What is dynamic pricing in restaurants?

The term carries baggage because customers associate it with surge pricing, and several brands have taken public criticism for hinting at demand-based increases. The versions that work in restaurants are the ones customers read as a deal rather than a penalty: discounting slow dayparts, channel-specific pricing that reflects real cost differences, and limited-time offers.

Before any brand gets to dynamic pricing, there is a more valuable and less risky question: whether its static prices are right in the first place. Item-level and store-level elasticity usually reveals far more recoverable margin in the base menu than daypart adjustments will, with none of the customer-perception risk.