A guilty pleasure some of us have (and, we hope, some of you do, too) is reading through the entire menu at a restaurant or cafe, looking for odd slips, grammar mistakes, and hilarious Photoshop fails. You know, for r-research purposes of course (that was a lie, we enjoy feeling superior and poking fun at bsaic grremar mstakess and anyone who thinks that Photoshop is an actual store).

Some menus, however, are so incredibly bad, so magnificently funny that people couldn’t help but take a picture and share it online for everyone to shame! Shame! Shame! The Photoshop and grammar-loving team at Bored Panda has collected this list of the most egregious menu fails to raise your mood, so have a scroll through and upvote the best of the worst.

And remember, folks, to paraphrase our glorious culinary leader Gordon Ramsay, if the menu has pictures in it, it’s time to start panicking!

Bored Panda talked about editing, proofreading, and kerning (aka the spacing between letters) issues in restaurant menus with Lisa McLendon, the News and Information Track Chair at the University of Kansas and the Bremner Editing Center Coordinator. Read on for her insights and, if you happen to be working on a menu right now, her advice on how to best present the text so its readable, clear, and doesn’t cause embarrassing misunderstandings.

#1 The Sushi Restaurant, That I Went To, Accidentally Put A Picture Of USB Sushi On Their Menu

Image credits: PainOnTap

#2 It’s On Their Menu

Image credits: elliotclay76

#3 Translated The Menu, Boss

Image credits: TheHelgon

“Word placement, typeface, and kerning are crucial for effective, professional-looking logos and layouts,” McLendon from the University of Kansas said. “If it’s just a few words, all-caps is fine, but it’s harder for people to read longer blocks of text in all caps. It’s also harder for people to read italic or highly stylized type, or type along a curve instead of a line.”

She explained to Bored Panda that if you’re working with words that are stacked or circled, you ought to look for all the various ways in which they could be misread or read out of order. “Make sure the starting point for readers is as clear as it can be,” she said.

Meanwhile, if the kerning is too tight, the letters could run together and create some incredibly embarrassing misreadings. (Side-note: remember that if you ever write the word ‘flickering’ in capitals and don’t want things to get out of hand fast.)

#4 The Peas Are Upside Down

Image credits: Epidemiologic

#5 This Busy Ice Cream Shop In Seattle Put Their Menu On A Mirror So It’s Impossible To Read

Image credits: cwithersk12s

#6 This Menu

Image credits: TehJimmy

McLendon said that, in her opinion, we should all give the people working on restaurant menus a break. “Especially if they’re not native speakers because their job is food, not language,” she said about those employees who are asked to work on the menus because of budgeting issues.

“That said, a particularly awful or amusing typo can make a business go viral in a negative way—not something any business wants. The easiest thing is obvious, but many people forget to do it: run a spell-check. Spell-check will catch any typo that is a misspelling (most typos on restaurant menus are). But spell-check won’t catch typos that result in a word that is still a word, just not the word you want.”

The solution? McLendon suggests having someone else proofread the menu text before sending it off for printing. “Some printing companies provide this service, plus there are freelance editors who do proofreading, and I’ve also heard of small businesses swapping services for work like proofreading.”

#7 This Picture Isn’t Blurry, That’s How The Menu Looks

Image credits: Metro_Mutt

#8 This Restaurant Wraps Their Menu Around A Wooden Stick. There Was Absolutely No Explanation Or Purpose To It

Image credits: jookz

#9 My Friend Is In Florence, Italy And This Restaurant He’s At Has An Assassins Creed Screenshot As Their Menu Background

Image credits: Hicklebonk

Menus with pictures in them generally indicate that the place you’re eating at is a little bit on the cheap side. (If they’re laminated, get out of there, quick! Gordon Ramsay has a point, after all.)

Now, there’s nothing wrong with eating cheap food once in a while—who doesn’t enjoy a cheeky curry or a guilt-free kebab in the middle of the night when we’re peckish? But there’s something to be said for glancing a bit deeper into unchanging menus with low-quality pictures in them.

#10 Top-Notch Photoshop On This Greek Menu

Image credits: 8-moebius-8

#11 I Honestly Don’t Know What To Look At

Image credits: ChrFaz

#12 This Menu That Seems To Be Upside Down At First Look

Image credits: jrdiesel76

However you might want to slice things (pun not intended), menus with pictures indicate that the owners of your chosen eatery aren’t investing a lot of money into the business, the staff, or the food. While this isn’t an automatic death sentence (plenty of businesses care about their employees, though, then again, plenty also don’t), it does mean that the quality of the food might be low.

Frozen, canned, and processed food is the norm. And if saving’s the main goal, you can bet your bottom dollar that leftovers will be reheated in microwaves and brought to you as though it was all fresh.

#13 An Online Menu For A Restaurant I Was Considering Eating At

Image credits: Komalandorinha

#14 Subway Salad Menu

Image credits: kiloparamedic

#15 This Salad Section On The Menu At The Pub

Image credits: TranslucentTaco

Meanwhile, if the staff aren’t paid enough or motivated in some other way to act professionally, hygiene standards can drop. This can mean that the weirdly-photoshopped burger meal you’re laughing your head off at while flipping through the menu is an indication of low standards and nasty things crawling all over the kitchen.

What’s more, even if by some miracle the pics in the menu look terrific, there lies another problem: what you see and what you’re bound to get can be two completely different things. That’s why, personally, we’re in favor of small menus that only have words on them. If in doubt, you can always ask your server about each meal and they’ll be glad to tell you all about them.

#16 This Was The Image Of Choice For An Ice Cream Menu In Austria

Image credits: PM_ME_YOUR_BO0BIEZ

#17 This Is What I Found On The Menu Of A Pizzeria

Image credits: zertyheg

#18 This Menu

Image credits: AC_Schnitzel

#19 The Peas On This Menu Photo Are Photoshopped In

Image credits: andrewnacho

#20 This Restaurant Pirated The Pirate Bay Torrent Site Logo For Their Menu

Image credits: neurotran

#21 This Seductive Duck I Found On A Menu In Vietnam, Complete With An Excellent Typo

Image credits: ldotchopz

Small and clear menus don’t mean simple and boring! If it’s readable, approachable, and user-friendly, your clients are more likely to get to the meat of things (literally, if they’re not vegan) and leave a healthy-sized tip.

#22 This “Plane” On My Airline Menu

Image credits: slaytanic667

#23 This Cocktail Menu

Image credits: Sawgywaffles

#24 “You’ll Need To Use The Flashlight On Your Phone To Read The Menu” – Waitress

Image credits: account_user_name

#25 I’m Impressed That This Thai Menu Has Text Cropping Both Over And Under The Image

Image credits: HELLO_I_AM_THE_BEAR

#26 This Restaurant Menu

Image credits: Lama_Bacon

#27 This Menu Even Has Pictures Of Their Drinks. Just In Case You Forgot What Diet Pepsi Looks Like

Image credits: tribbing1337

#28 French Restaurant Menu

Image credits: truffs1010

#29 Anyone Want Some Thai Food?

Image credits: ItsAllenPalin

#30 Seen At A Restaurant In A 5-Star Hotel In Los Angeles

Image credits: imgur.com

Which menu fail was your favorite and why, dear Pandas? Why do you think so many menus out there have such basic mistakes? Do you think that menus with pictures automatically mean bad food? What’s the worst menu you’ve personally encountered when you could eat in, not just take food to go? We can’t wait to read what you think in the comment section!

#31 Checked Out This Restaurant’s Online Menu. I Think I’ll Go Somewhere Else

Image credits: idontevenknow8888

#32 Tex… What?

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#33 Everything About This Menu

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#34 This Coffee Shop Overhead Menu Gave Me A Headache

Image credits: AGMarasco

#35 When You Want The Whole Menu Presented On A Flag

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#36 The Motherlode Of The 90s Nightmares

Image credits: jakeninja

#37 What If The Restaurant’s Name Is “Sample Text”?

Image credits: reddit.com

#38 Here’s A Menu I Found Online While Looking For Somewhere To Eat

Image credits: scubathomas

#39 This Menu On A Mirror Is Impossible To Read

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#40 Everything About This Menu

Image credits: UncrunchyTaco

#41 Got Those Drinks On The Menu, Boss

Image credits: Plasmabot1

#42 This Restaurant’s Logo That Looks Like A Health Grade

Image credits: drobinow

#43 This Menu Looks Upside Down At First Glance

Image credits: Cerberus73

#44 Menu At A Local Restaurant

Image credits: Zargaith94

#45 This Menu At Cereal Killer Cafe, London

Image credits: TazmanianDevi1

#46 Clearly Missing The Point Of A Digital Menu

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#47 Finished Setting The Menu Prices, Boss

Image credits: I_Hate_I-35

#48 Put Up The Menu, Boss

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#49 No, This Picture Isn’t Blurry. The Menu Is

Image credits: xXxM0RPH3USxXx

#50 Menu At Local Restaurant

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#51 Stopped Outside The Restaurant To Read The Menu. Left After 10 Seconds Of Being Unable To Read Past The Dotted Overlay

Image credits: down_vote_magnet

#52 This Menu Has 1 Item Per Page Which Makes It 100+ Pages Long

Image credits: Warheadd

#53 This Menu

Image credits: jokob

#54 The Background On The Menu Looks Like Its Covered In Dirt

Image credits: hello11hello11hello

#55 The Misuse Of Capital Letters On This Menu

Image credits: salandersdragon

#56 This Menu Art Has Shutterstock Watermarks On It

Image credits: TheOGBombfish

#57 Why. So. Much. Fonts (A Restaurant Menu)

Image credits: Weixles

#58 This Menu. Pepperoni Pizza Background And Red Lettering

Image credits: DrMaxUrban

#59 “Menu” At For Our School

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#60 Put Up The Menu Boss

Image credits: ZoidSpam

#61 Wrote The Menu, Boss

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#62 This Menu

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#63 When You Copy-Paste Your Menu Content From Wikipedia … Complete With Footnotes.

Image credits: Gtapex

#64 I Put Up The Menu, Boss

Image credits: CrazyRedReddit

#65 This Mexican Restaurant’s Menu

Image credits: alyrams

#66 They Updated The Menu, So Now It’s Black Font On Black Screen

Image credits: zackzook

#67 Pizza Looks Terrified Of Its Own Menu

Image credits: Idoubledippedthechip

#68 This Image Of Grilled Chicken Salad In This Menu

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#69 “Third Scoop? I Asked For A Double”

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#70 The Tacos On The Cover Of This Menu Aren’t Actually On The Menu

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#71 The Numbers On This Menu

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#72 I Want To Redesign Their Menu So Badly

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#73 Ah Yes, I Absolutely Love When I Can Barely Read My Menus

Image credits: -Toaster—

#74 This Weird Font Choice On This Restaurant Menu

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#75 Not Sure Wether I‘M At A Restaurant Or A Gay Bar

Image credits: reddit.com

#76 This Menu

Image credits: uMadFam

#77 Went To A Restaurant And This Is The Kid’s Menu, The Sun Blocks 1/2 Of It

Image credits: stevie5104

#78 The Alignment Of The Prices On This Menu

Image credits: Bringypurbroom

#79 Was Really Digging This Restaurant Menu Until I Saw The Top And Bottom Borders

Image credits: whiskey-monk

#80 I Love Eating At Restaurant Logo Here

Image credits: reddit.com

#81 This Abomination Of A Menu

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#82 I Am Currently In Florida At A Filipino Restaurant. I Found This On The Menu While I Was There

Image credits: ChubbzyBoi

#83 The Font On This Menu

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#84 This Restaurant Uses Watermarked Stock Photos On Their Menu

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#85 The Font On This Restaurant Menu. Took Me Forever To Read It

Image credits: AkiraDeathStar

#86 This Menu Can’t Decide How To Write How Many People It Serves

Image credits: Majestic_Ac0rn

#87 When You Ask The New Guy To Change The Sign In The Menu Board

Image credits: joko91

#88 Saw This On A Diner Menu

Image credits: lostinthesnow

#89 A Wall Covered Half Of The Menu Screen, And All Of The Menus On The Screens Had Incredibly Tiny Text Making It Hard To See

Image credits: hipiek354

#90 Someone Left The Shutterstock Watermark On An Image Of Beans For A Menu

Image credits: Mojoblackwhite

#91 Transparent Picture At A Restaurant

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#92 A Menu From When I Was In Thailand

Image credits: dreamerbeliever

#93 The Photo Of The Curry On This Menu Looks Upside Down

Image credits: down_vote_magnet

#94 The Size Of The Font On This Restaurants Menu

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#95 The Last Word You Want To Be On A Menu

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#96 This Menu Background

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#97 Yes, I Will Have The Chicken Fingers From Sandwich Menu

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#98 Burger King Menu Got Fried

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#99 I Always Have To Borrow Someone’s Phone To See The Menu Ever Since Covid

Image credits: DrChurch2018

#100 Added Peppers In The Menu Photo Boss

Image credits: aaronrandango2

#101 Finished Designing The Menu Boss

Image credits: vvribeiro

#102 One Of My Favorite Restaurants. I Hate To Put Them On Blast, But This Is Too Good Not To Share. The Restaurant Is Called “Let’s Do Greek!”

Image credits: reddit.com

#103 The Lighting On These Menus

Image credits: reddit.com

#104 These Tilted Menus

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#105 I’ll Have What’s On The Fish Menu

Image credits: ButWouldYouRather

#106 This Single-Spaced Menu

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#107 Crappy Menu Design At One Of My Favorite Indian Restaurants

Image credits: ydnarim

#108 This Misaligned Menu At A Local Restaurant

Image credits: ZwnD

#109 The Heading Of This Dessert Menu

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#110 The Dots On The Corners Of This Menu Section

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#111 Menu Board Installed Boss

Image credits: Not_80hd

#112 Clearly Missing The Point Of A Digital Menu

Image credits: reddit.com

#113 The Restaurant I Went To Plastered Their Logo All Over The Descriptions

Image credits: reddit.com

Source: boredpanda.com