Roberto Ferman writes that most eateries would prefer you skipped the sweet dish:

• While diners are willing to pay $20-$30 for entrees, they are rarely willing to pay even close to that amount for dessert.
• Yet desserts require the same high quality ingredients as other entries on the menu, driving margins down.
• Dining establishments also have to hire a specialist pastry chef and reserve space in the kitchen to serve you pudding.
• Some restaurants have given up on serving their own desserts and instead just outsource it to third party companies.
• But this doesn’t solve the problem of diners hanging around, preventing the next set of paying customers from getting a table.

Read why restaurants want to encourage the consumption of dessert wines, why Yelp means that the dessert menu lives on, and more over here.

Source: The Washington Post