Decision Making (or Why 12 People Don't Get Tapas)

[bennj]

Ryan, Lori's friend who is now working at Bridgewater Capital in Stamford, made a very interesting comment when we were sitting around ordering tapas. He said that when he went out with people from work, this process of collective ordering never happened. "Food just got ordered," he said. And it's funny, because it was what I was thinking but just

Comments

Curse you, now I want tapas!

[sithjawa]

I'm in favor of the 'nearest neighbors' (or 'who's with me?') style of ordering at places where dishes feed only a few people and the group is bigger. Either you and the people next to you decide on a dish to share (minimizing passing dishes across a 20-person table), or people take turns shouting "I want the Foo Platter. Who's with me?" until they have as many takers as the dish supports. If there are more takers than the dish supports, the other set orders their own.

At places where it comes out to around one dish per person to fill people up, it works if everyone orders the dish they want most (or says "hey, I'm interested in these three dishes, which one do you like?" if they're a bad decision-maker like me). That way everyone is guaranteed to have at least one dish they like on the table (which is good for maximizers). At places like Buca, where size of dish > food for one person, 2(small)-4(large) people need to agree on a dish, and if they're all maximizers this can be tricky, admittedly. (also bad is when there are 3 people, 2 want one dish that the third can't eat, and dishes server 2-4 people! This happens to me a lot because I go out to 3-person dinners frequently and I can't stand spicy food.)