Chicago-based Mintel's Menu Insights (www.menuinsights.com) menu tracking database offers rich research capabilities to culinary and marketing types alike. The company's ongoing compilation of menu data from 550 restaurants--which includes the top 350 chain operators, 150 innovative independents and the top 50 independent chefs--tracks current and historical menu data and offers a user-friendly but robust tool to create customized charts, graphs and reports based on the latest menu data.
We all know that a database is only as good as the information it contains. To Mintel's credit, a perpetual effort by a dedicated Menu team at Mintel's headquarters in Chicago is constantly capturing the most recent menu data--from pricing to parmesan--and is specially trained to classify applications with great detail.