The Sneaky Reason Restaurants Might Give You Free Bread

Getting a bread basket at a restaurant is so common that you might wonder if something's amiss if you don't see warm, pillowy rolls at your table soon after you sit down. While many attribute it as a simple courtesy or generous gesture on the restaurant's part, there's a lot more behind why that free bread, butter patty, and maybe some olive oil and balsamico are quickly placed before diners. In fact, most of us probably have a favorite restaurant or two that is famous for exceptional bread baskets. Eateries like NYC's Quality Bistro and the Michelin-starred Moss restaurant in Iceland actually charge money for their exceptional bread-butter service.

Diving into a bread basket as you wait for your meal works for multiple reasons — for the restaurant and, to an extent, for the diner. It also provides the restaurant with a little leeway in how long they take to bring you your order. While showing the restaurant's bread-baking prowess and giving hungry guests something to munch on are all good reasons, bread can also potentially increase appetite by increasing your blood glucose levels. This means the free bread basket may actually get you to order more food at the restaurant. Of course, some may say that filling up on bread would have the opposite effect, but look closer and you'll see that it's very unlikely for a restaurant to have a free bread basket with high fiber, whole grain bread. Instead, it will almost always be fluffy, crusty white bread.

Interestingly, while satiating your hunger, bread can also have the opposite effect, which is what many restaurants seemingly count on. The high carbohydrate content of bread means your body quickly breaks it down into sugar. Research (such as a 2000 study published in Nutrition Reviews) suggests that a quick rise in blood sugar levels — such as the kind caused by eating bread — can result in increased hunger and may even prime you to overeat. For the restaurant, it means you will possibly end up ordering more food.

While eating white bread could make you feel briefly satisfied, high carbohydrate foods may make you quickly feel hungry again. You may also notice that there will be fewer options for whole wheat or any other form of bread with high fiber or protein, so you're unlikely to see something like a delicious cottage cheese flatbread in there. That may be because these types of breads will actually fill you up and keep you satiated for a long time, potentially making you order less.

Finally, a delicious bread basket, while making you even more peckish, is also a great way for the restaurant to show off its culinary prowess. Despite its simplicity, a well-done bread basket can speak volumes about how good a restaurant's food could be, so the free bread could also get you to trust the restaurant and therefore order more daringly from the menu.