Price Discrimination at a Chinese Restaurant

A Chinese restaurant in New York City has a special menu for customers who can read Chinese. (HT Other Side of Kim.) The prices on this menu are a little lower than those on the restaurant's English menu. Naturally, a NYC government body has decided to investigate this discrimination.

My guess is that Chinese customers have a relatively large knowledge of the quality and location of different Chinese food restaurants. While a white customer might pick a Chinese restaurant at random, a Chinese customer will make a more informed choice. As a result, the Chinese customers are on average more price sensitive. Consequently, it's rational for the restaurant to charge its Chinese reading customers less.

Once while in graduate school in Chicago I went to a Chinese restaurant with several friends including one Chinese woman. This woman was given a separate menu. She was also told (in Chinese) that the menu the rest of us were given was for foreigners.