Quick Summary: Running a successful restaurant involves carefully planning all customer-facing elements such as reception, seating areas, counters, entry points, websites, mobile apps, and especially restaurant menus. Since the menu is a direct revenue driver, we’ve shared essential tips and practical restaurant menu design ideas that you can apply while crafting or updating your menu. Let’s explore.
Are you managing a restaurant and looking for ways to improve customer experience? There are many aspects to consider, but the menu is often the first place to start. It acts as a silent salesperson. Whether online or in a physical restaurant, menus receive a lot of attention. Many restaurants prioritize unique restaurant menu design ideas to help stand out and offer a distinct customer experience.
Menus also serve as a core marketing tool. They communicate your brand personality and food identity to customers. Online or offline, it’s one of the most interactive elements that can influence a guest’s purchase decision. A well-designed, intuitive restaurant menu can significantly impact your sales.
Each restaurant’s menu will be unique based on its cuisine and offerings. However, successful menus tend to include a few essential elements. When you design or update your menu, consider including:
- Clear and tempting dish descriptions
- Categorized menu sections
- Restaurant logo and consistent branding
- Contact details like phone number, website, and social handles
- Font and layout that align with the overall restaurant identity
Menus for restaurants are much more than just a list of dishes and cuisines a restaurant offers. It is much more than that. As we said earlier, it is your best sales tool.
Firstly, they sell your products(food) while describing them well to the customers with food descriptions. Secondly, they also help promote your restaurant brand with the design elements. Thus, it is a powerful tool for restaurants to boost their brand visibility and sales. Thus, it is important to design your menu well.
Your restaurant menu design can act as your silent salesperson if strategically planned. A good menu is designed specifically to match the taste buds and budgets of different groups of guests. The menu should offer dishes for guests who can afford to spend more and those with less capacity. Thus, menus can boost sales and bring more visitors if used as a marketing tool.
A restaurant menu design is crucial, and you need to have various factors in mind when you design the menu. If you are creating a digital menu, you will have various options. For example;
- If you have implemented a restaurant management system, you will get a pre-designed restaurant menu that can be added, edited, deleted and updated according to your menu. You will have a customization option as well.
- You can get templates for restaurant menu design, which you can use for both online and offline purposes.
- Third, you can choose a custom restaurant menu design, in which you can put everything that a restaurant menu design should have. We have suggested some of the best tips that you can explore and implement if you find them helpful.
1 . Highlight the Most Profitable Dishes
Firstly, the menu design should be neat and clean. Guests must be able to read the food items clearly and navigate easily.
Secondly, you can design the menus for restaurants in a way that helps you sell your most profitable dishes more. According to a design rule called the golden triangle, people look at a page in a triangle pattern. Their eyes start in the centre, then move to the top right and top left.
If you keep the items you want to sell more at the centre or top of your menu, your guests will see them quickly.
2 . Menu Design should Match restaurant branding
The menu design should match your restaurant’s branding. You should use the same colour and typography for the menu you use on your restaurant website, mobile app, or social media.
If the branding is consistent, the visitors, regular customers, or first-time guests will immediately recognize the restaurant branding. For example, the branding should be consistent for a website, restaurant menu, flyer, or road sign.
3 . Photos -good or bad
High-quality food images have been a great tool that restaurants use to promote their food dishes. However, using food images in different menu styles and restaurants is tricky.
According to some studies, customers connect food photos on a physical menu with cheap food. Also, too many photos actually turn customers down. Conversely, food photos on digital menus boost online orders very much.
So, restaurant owners should be very mindful while using food images while designing different menus. In some cases, food images significantly help boost sales and customer attention. In other cases, avoiding adding images completely or adding just a few is good.
Have you clearly mentioned the runners in your restaurant menu?
“Runners” are the most popular and best-selling dishes of your restaurant. Successful restaurants always have a “star” dish on their food menu. These dishes are the runners that bring the most cash to the register.
Now the question comes: creating a star dish from the menu. Also, customers should clearly know it. Restaurants have to make it distinctive. A dish that has a unique taste and flavor, and it is the only one in the town; you have met your goal. Restaurants can raise the price for the star dish and earn maximum revenue.
Should I offer a wide variety of dishes on the restaurant menu?
Many restaurants try to fit as many dishes into the menu as possible, thinking of attracting higher sales. However, this is only true in some cases. Customers get confused to see a wide variety of options on the menu.
Offering a limited number of dishes can indicate quality rather than a mistake. Having a neat and clear menu helps position your restaurant better in the industry. In addition, if you have limited options to offer, you can maintain that unique taste consistently.
Many people worldwide are vegans, vegetarians, non-vegetarians, and diabetics. Also, some people are allergic to certain foods. It becomes difficult for such people to find anything to order in restaurants.
If you offer a special menu along with the menu for a group of guests, it can boost your sales much more. Customers like these special efforts made to keep them happy and satisfied, and thus, they tend to return or place orders more often. For instance, you can keep a special menu for kids or a happy hour menu to delight the guests in your restaurant.
You must understood that your restaurant menu can offer much more than just displaying food dishes. It is the most affordable way to attract higher traffic to your restaurant and boost sales as well. So, how can you maintain consistency while designing the restaurant menu successfully? It is possible with regular analysis and consistent changes in the menu.
Restaurants that regularly update their menus have experienced higher sales. To optimize the menu, restaurateurs should base their decisions on data gathered through effective analysis.
They can check their restaurant’s historical sales data and menu to see the dishes that made the maximum sales. Thus, you can add those dishes more and also increase their prices for higher revenue. In addition, restaurants can talk to their employees and ask for their suggestions. Since employees interact with customers to answer their queries, they can suggest practical improvements to the menu.
8. Stories that Sell
People like stories, then why not use them to sell more food. Every cuisine has its story of origin that tells where, how, and who invented that cuisine. Customers like to know these stories and learn about the food tradition. So, restaurateurs can add small descriptions about the background to attract more orders. A thoughtful restaurant menu design that weaves in cultural or historical stories can greatly enhance customer engagement and lead to higher sales.
9. Write Out All Restaurant Menu Names
Before you design your restaurant menu, write all food items on a piece of paper or using Excel or Google Sheets. You need to mention everything that you want to visualize to your users. For example, the number of menu items, ingredients used in it, how it will taste like, if there’s any allergy complication, and who should avoid it or have it. Having this detailed breakdown ensures your custom restaurant menu design communicates everything customers need to make faster and more confident choices.
10. Categorize Restaurant Menu Items
Now, divide those menu items into categories, such as veg, non-veg, and others. If you are using a food delivery system or app, categorizing menu items is easy. You can also do it when you create a custom restaurant menu design. Apart from veg and non-veg, you can also categorize your restaurant menu as high profit, high popularity, etc. Many modern restaurants prefer using a restaurant website builder that offers smart categorization tools, making it easier to update and maintain digital menus.
11. Restaurant Menu Color Scheme on Card
While designing a restaurant menu, you need to be careful about the menu color scheme. Choose colors that perfectly represent your dishes and overall branding. A cohesive color scheme strengthens your restaurant menu design and creates a memorable experience for your customers. Colors such as red and yellow are known to stimulate appetite, while green signifies freshness and health. When you maintain color consistency across your menu and marketing materials, it enhances brand recognition and builds a lasting impression.
12. Design Your Restaurant Menu
Once you are done collecting the restaurant menu list, categorizing items, and finalizing color schemes, it’s time to create the actual menu. You can either select a professional designer or choose an online restaurant website builder that offers custom restaurant menu design options. A good builder allows you to personalize layouts, fonts, and imagery to better match your restaurant’s theme. Additionally, designing your own menu digitally gives you the flexibility to update seasonal dishes, promotions, and limited-time offers without costly redesigns.
13. A Restaurant Menu Has to Be Easy to Digest
Sometimes, overly detailed restaurant menus distract users from making a decision, leading to confusion. Keeping your restaurant menu design simple, clear, and intuitive will help customers quickly find what they want. Customers appreciate when they can quickly scan and understand their options without feeling overwhelmed. Using adequate spacing, clear section headers, and simple language improves the overall dining experience and may even speed up order times.
14. Sell Food, Not Price
You are selling food, not just a price point. Focus your restaurant menu design on the flavors, ingredients, and experiences rather than the cost. Instead of drawing attention to the numbers, highlight the craftsmanship behind your dishes. Position descriptions that evoke taste, aroma, and uniqueness, making customers focus on the quality rather than comparing prices. This subtle strategy encourages guests to order based on desire rather than budget.
15. Clearly Mention Ingredients Used in Food
Customers want transparency when ordering food. Always list major ingredients, flavor highlights, and potential allergens. Doing so creates a trustworthy relationship between your restaurant and your guests. Additionally, highlighting specialty ingredients or locally sourced produce can elevate the perceived value of your dishes. Informative restaurant menus also help guests with dietary restrictions make quick, confident decisions, which improves their satisfaction and loyalty.
Conclusion
So, by far you must have got enough ideas on how to create a restaurant menu for maximum benefits.
Design your restaurant menu well while implementing these suggestions to see an influx of orders to your restaurant. The effectiveness of digital and in-person menus is equally important.
If you are setting up your online restaurant business, you can try our SaaS based online ordering system. The ordering software enables restaurants to create and customize the digital menu.
