Thanks to nonstop exposure to computers, phones, and algorithms, modern-day humans process more information in 24 hours than someone in the 17th century might in their entire lifetime. It’s been said that our brains absorb the equivalent amount of data as watching 16 movies a day—not exactly what our ancestors had in mind (literally).
What does this have to do with food? Give me a sec.
This immediate access to knowledge at the press of a button is both a miracle and a menace. While it is possible to harness this power to pursue noble ventures—like learning a new language or researching ways to improve survival rates of pollinators in your backyard—let’s be honest, most of us are just looking at memes or endlessly shopping for crap we don’t need.
So often by the end of the day, after I’ve slogged through a barrage of ads telling me what jeans I should buy, which supplements I should take, and which shoes this celebrity recommends, the very thought of picking what to eat for dinner feels more like a draining chore than an enjoyable choice. Unless there’s something I’m absolutely craving (sometimes, nothing will do but a bowl of pho), I’m pretty much decisioned-out.
Restaurants have taken note. Since the pandemic disrupted the hospitality industry, restaurants have come up with any number of inventive ways to stay alive—from launching meal delivery services to adding retail spaces and creating more slimmed-down, fixed-cost menus.
Prix-fixe isn’t a new concept. Nor is omakase in sushi restaurants, where guests leave the menu choices in the hands of the chef. Nor are tasting menus, where restaurants provide a predetermined number of courses for a set price.
But for some restaurants, this is an opportunity to not only predict and streamline costs, but to redefine the very concept of hospitality itself.
According to John Resnick—the restaurateur behind Campfire, Wildland, Michelin-starred Jeune et Jolie, and Lilo in Carlsbad,—when a guest puts themselves fully in your care and opens themselves up to surprise, that level of trust presents a challenge. But when executed properly, tasting menus become the type of indulgence people are willing to pay top dollar for.
“The moment guests realize they don’t have to make a single decision, aside from their beverage, something shifts,” says Resnick. Jeune et Jolie offers a four-course menu where guests choose between three or four dishes per section, while Lilo runs through a traditional tasting menu with a dozen or so courses conceptualized by the chef. Everyone gets the same courses at the same time (although with advance notice, there is some wiggle room for dietary restrictions or food allergies).
“That shift, from transactional to experiential, is what we are trying to create,” Resnick explains. “The tasting menu format can be the fullest expression of that. It asks for your trust, and when it works, it is truly joyful.”
Letting go of preferences or even knowledge of what’s coming next is an unfamiliar and sometimes scary feeling for guests, says chef Nicholas Webber of 24 Suns. Webber and his business partner and chef Jacob Jordan opened the experiential Chinese fine-dining restaurant in 2025 after both worked in Michelin-starred kitchens like Benu in San Francisco, Calif., Frasca Food and Wine in Boulder, Colo., and Addison by William Bradley in Del Mar.
In order to make guests comfortable with the idea of embracing the unknown, restaurants have to be willing to be a little flexible—within reason, Webber believes. “There is a downside for less adventurous guests or those with certain dietary restrictions if the restaurant is unaccommodating or unequipped to adjust the fixed menu for those particulars,” he says. 24 Suns offers both a chef’s tasting menu of nine to 12 courses as well as an à la carte menu, allowing guests to choose how far they wish to venture down the path of culinary curiosity.
For a number of rising chefs, set price menus are a way to accommodate guests (who, like me, prefer to leave the decision-making to the kitchen) and be able to control their operating costs more efficiently. Daniel Salas launched Omakase Inu, an omakase pop-up at Key & Cleaver in March, with those dual intentions in mind.
Since he pre-plans each menu and knows the number of reservations for any given night, “inventory management, food cost, prep, waste, labor—all of it becomes easier to predict,” he says. He doesn’t have to guess how much fish to get for the week—he knows exactly how many servings of otoro to order. Unlike traditional restaurants, where some dishes may or may not sell (but must be stocked and prepped regardless), Salas can still change his menu whenever he likes—but only orders, prepares, and serves what’s needed.
In the tight post-pandemic hospitality economy, every opportunity to increase your margins is crucial for survival, especially in an industry where 30 percent of restaurants fail after the first year. And considering 94 billion pounds of food gets wasted annually, streamlined prix-fixe menus and omakase concepts have the opportunity to take at least a small chunk out of a massive problem.
Between backend costs and the rise of customers’ decision fatigue, “I wouldn’t be surprised if we continue seeing more affordable chef-driven tasting menu concepts over the next several years,” Salas predicts. In San Diego, we have plenty of curated experiences to choose from, from cocktail bars (Youngblood) to Japanese kaiseki (Komatsuya) to seasonal tasting menus (Lucien). While the structure might not be a catch-all for every restaurant, each tiny sliver of opportunity to survive adds up.
“A fixed menu doesn’t eliminate the chaos, but it does contain it,” Resnick says.
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“That’s rare in a business that can often feel chaotic.” Webber agrees. “The predictability of a fixed menu is huge for our extremely unpredictable industry.”
You can’t put a price on peace of mind.
