I'm curious how common seeing a photo of a dish at a restaurant will sway one over just a textual description. I find I go to a place for one particular dish that I fell in love with, yet hesitate to try something new.

I tend to eat the same things over and over, however, photos have exposed me to dishes I wouldn't have thought to try based on name alone but that visually fit some of my criteria for awesomeness: Ball shaped? Pancake shaped? Squishy? Noodly?

HEH. Generally the food pictures I see just gross me out. I think most restaurants just have bad food photography or maybe I'm just eating at the wrong places.

In my mind something left to the imagination is better cause the dish will never look the exact same as when it comes out.

It would be interesting to see how decisions would change based on seing ratings of food items.

Every single time I've attempted a new meal, it's because there was a photo available.

I really wish restaurants would have a handy iPad/Nexus 7 available so I can actually see what something looks like. A photo gives me greater confidence in my selection. Without one, choosing something new feels like a stab in the dark, and I often settle for certainty (ordering the same thing every time) over the risk of paying money for something I could end up disliking.

I also tend to go to the "pics" page, but sometimes I've made the effort to "imagine" the textual description - I construct in my mind the flavors and taste, not the visual setting of the dish.

For example, once I ordered a Black Clam Risotto here in Peru, without knowing the dish's appearance. When I saw it, I was horrored - the rice was purple-black... but then I tasted and it is one of the best risotto I've eaten.

I've also seen local restaurants that only write down 3 or 4 ingredients, no pics - the client has to "imagine" the flavor mix. Nice.

There are two factors at play here: one is the additional visual stimuli provided by pictures of a meal, and other is the flat out poor description of many food items in restaurants.

I think that as generally visual creatures, people have a tendency to have a stronger connection to, not to mention build trust with, with something or someone based on visual assurance rather than a verbal description. Whether it's working with someone or making a product purchase, both trust based decisions; who among us would make a decision completely sight unseen?

Visual confirmation always changes intention to engage, positively or negatively. A dish you haven't tried at a restaurant is no different, imo.

Food pictures are incredibly tough — especially prepared food. With that said, I find that ethnic cuisine benefits from photos — perhaps because of my own ignorance. I found that photo-centric sushi photos helped guide me through the learning process to discover what I enjoyed and, eventually, what I didn't.

I think that pictures help me decide, especially when (1) I'm not familiar with the food (e.g. a different-culture restaurant, like Asian or Latin or whatever), or (2) I've eaten at a similar kind of restaurant, but this one has different names for certain dishes. If I'm in a typical burger joint, the pictures are probably just background that make me feel better about the restaurant - the more "professional" the pictures, the more upscale the restaurant probably seems, or it might communicate a "theme" feeling to me and enhance the experience.

You don't "imagine" flavours?

I bet many of us do imagine flavors, some with more "resolution" to the imagining than others. But I'd guess it would be hard to accurately imagine the flavor of a dish you've never tried before.

(might in fact make you less experimental than more?)

Absolutely because you're involving more of the senses, but consider that the inverse could be true as well - you may become more experimental if you CAN'T see the food. Take a look at sf.darkdining.com for example. Sensory [sight] deprivation for the sake of enjoying the food.

From their site--

"Just imagine, that you can not see for an hour or two, that you are abandoning vision in exchange for a new, multi-sensual dining experience. Opaque is enhancing our sense of taste, smell, touch, and hearing by abandoning one that we often take for granted – this is 'Dining in the Dark'."

photos can help us imagine flavours and its pleasure!?

yeah but not all dishes come with photos... and in top restaurants, there's no photos at all.

you just rely on other people's recommendations or... your own sense!

In the UK, the tradition is for written descriptions. Sensual language is often used to excite the palate. Even for Macdonalds! Prime time UK TV show cookery travel progammes, so we get a lot opportunity to "see" different cuisines. Photos tend to be for take away (take out) restaurants here.

It seems that photos can be as good as bad. It depends on the observer. I'd rather prefer to read a full description of the dish than a photo. Knowing the ingredients is enough to know if I'd like it.
Anyway, better than a photo is to take a walk (if possible) in the restaurant and look other commensals dishes. Photos may be or too bad or to much photoshoped :-)

In Lima there's a restaurant called "Central". It's very exquisite and gourmet. Look at its menu: cropped pics and a haiku-ish description. Very artistic.

Hope it makes an input...

As a rule of thumb I tend to avoid restaurants that have photos on their actual menus as they usually end up sucking. However I do think that if decent restaurants actually started doing that then it would make me more adventurous in what I eat. Where possible I always try to check out what people on other tables are eating before ordering.

The thing that interest me is when they post the food AND the environment of the restaurant. If the environment is good then, yes, I'd like to try it, otherwise if it's just the food it would be less appealing to me. There were some exceptions, though, as when my photographer friend presents the food with a better composition which makes it more interesting.

There are many times where pictures of food made me want to go to a certain place to try it out. It makes good reference if we can compile it together and when we go there we can see what our friends ate previously. However I do prefer visual indication supplied by FRIENDS. Text on the menu is not really helping me decide as I go to familiar items more rather than something new.

My encounters with printed / laminated menus tend to be in high tourist areas full of tacky restaurants so my association with seeing the image on the menu is not great.

However, seeing food in apps like foodspotting.com inspires me to try new things or find out what I really fancy at that time.

Equally, seeing well presented photos in somewhere like McDonalds does make a difference. In the end, it's down to how good you can make a dish look as to whether I'll try it over my regular choice.

I naturally experiment when I cook but (good) food photography helps give me ideas in terms of ingredients, prep methods and primarily presentation. My wife had me start a food blog this year and according to the feedback I know that others have taken some of the ideas and run with it, then it turn fed them back to me (improvements, where did they go wrong, etc).

I so agree with @equartey - restaurants need a way to actually show you what the dish looks like because a good sounding dish can be ruined by bad presentation and vice versa.

As a "restaurateur" of a family restaurant, we include photos of our items in the menu and on the website. The photos are actual dishes that went out to guests, but they are high resolution and close up.
When we post the photos to social networks, we hear from our customers who say "the photo you put on facebook made my mouth water, so we all came here for lunch...". So we know our guests connect with the photos more than words and I would say that in some cases, they try things out of their regular preferences because of the photo. I would also agree with Majo Vargas Bianchi [@mjvb] that high end restaurants should probably disregard a photo menu, however, they should show them on their website for guest education & reach.

I'm really motivated by the visual . . . I'm that obnoxious person that will ask a server, "What is that?" If I see a dish that looks particularly scrumptious on it's way from the kitchen. I do read a menu, and I enjoy a description . . . but, I the visual often cinches the deal, for me.