I would simply say the employee was ripping off ideas from the other restaurant's menus. We normally snoop or spy on people, not things. Here are my opinion of subtle differences: - "Snoop" has the sense of eavesdropping or listening in. - "Spy" has the sense of watching while eavesdropping. We pry into other people's business or affairs. Pry has the sense of to poke your nose into other people's business. (To pry does NOT mean to spy.)

Usually pry means to force something open. To snoop one something means to intrude on, so in this case someone was looking and searching through the phone. As far as the restaurant question goes I would say snoop.