A Dallas restaurant found itself at the center of an online debate about dining prices after a social media post that never actually named the restaurant went viral.
It started when Dallas media personality Roni Proter posted a video questioning the prices she encountered at a small restaurant in Old East Dallas. She didn’t identify the business but described prices that included a two-scallop dish for roughly $30 and an entree priced at more than $70.
Then, the restaurant decided to enter the conversation.
Critically acclaimed Olōyō responded to Proter’s post, defending its pricing by pointing to the quality and sourcing of its ingredients and its support of local farmers. The comment was subsequently deleted, but not before it drew considerably more attention to the restaurant. The back and forth quickly became something of a Dallas dining soap opera.
But underneath the social media drama is a more substantive question at a particularly challenging moment for the restaurant industry. What constitutes value when dining out?
Freelance food writer Desiree Gutierrez, who wrote about the back-and-forth for the Dallas Observer, joined us on NTX Now to talk about the controversy and the broader questions it raises.
Gutierrez said she initially dismissed the online debate as another fleeting viral moment. That changed when she looked more closely at the restaurant and its prices. “I think that that’s like where this conversation is really, what is value?” Gutierrez said. “What are consumers in Dallas seeing in value right now?”
It’s an increasingly important question as restaurants contend with higher costs for food, labor and virtually everything else required to keep their doors open. At the same time, consumers facing their own higher expenses are becoming more selective about when and where they spend money dining out.
Restaurants are free to charge what they believe their food and experience are worth. Diners are equally free to decide if the experience isn’t worth the price.
Gutierrez said the disconnect becomes particularly noticeable when prices at one restaurant are dramatically higher than those at comparable establishments.
The controversy also prompted another question surrounding Mexican food, a cuisine that has historically been associated by some American diners with inexpensive meals, even as chefs increasingly showcase it in ambitious fine-dining restaurants.
Gutierrez doesn’t believe fine-dining Mexican cuisine itself explains the reaction.
She pointed to restaurants in Dallas-Fort Worth that have already demonstrated there is a market for upscale Mexican dining. In her view, the issue wasn’t whether diners would pay fine-dining prices for Mexican food, but how Olōyō’s prices compared with restaurants offering a similar level of cuisine and experience. One comparison particularly stood out.
Gutierrez said her research found a carne asada dish priced around $64 at Michelin-recommended Mexican fine-dining restaurants, compared with a price of roughly $140 at Olōyō.
There is also evidence that the restaurant itself may have been reassessing the equation. While researching the story, Gutierrez discovered a more recent Olōyō menu showing prices approximately 30 percent lower than those offered when the restaurant opened. “When you have a 30 percent drop from your opening prices to now, that’s not because you felt like dropping your prices 30 percent,” Gutierrez said.
To her, the change suggested that the conversation about price and value may already have been taking place inside the restaurant before it erupted publicly online.
Olōyō declined Gutierrez’s request for additional comment. The restaurant has also announced plans for a second concept, described as a more casual, street food-style restaurant. Another development Gutierrez said she’ll be watching as the owners determine where that concept lands on price.
Then there is the question of whether the controversy could ultimately help Olōyō, which received a recommendation from Michelin earlier this week.
Proter didn’t name the restaurant in her original video, and some of the details she cited weren’t exact. But people familiar with the Dallas dining scene quickly figured out which restaurant she was talking about. “For people to immediately know who she’s talking about,” Gutierrez said, “that says something in itself.”
Olōyō’s response removed whatever mystery remained and exposed the restaurant to an audience that might otherwise never have heard of it. Some of those people may now look at the menu, see the reduced prices, and decide to try it for themselves.
Whether that happens remains to be seen. But the episode illustrates the increasingly complicated relationship between restaurants and their customers.
Restaurants can make a compelling case for higher prices, like better ingredients, local sourcing, fair wages, talented chefs, and the considerable cost of creating an experience around a meal. Those things have value.
But value isn’t determined by the restaurant alone. It’s ultimately a negotiation with the diner. And at a time when restaurants are struggling and consumers are watching their spending more closely, the distance between what something costs and what customers believe it’s worth may matter more than ever.
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