Question 1

What is menu intelligence?

Accepted Answer

Menu intelligence is the systematic collection and analysis of what food businesses offer and charge — menu items, categories, portions and prices — and how they change over time across a market or competitive set. DishMark builds it from the venue's own public menus.

Question 2

What is restaurant pricing intelligence?

Accepted Answer

Pricing intelligence turns observed menu prices into decisions: your competitive price position, over- and under-priced items, regional pricing differences and menu price inflation. Every DishMark price carries a date, portion, source page and evidence snippet.

Question 3

How does DishMark monitor competitor menus and prices?

Accepted Answer

You define a geography (towns, counties or postcode districts), venue types and cuisines. DishMark discovers the establishments, locates their websites, reads the public menus, extracts every priced item and repeats on your schedule so price changes, new items and removed items are detected automatically.

Question 4

Where does the venue data come from?

Accepted Answer

Establishments come from the Food Standards Agency hygiene register, published under the Open Government Licence. Venue websites are located via Google Places. OpenStreetMap is used only as a separate mapping layer.

Question 5

How is menu data collected — is it legal?

Accepted Answer

Menus are read from each venue's own public pages with robots.txt respected. We record factual fields (item, portion, price, date, source) rather than copying menu designs or descriptions, and every figure keeps a short evidence snippet for audit.

Question 6

Do you guarantee every venue in an area?

Accepted Answer

No. We show observed coverage and data gaps honestly: discovered, checked, usable menus and priced items appear on every report. We never sell unverified comprehensive coverage.

Question 7

How often is the data updated?

Accepted Answer

As often as you choose: one-off, monthly or weekly. Every scheduled run re-checks known venues and performs fresh discovery. Historical prices are retained so you can see movement run after run.

Question 8

Can I benchmark my own menu prices?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Build a profile around your trading area and competitor set. The item breakdown shows min, median, quartiles and max for each dish and portion, with the venue count behind every number.

Question 9

Which dishes and cuisines are benchmarked?

Accepted Answer

Fish & chips, pub classics (Sunday roast, pies, burgers, steaks), Indian, Chinese, pizza, burger, kebab and café staples — plus every other priced item found on each menu.

Question 10

Can I track specific competitors?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Star venues in any report's venue directory to add them to your watchlist; after each run you are emailed if their prices, items or menu status changed.

Question 11

Can I compare pubs with restaurants and takeaways?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Filter by venue type, cuisine and service style, or include them all and compare price bands across venue types in the same area.

Question 12

Does DishMark cover the whole UK?

Accepted Answer

England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. Search by town, county, region, radius or postcode district (e.g. SK9, SK10).

Question 13

What do reports contain?

Accepted Answer

Coverage funnel, venue directory and map, commonly offered items with prevalence, price distribution and bands, item breakdown by dish family and portion, evidence for every price, and change tracking against the previous run.

Question 14

What formats do reports come in?

Accepted Answer

An interactive portal view, a formatted PDF, an Excel workbook and a machine-readable audit JSON, all generated from one immutable dataset per run.

Question 15

Can I share a report with colleagues?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Create a secure read-only link valid for 30 days; recipients can view and download without logging in.

Question 16

What are venue credits?

Accepted Answer

One credit is used per establishment checked in a run; half a credit for establishments whose website we already know. Plans include credits, top-ups are available and unused credits carry forward.

Question 17

What happens if I run out of credits?

Accepted Answer

A run checks as many venues as your balance allows and lists the rest as not checked. You are alerted at 10% and can enable automatic top-ups so scheduled runs never pause.

Question 18

How much does DishMark cost?

Accepted Answer

One-off reports from £99 and annual monthly or weekly monitoring plans by venue count are on the Pricing page. Larger territories and national coverage are quoted.

Question 19

Is there a free trial?

Accepted Answer

Yes — a free one-month trial with 100 venue credits and demo-mode reports. No card required.

Question 20

Can login, billing and report emails be different?

Accepted Answer

Yes — all three are fully independent. One report recipient is included; additional recipients are chargeable distribution licences.

Question 21

Do you infer allergens, popularity or sales?

Accepted Answer

No. Dietary claims are stored as sourced claims only; we never certify food safety, and we never infer demand or sales from menu frequency.

Question 22

How does DishMark compare with foodservice market-intelligence providers?

Accepted Answer

DishMark is specialised: UK menu intelligence and menu pricing, built from primary menu data with evidence for every figure and priced by venue count, rather than a broad footfall, promotions and location bundle.

Question 23

Can food manufacturers and suppliers use DishMark?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Manufacturers see item prevalence and price points for their category; wholesalers and distributors see operator menus and prices across their delivery territory.

Question 24

Is a venue's disappearance a closure?

Accepted Answer

No. Being newly seen is not newly opened, and disappearing from a run is not closure. Both are flagged as unconfirmed until re-checked.

Question 25

How are prices extracted?

Accepted Answer

AI reads the menu text and returns only prices explicitly present, each with a short evidence substring. Prices without evidence are discarded.

Question 26

Can I export the data into my own systems?

Accepted Answer

Yes — the Excel workbook and audit JSON contain every item, price, portion, venue and source URL.

Question 27

Is the pricing final?

Accepted Answer

Yes — the prices shown are our current launch prices, ex VAT, and are confirmed server-side at checkout.

Frequently asked