10 ways restaurant menus lie to customers

I pick out restaurants I want to eat at before going on any vacation.

It's an odd habit, but I look at dining out as a form of entertainment.

Sushi, Thai fusion and Korean barbecue top my list when heading to New York to visit my sister.

If you're like me, you study a menu (online, outside a restaurant's door or at the hostess' stand) before committing to a meal. It turns out, this is a good practice.

Excelle, a women's networking site, released a list Friday about the top 10 ways menus lie to customers.

Here's a sample of what to be on the lookout for:
1. No dollar sign - Restaurants will leave off dollar signs in front of numbers to make you focus on the dish, not the price. For some reason, your brain feels more comfortable seeing appetizers advertised as costing 8 over $8.

2. Centered text - If menu columns are centered, the dish prices will not match up with the line above and below. By keeping numbers out of one easy column, it's more difficult for diners to quickly and easily compare prices.

3.Excessive adjectives - Broiled Gulf shrimp served on a bed of creamy Alfredo pasta. Sounds good, yes? What if the menu read: Shrimp on a bed of pasta. Yup. Less enticing. Watch out for the adjective traps when ordering.

4.Bacon - Why order a cheeseburger when you can get a bacon cheeseburger. What about a bacon wrapped pork loin? Sounds just a bit sexier than plain old pork loin. Bacon, according to Excelle, is a diner's buzz word for 2010. Watch out for it on menus this weekend. You'd be surprised how many dishes are coming with a little bacon these days.

5. Momma Mia - It's the easiest trap of all. We all fall for Momma's Meatloaf or Grandmother So-and-So's homemade pasta sauce. Why? We love comfort food. We love eating something that reminds of home and our loved ones. Take the Momma out of the mix, and you've likely got just plain old chicken fried steak.