1001 Entries on Tavern Menus [Archive] - Wizards Community

1001 Entries on Tavern Menus [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
maestro_takatak
05-22-05, 12:26 AM My players seem to be dissatisfied when I tell them that the menu in the local tavern reads: "Poor Meal (1 sp), Common Meal (3 sp), Good Meal (5 sp)". And really, who can blame them.

So what I'm hoping is that the kind denizens of the D&D messageboards can help me out by giving me some nice meal descriptions with corresponding prices.

Thanks in advance.
Flushmaster
05-22-05, 01:33 AM First, the term for a main course is "entree" (pronounced "on-tray"), not "entrie."

The PHB describes a cheap/poor meal as something like bread, water, and boiled turnips (yuck), middle range ones as a decent chicken stew ("easy on the chicken"), while a particularly good one (the 5sp one) including the likes of beef, ham, high quality bread, some decent wine, and maybe some pastries for desert.

Of course, you could get creative. The cheap option on the menu could be "surprise soup" or "meat surprise." If your characters ask what the surprise it is, the bartender/waitress could say it changes from day to day. What is it today? You don't want to know, especially not if you plan on ordering it.

Alternatively, cheap meals could be stuff like thin barley soup, a loaf of day old bread, or whatever the chef ran over with his cart on the way to work today.

"Moderate" or "average" meals would often be some kind of decent soup or stew, the type that they can make a really big pot of easily in the morning and have it be easily available and cooked by lunchtime to ladle into bowls. It would likely include a healthy mix of vegetables like beans, carrots, chunks of potatoes, maybe some barley or other grains to thicken it up, and a little bit of meat, be it beef, chicken, pork, or whatever livestock is readily available (quite possibly fish in a city near an ocean or other large body of water). You might include a stein of beer or ale to go with this.

High end meals would be the kind that mideval nobility normaly ate. Large servings of meat as the centerpiece with beef, chicken, and ham being common but also "game" meat such as venison (deer meat), fish ("finer" types like salmon, perch, etc), or gamebirds (pheasant, grouse, turkey, duck, etc). On the side would likely be various vegetables (likely seasoned or spiced in some way that the "average" meal patron doesn't get) and maybe something else like particualrly good rolls, maybe some fried mushrooms, a slice of pie, etc. Basically anything that is specifically made to order. A glass of decent wine (not "the good stuff" but probably the best that most taverns carry) or maybe some particularly high quality ale would be the beverage here.

If you want to get really fancy, some more upscale establishments might offer more exotic fare for customers with a bigger budget. Displacer beast steak, dinosaur ribs, fried giant fungus and assasin vines, howler roast, or kraken sushi, perhaps? Such meals would obviously not be served with anything but the finest wines and ales, and all of the main courses would be acquired by nonstandard means (perhaps an adventure hook for a lower level party, go hunting for our food!) so prices would be a bit steep compared to anything that the average commoner would eat. I'd say such meals would cost anything from 5 to 10 gp on average (more than most commoners make in a month or two) but some particularly "special" dishes might go as high as 50gp or more. Any restaurant the deals in such cuisine should be in a larger city where wealthy individuals are more numerous (otherwise they wouldn't get many customers), such as nobility, particualrly successful merchants and guild leaders, as well as the occasional wealthy adventurer passing through (in fact, afformentioned nobility, guildmasters, and merchants might meet with adventurers they are considering hiring for a job in such a place, just to show off their wealth and status). If an adventurer shows up with a fresh carcass of some strenge critter they killed on their way to town, the chef would likely be willing to cook it up for them as a special order, possibly at a discount if it is particularly large and they can keep whatever isn't needed for the adventurer's meal to serve to other customers (you could of course cook it yourself, but their chef is gonna be one of the best in the entire city and the ambience is a lot better than a camp along the road).
TheChilliGod
05-22-05, 01:38 AM 1) Soup of the Day: Mashed Tomato and Pumpkin Suprise-2sp
2) The "Usual": Beer and a lump of steak-1sp, 3cp
3) BLT Combo: Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato all between two bits of bread with potato and your choice of alcohol-5sp, 5cp
4) Snack 2 Go: A chicken leg and beer-1sp
5) Fancy Man's special: a small block of cheese, vegetable salad and a bottle of wine-7sp
6) The Blacksmith's Choice: slice of raw beef and ale-4sp, 5cp
7) Dwarven Deal: Pork ribs and dwarven ale-5sp
8) The Drinking Competition: As much dwarven ale as you can take-10gp
9) With my Wife/Husband: Steak for the sir, Potato and butter for the missus, glasses of water for both-6sp
10)Wizard's special: A small branch of parsley and a carrot, with water: 2sp

There's my lot!
Flushmaster
05-22-05, 02:07 AM 10)Wizard's special: A small branch of parsley and a carrot, with water: 2sp

Hey! You seem to be under the impression that wizards are little sissies that can't handle a real meal. More than a few of my previous characters would be quick to inform you that spellcasting requires a lot of energy and speeds up the metabolism. Bring on the steak, potatoes, and dark beer! And some nachos with really spicy salsa! That's the secret to making truly hot fireball spells!
Mike W
05-22-05, 02:12 AM 11) BnW special: A fabulous half-loaf of wholesome barley bread and a tureen of our special crystal-clear, mineral rich well-water.
Price: 1 sp, or with a hunk of home-made cheese for 4 cp more.

12) Tarrasque Eggs: A single Tarrasque Egg, any way you like it. Comes with bread, jam, juice, and honestly whatever else you want.
Price: Please do not ask - if you must, then you obviously cannot afford it.
(Come on! Why do you think there's only one? Those things have GOT to be delicacies!)

13) Borscht and Bread: A bowl of our thorp-famous beet and sour-cream soup, with a side of rye bread and potato vodka, 5sp. All the vodka you can drink for an extra 1 sp. Cart ride home: 5 sp.

14) Seefood Suprise: Give us 5cp - you'll be suprised to see food appear! Comes with water.

15) Trout Fillet: A trout steak, fresh from the river, cooked in lemon-butter sauce.

16) Soups: Tomato, Carrot, Beet, Turnip, Tomato-Beet, Turnip-Tomato, Carrot-Beet, Tomato-Carrot-Beet-Turninp, Chicken. 1 sp 2 cp/bowl

17) Breads: Rye, Wheat, Cracked Grain, Sourdough, Burnt. 2sp/loaf

18) Vegitarian special: Garden access and a bowl. 3sp.
Draconae
05-22-05, 02:19 AM Swale - Ale made with sewage water and manure. Popular with humanoids
Scorched liver - Straight from the dragon! (May cause heartburn)
Surprise Surprise! - Mwahahahah....
Centaur Brew - Grass and beer served in a horse hoof
Mime souffle - So long as you only pretend to eat it, you won't get charged
Santrilla
05-22-05, 07:28 AM Writing them in French is always fun!

23) Potage au lézard de l'électricité (or, shocker lizard soup- has a bit of a tang! :P )
24) Yeux de nain (dwarf eyes)
25) Ragoût au venin d'araignée (spider venom soup- mmm)

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
maestro_takatak 05-22-05, 12:26 AM	My players seem to be dissatisfied when I tell them that the menu in the local tavern reads: "Poor Meal (1 sp), Common Meal (3 sp), Good Meal (5 sp)". And really, who can blame them. So what I'm hoping is that the kind denizens of the D&D messageboards can help me out by giving me some nice meal descriptions with corresponding prices. Thanks in advance.
Flushmaster 05-22-05, 01:33 AM	First, the term for a main course is "entree" (pronounced "on-tray"), not "entrie." The PHB describes a cheap/poor meal as something like bread, water, and boiled turnips (yuck), middle range ones as a decent chicken stew ("easy on the chicken"), while a particularly good one (the 5sp one) including the likes of beef, ham, high quality bread, some decent wine, and maybe some pastries for desert. Of course, you could get creative. The cheap option on the menu could be "surprise soup" or "meat surprise." If your characters ask what the surprise it is, the bartender/waitress could say it changes from day to day. What is it today? You don't want to know, especially not if you plan on ordering it. Alternatively, cheap meals could be stuff like thin barley soup, a loaf of day old bread, or whatever the chef ran over with his cart on the way to work today. "Moderate" or "average" meals would often be some kind of decent soup or stew, the type that they can make a really big pot of easily in the morning and have it be easily available and cooked by lunchtime to ladle into bowls. It would likely include a healthy mix of vegetables like beans, carrots, chunks of potatoes, maybe some barley or other grains to thicken it up, and a little bit of meat, be it beef, chicken, pork, or whatever livestock is readily available (quite possibly fish in a city near an ocean or other large body of water). You might include a stein of beer or ale to go with this. High end meals would be the kind that mideval nobility normaly ate. Large servings of meat as the centerpiece with beef, chicken, and ham being common but also "game" meat such as venison (deer meat), fish ("finer" types like salmon, perch, etc), or gamebirds (pheasant, grouse, turkey, duck, etc). On the side would likely be various vegetables (likely seasoned or spiced in some way that the "average" meal patron doesn't get) and maybe something else like particualrly good rolls, maybe some fried mushrooms, a slice of pie, etc. Basically anything that is specifically made to order. A glass of decent wine (not "the good stuff" but probably the best that most taverns carry) or maybe some particularly high quality ale would be the beverage here. If you want to get really fancy, some more upscale establishments might offer more exotic fare for customers with a bigger budget. Displacer beast steak, dinosaur ribs, fried giant fungus and assasin vines, howler roast, or kraken sushi, perhaps? Such meals would obviously not be served with anything but the finest wines and ales, and all of the main courses would be acquired by nonstandard means (perhaps an adventure hook for a lower level party, go hunting for our food!) so prices would be a bit steep compared to anything that the average commoner would eat. I'd say such meals would cost anything from 5 to 10 gp on average (more than most commoners make in a month or two) but some particularly "special" dishes might go as high as 50gp or more. Any restaurant the deals in such cuisine should be in a larger city where wealthy individuals are more numerous (otherwise they wouldn't get many customers), such as nobility, particualrly successful merchants and guild leaders, as well as the occasional wealthy adventurer passing through (in fact, afformentioned nobility, guildmasters, and merchants might meet with adventurers they are considering hiring for a job in such a place, just to show off their wealth and status). If an adventurer shows up with a fresh carcass of some strenge critter they killed on their way to town, the chef would likely be willing to cook it up for them as a special order, possibly at a discount if it is particularly large and they can keep whatever isn't needed for the adventurer's meal to serve to other customers (you could of course cook it yourself, but their chef is gonna be one of the best in the entire city and the ambience is a lot better than a camp along the road).
TheChilliGod 05-22-05, 01:38 AM	1) Soup of the Day: Mashed Tomato and Pumpkin Suprise-2sp 2) The "Usual": Beer and a lump of steak-1sp, 3cp 3) BLT Combo: Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato all between two bits of bread with potato and your choice of alcohol-5sp, 5cp 4) Snack 2 Go: A chicken leg and beer-1sp 5) Fancy Man's special: a small block of cheese, vegetable salad and a bottle of wine-7sp 6) The Blacksmith's Choice: slice of raw beef and ale-4sp, 5cp 7) Dwarven Deal: Pork ribs and dwarven ale-5sp 8) The Drinking Competition: As much dwarven ale as you can take-10gp 9) With my Wife/Husband: Steak for the sir, Potato and butter for the missus, glasses of water for both-6sp 10)Wizard's special: A small branch of parsley and a carrot, with water: 2sp There's my lot!
Flushmaster 05-22-05, 02:07 AM	10)Wizard's special: A small branch of parsley and a carrot, with water: 2sp Hey! You seem to be under the impression that wizards are little sissies that can't handle a real meal. More than a few of my previous characters would be quick to inform you that spellcasting requires a lot of energy and speeds up the metabolism. Bring on the steak, potatoes, and dark beer! And some nachos with really spicy salsa! That's the secret to making truly hot fireball spells!
Mike W 05-22-05, 02:12 AM	11) BnW special: A fabulous half-loaf of wholesome barley bread and a tureen of our special crystal-clear, mineral rich well-water. Price: 1 sp, or with a hunk of home-made cheese for 4 cp more. 12) Tarrasque Eggs: A single Tarrasque Egg, any way you like it. Comes with bread, jam, juice, and honestly whatever else you want. Price: Please do not ask - if you must, then you obviously cannot afford it. (Come on! Why do you think there's only one? Those things have GOT to be delicacies!) 13) Borscht and Bread: A bowl of our thorp-famous beet and sour-cream soup, with a side of rye bread and potato vodka, 5sp. All the vodka you can drink for an extra 1 sp. Cart ride home: 5 sp. 14) Seefood Suprise: Give us 5cp - you'll be suprised to see food appear! Comes with water. 15) Trout Fillet: A trout steak, fresh from the river, cooked in lemon-butter sauce. 16) Soups: Tomato, Carrot, Beet, Turnip, Tomato-Beet, Turnip-Tomato, Carrot-Beet, Tomato-Carrot-Beet-Turninp, Chicken. 1 sp 2 cp/bowl 17) Breads: Rye, Wheat, Cracked Grain, Sourdough, Burnt. 2sp/loaf 18) Vegitarian special: Garden access and a bowl. 3sp.
Draconae 05-22-05, 02:19 AM	Swale - Ale made with sewage water and manure. Popular with humanoids Scorched liver - Straight from the dragon! (May cause heartburn) Surprise Surprise! - Mwahahahah.... Centaur Brew - Grass and beer served in a horse hoof Mime souffle - So long as you only pretend to eat it, you won't get charged
Santrilla 05-22-05, 07:28 AM	Writing them in French is always fun! 23) Potage au lézard de l'électricité (or, shocker lizard soup- has a bit of a tang! :P ) 24) Yeux de nain (dwarf eyes) 25) Ragoût au venin d'araignée (spider venom soup- mmm)