The dish that sells other dishes.

People judge price relative to what is nearby rather than in absolute terms. A category where the first item is expensive makes the second and third look reasonable. Remove the expensive one and the same second item now looks like the expensive one. Nothing changed except the comparison.

An implausible price does not anchor, it reads as a mistake or as a restaurant taking liberties, and it damages trust in the whole menu. The premium item needs to be something a customer can imagine somebody ordering: a larger sharing dish, a better cut, a genuine speciality.

At or near the top of its category, where it is read first. On an online menu this matters more than on a printed one, because people scroll and often do not reach the bottom. Placing your anchor at the end of a long list means most customers never see it.

This is the part owners resist. A dish selling in small numbers can still be earning its place by shifting selection towards your higher-margin middle items. Judge it on category average spend rather than on its own unit sales, and do not cut it in a menu review purely because it is slow.

The effect is modest, and it is regularly oversold in marketing writing. It will not rescue a menu with the wrong prices, and it costs you a menu line and some stock. Use it as a small structural advantage rather than as a strategy.