I see this as a tall order. I have eaten at all these restaurants, Including "The dinning room" on the 23rd of Jan. We were lucky enough to talk to you at the end of service while your crew was enjoying thier fish tacos. I had mentioned the Scrambled couliflower, I don't think you could explain that component in writting without taking up half the page. I think thats what makes great meals memorable the unexpected. Much like this description from Robuchon " Kobe beef ribeye cooked on a bed of rock salt with a vegetable fricassee" or this one from Michael Mina "MAINE LOBSTER POT PIE
BABY VEGETABLES, TRUFFLE CREAM" In my opinion you would kill yourself trying to really explain those dishes in thier true nature. I would say write it on your menu how you as the chef see it. State the whats in the dish for a number of reasons , like dislikes and alergies, but after that I think you should just say this is a picture of a woman like Leonardo da Vinci and l;et us enjoy the art.   (Im posting this anyway even after re reading it and thinking I'm an idiot)

I have been remiss in not posting the wonderful menu of Table 21 of Volt! I'll fix that situation soon.

If you want the opinion of a graphic designer, we've gotta get you some more intriguing typefaces here, with smaller titles, maybe less bold, maybe some creative text placement that leaves more white space.  Think of it the same as you think of plating - a small, colorful punch in the midst of a large, white rectangular plate.  Let the menu design mirror your plating style.

As a chef myself i often struggle with writing a menu because you don't want every description to be to long its hard to breakdown a dish into a sentence in my eyes its nearly impossible. So that said i really do rely allot on my waitstaff the explain the dish well and this is where relationship between the FOH and BOH can sour quickly.  Its hard to get a waiter to understand the overall concept of every dish and explain it how you yourself a chef would explain it . i think the is a catch 22 because you cant make the menu too long but you have to excite the customer at the same time.

Hmmm.....I am not a fan of pretension of any kind.  My husband and I had the pleasure of eating at French Laundry almost nine years ago, and let me tell you, while it was "fancy" dining, the menu was not initmidating at all (aka no" what  the heck is this I am I eating???)  It was just an amazingly delicious experience.  I've lived in Los Angeles for the past 20 plus years, and my favorite restaurants, consistantly are ones that do not try too hard.  I love Melisse in Santa Monica.  Loved the old Patina on Melrose, sadly now gone, Wolfgang Puck's Chinois.  Oh, and Father's Office for burgers!

For those of you who like to look at menus, and get some ideas for wordings, ect. here are a few sites that list them...
http://www.menupages.com/restaurants/the-waverly-inn/menu

http://www.menusonly.com/menus/philipshaverhouse/default.asp

I agree on the typeface Mark.  Someday, maybe someday, my palate will be able to experience the art of just one of these lovely locations.

Funny you should post about menus! I was just complaining about one this weekend.

I never understand why some restaurants disregard the quality of their menus.  I see it as the real communication between the heart of the establishment (kitchen) and the guest.  I was at Broadway East over the weekend (food decent, service VERY SLOW), I ordered the chickpea veggie burger and the server told me they didn't have it anymore and it had been off the menu for over a week (as if I was supposed to know and I had not been there in months).  There was no mention from her when we arrived, a quick mention of how some items might not be available would have helped, and if the item had been gone for a week, I would think they would make new menus or even very neatly cross the item off.

When Orchid Lounge closed I kept one of their drink menus because it was beautiful and they always updated it and cared.  I would not have kept this menu, and I would think in larger frankly fancier places where you know the overhead is huge that they would want to keep you coming back. 

Update the menu!  With printer tech now and nice papers and a paper cutter it can be done without major expense.  Clean your menus, splattered dirty menu holders are gross, wipe it with a cloth.  I won't keep going on I am just again, surprised that more places do not care or seem to care about the first thing that goes into their customer's hands as their representation of what they can do.

Ps.. I was my partner's family, it wasn't like just us two I had to hold everyone up having to go through to choose again and the server chose to come back like "oh you need another minute" holding things up further.  She also brought the others coffee first way before food arrived, I am not a coffee drinker but doesn't that come last?  So it was cold when they wanted it *sigh*  And salt and pepper were requested several times and didn't arrive until 5 min after the food arrived.  They can be a good place they just need to improve on the little things.