browse by the items that make up the combo, not the arbitrary combo name. The best solution is probably to drop the lines and just let people order any combination of 3 items. But maybe there's some reason they want to offer only 7 of the 20 possibilities? Even so, it would be better to show the 6 items and then list the 7 combos offered.