The $115 Steak

High-end restaurants put a $115 wagyu steak at the top of the menu. Almost nobody orders it. That's the point. It makes the $42 ribeye directly below it feel like a reasonable choice. Without the wagyu anchor, that same ribeye feels expensive. With it, it feels like restraint.

Menu engineers call this a price anchor item. It's not there to generate revenue — it's there to recalibrate your sense of "normal" for every other item on the page. The second-most-expensive dish often carries one of the highest profit margins.