I discovered something weird at my neighborhood eatery
So I was checking out this place down the street from my house and noticed their menu has some really strange looking food photos. The images look too perfect and have that artificial feel to them. After looking closer, I’m pretty sure they’re using computer-generated pictures instead of real photos of their actual dishes.
Has anyone else run into this situation? I’m wondering if this is becoming a common practice now. Should I be concerned about ordering food when the pictures might not represent what they actually serve? The whole thing feels a bit misleading to me as a customer.
What would you do in this situation? Would you still eat there or look for somewhere else that uses authentic photos of their food?
This trend bugs me way more than it should. I’ve seen tons of chain restaurants pulling this same crap, and it sets you up for disappointment every time. You order expecting those perfect Instagram-worthy colors and plating, then they bring out something that looks nothing like the photo. What really pisses me off is the trust factor - if they’re faking food pics, what other corners are they cutting? Look, I get that professional photography costs money, but there are cheap ways to snap decent real photos now. I’ll still give a place one shot regardless of their photos, but if the actual food doesn’t even come close to what they showed me, I’m done. Taste and quality are what really count, but those misleading photos just start things off on the wrong foot.
Same thing happened to me at a sushi spot near work. Their photos looked way too glossy with weird lighting - turned out they were AI-generated because hiring a photographer cost too much.
I still ate there and the food was decent. Photos don’t matter if the restaurant can’t deliver on taste and quality. I’ve seen places with gorgeous real photos serve terrible food.
Now I just check recent Google or Yelp reviews with customer photos. Real people show you what actually shows up at your table. If there’s a huge gap between menu images and customer pics, I pass.
More small restaurants are doing this since good food photography costs a fortune. I don’t mind as long as they’re not lying about ingredients or portion sizes.
Just manage your expectations and check reviews before ordering.
I work in marketing and this practice is exploding across the industry. The software’s gotten crazy sophisticated - you can pump out photorealistic food images in minutes for practically nothing compared to hiring photographers and food stylists. What bugs me isn’t the fake photos themselves, but when restaurants don’t bother adjusting them to match what they actually serve. Some places are getting smarter though - they’ll generate appealing images that aren’t so perfect that real food can’t compete. My approach is simple now. I order one item on my first visit and see how close it matches the menu photo. If it’s reasonable, I’ll go back. If there’s a huge gap between the artificial perfection and what hits my table, I’m done with them. The real test isn’t the photos anyway - it’s whether they can consistently deliver good food at fair prices. But starting with dishonest marketing definitely puts them in the hole from day one.