Create the Ideal Menu for Your Concepts

Your menu says a lot about your business. You want to make sure it reflects positively on your operation and works strategically to help you meet business goals. The right menu layout and design can encourage diners to order your most profitable items or even choose specific add-ons. Foodbuy Foodservice draws on the expertise of our Culinary Solutions Team to highlight five tips for creating great restaurant menu designs.

Read on to learn more.

1. Aim for Short and Sweet

While it’s tempting to create multi-page menus with extensive offerings, less is often more when it comes to restaurant menus. Diners can easily feel overwhelmed when flipping through multiple pages of entrees, so our chefs recommend limiting offerings to one page, when possible.

Fewer dishes can make it easier for diners to choose their order, but it can also give the impression that these dishes have been carefully chosen. The exclusive number of options can make each offering appear to be the cream of the crop.

2. Draw the Eye to Your Top Dishes

Great restaurant menu designs are not only appealing. They can be used as a strategic tool. You can guide diners to key offerings by making them stand out on your menu design. Try the following strategies to attract diners to your most profitable dishes:

• List these dishes first in their sections
• Highlight dishes in boxes or bubbles
• Use bright colors around key dishes

Customers will be naturally drawn to these dishes, increasing their likelihood of ordering them.

3. List Prices Strategically

Listing your prices can be a delicate task. While you want transparency when it comes to the bill, you also don’t want to make diners focus on the price over their meal over their experience with your restaurant, café, or eatery.

The key is to list prices clearly on your menu, without making them the center of attention. Using a smaller or more delicate font for prices is a great start. Then, bolding dish titles and adding sensory-

focused descriptions can draw attention to the experience of the dish rather than the price. Experts also recommend leaving off dollar signs and instead just listing the numbers.

4. Match Your Brand Persona

Your menus are just one factor in the overall look and feel of your concepts. However, if their design doesn’t match your brand persona, it can throw off the customer experience or even come across as lazy.

A great restaurant menu design is one that fits your business to a t. To execute this, you’ll want to ask yourself the following questions about your brand:

• Do we use any brand iconography or images?
• Do we have a formal or casual brand image?
• What colors do we use in our logos and décor?
• What type of language suits our brand persona?
• Do we have a specific set of fonts we use for marketing?

You can use these factors to design a menu that fits your property’s image.

5. Use Photos to Your Advantage

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. That’s why many modern menu designs incorporate images of dishes. This strategy can effectively entice diners to your top dishes when done correctly.

The key is choosing photos that are high quality. If you have access to a food photographer, you’ll want to enlist their help in photographing your top dishes. Make sure that you’re using real images of your dishes, rather than similar dishes from other restaurants. You’ll also want to make sure the photos you use are bright and clear enough, even when printed.

Go Beyond Great Restaurant Menu Design

Whether your goal is enhanced menu design or increased revenue, Foodbuy Foodservice is happy to help support your business needs. Our Group Purchasing Members gain access to competitive procurement programs as well as attentive account management support. Plus, our Supply Chain Management Clients have access to a suite of consultative services.

If you’re interested in working with Foodbuy Foodservice, fill out our interest form today.