What’s one of the very first things you look at when you’re at a restaurant? The menu, of course! Here are some tips and tricks on how to make an optimal menu to guarantee a fantastic dining experience.
The Bread and Butter of a Restaurant’s Success
Have you ever picked up a book, disliked the description on the back cover, and then decided to read it anyway? Didn’t think so. Well, menus are like that. They are the very first impression a guest will have of a restaurant, so they have a lot of power to either make or break the entire dining experience. If you want to ensure guests leave your restaurant happy while maximizing your profits, knowing how to properly make a menu is absolutely crucial.
How to Make a Foolproof Restaurant Menu
Creating an optimal menu is certainly no piece of cake. You need to know how to present your items in a clear yet appealing way. Here are some essentials to help you get started.
Too Much of a Good Thing is a Bad Thing
Contrary to popular belief, too many choices can put people off.
Instead of overwhelming your guests with endless choices, focus on having fewer items on your menu. This not only suggests you’ve mastered these select dishes and have a focus on quality, but also reduces the risk of ingredient waste and over ordering.
Bigger is not always better – particularly when it comes to menus. Walk into an ice-cream shop, and there are so many options! Should you choose cookies & cream, triple chocolate, or lemon cheesecake? Perhaps pistachio or caramel would be better? Or maybe plain vanilla?
The experience detailed above is the Paradox of Choice, and we all experience it. With so many options it does not matter what you select, you will probably think you made the wrong choice.
Aside from overwhelming the guest:
Big menus inevitably lead to the need for convenience foods for practical reasons. Is this the image all food outlets want to portray?
Big menus create a need for more refrigeration, larger freezers, expansive dry good storage, more diverse equipment, and a significant investment of time for purchasing and inventory control.
Big menus ALWAYS lead to shortages and items that the service staff must explain to the guest are no longer available
Big menus ALWAYS lead to more waste and spoilage, impacting profitability.
Highlight your most profitable items
When you begin to design your restaurant menu, you’ll want to know how much each item brings in. If one dish is particularly popular and profitable, make sure this is placed front and center. This could mean drawing attention to it through bold colors, shapes, or fonts, or by arranging the layout of your menu to make it especially visible. When people look at a menu, their eye generally travels to the center of the page and then moves to the top right corner before finally settling at the top left.
If you are starting from scratch and still need to determine how to price your items, it is important to :
weigh the expenses to you with the expectations of your guests.
integrate the cost of making the dish
benchmark your competitor’s prices
One way to do this is through menu engineering. This factors in data on food costs and sales so you can figure out the very best prices for your dishes to ensure well-designed menu, optimized profitability and guest satisfaction.
Write mouthwatering menu
The food in your restaurant might be the most delicious thing in the world, but this means nothing if your descriptions are unappetizing.
You can turn to an experienced copywriter to help add some pizazz to your menu, or feel free to take on the project yourself. Chances are, if you are passionate about the dishes offered on your menu, writing the descriptions will come easily since they are from the heart.
If you decide to write your own descriptions, try to incorporate all five senses to entice and convince your guests. Taste, texture, and preparation are a given, but color, shape, and fragrance also count.
Remember that every dish on your menu has a story to be told, so be creative and have fun as you think about what each offering represents. If you need some help, here is a list of some great foodie adjectives.
Menu design : stay true to your brand identity
Your menu is an extension of your restaurant, so it is crucial you keep a similar aesthetic throughout. Your color scheme should reflect the look and the color scheme of the establishment itself to create consistency and boost your overall brand image.
As a reminder, people prefer simplicity, so try to use only a couple of color variants and incorporate these into your menu. If you are still deciding on how to present and decorate your restaurant and menu, check out how color psychology can affect customer behavior here.
It might also be a good idea to ask yourself what type of clientele you are targeting and if their cultural background affects how they perceive certain colors, too.
Don’t forget font, negative space, and shapes also play into how guests interact with your menu and make dining selections. Studies have shown that people prefer to read text that’s between 40 and 70 characters, and on multiple columns. So, if you want your guests to quickly access your information, widen the margins on your menu.
Digital menu : how to make a menu for today’s World
Restaurants have recently seen a shift in the way guests behave as they seek out simpler and more efficient ways to order, dine, and pay. Long gone are the days of purely paper menus and waiting for a server to get to a table. Thanks to new technology and digital formats, restaurants can increase their profits without compromising on customer satisfaction.
Their easy interface, sustainable medium, and no-hassle access have made QR code menus increasing popular within food service. Guests have the freedom to choose from a restaurant’s entire selection of the dishes they wish to try with a quick scan and a few clicks. No apps or downloads are needed, just a working mobile camera, for a fully integrated solution anyone can use.
You can quickly make your QR code menu by following few simple steps.
First, make sure your menu is available online. For optimal use, it is best to ensure it is mobile friendly. Once this is done, take a look at the digital menu to guarantee it is easy to read and that prices are included. After this, you can generate your QR code and fit it with a number of POS systems. Some applications allow you to design your menu as restaurant menu maker. You can make custom menu, from the color scheme to the placement of dishes.
Finished these steps? Now you are ready to share your digital menu with your guests!
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