Help ensure you get the most from your menu. A well thought out menu design can help to increase visitor satisfaction and increase your overall sales.

2. A Great Menu
It is so much more than a list of food and prices.
Your menu is often the first thing your customers see
when they take a table at your restaurant.
It may even be the reason they came through your doors.
You would be surprised how many restaurants spend little or no time on menu design
and miss out on easy ways to help drive sales of their most profitable dishes.
This guidebook has what you need to know about great menu design
From layout to pricing we have it covered. There is also a glossary of mouth watering adjectives
and some excellent tips on how to turn your menu into your most important marketing tool.
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3. BEFORE YOU START
HOW WILL YOUR MENU BE DIFFERENT?
How are you going to stand out? What are your singnature dishes?
WHAT IS THE LINK BETWEEN THE MENU & YOUR KITCHEN?
A smaller kitchen will limit the variety of your restaurant menu.
ARE YOUR MENU ITEMS VERSATILE?
Keep food spoilage down and use ingredients in more than one dish.
ARE YOUR DISHES EASY TO PREPARE?
Unless you plan to get a Michelin Star, any menu items that have
over-fussy presentations will bog down your kitchen staff.
DO YOU KNOW YOUR CUSTOMERS?
A very important thing to remember when designing your menu is
your customers. Who do you want to attract?
HAVE YOU CHECKED OUT THE COMPETITION?
Study their menus to see their pricing. Look for similarities and
differences between your prospective restaurant menu and theirs.
GET INSPIRED!
Collect as many menus as you can get your hands on.
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4. Stay flexible when you first open.
Don’t over invest in the printing of menus.
You may have to make changes
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5. MENU STYLES
THE LEATHER BOUND BOOK
THE CHALKBOARD
Once regarded as the height of chic in top end restaurants, today, the
leather book seems a little tired and old fashioned .Nowadays they
are best suited for a country house or perhaps your wine list.
The chalkboard is great for gastro pubs and
neighbourhood restaurants as they create a
sense of homespun cooking. Make sure you
have an employee with clear handwriting.
Don’t use different colours, stick with white
and don’t actually use chalk, use chalk pens.
Chalkboards are also great for
promoting specials.
THE LAMINATED MENU
Usually a one or a two panel menu (opens like a magazine). This type
of menu is very popular with restaurants with a large foot-fall as they
help to turn tables. They are great for sports bars, fastfood, casual
and family friendly restaurants. The advantages of this style is that
they are cheap to produce, easy to handle and offer lots of scope for
creativity. One disadvantage is that they can easily become tatty.
ONE-USE-ONLY PAPER MENUS
These have become very popular in recent years with restaurants
that have a relaxed atmosphere. They also often double as placemats
in canteen style restaurants. Paper menus allow you give a fresh
menu to every customer.
THE CLASSIC PAGE TURNER
These are still the most popular form of menu. They are great for
restaurants with a lot of dishes , but they can slow down decision
making. Make sure you divide it into clear sections.
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6. According to restaurant consultants interviewed by
Restaurants USA magazine, re-designing your menu
can improve your sales on average
from 2% to 10%
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7. MENU LAYOUT
Careful layout of your menu is very important. We know that most
customers are going to order an entrée when they open the menu,
so your goal is to ensure the customer sees the more profitable items
first.
MOST VALUABLE REAL ESTATE
On a solo page layout, it’s a proven fact that the more profitable
items should be placed on top and bottom thirds of the page. On
two-panel (page) menus people most often look at the top
right-hand side first. On three-panel menus, people most often look
at the centre panel first, and then move counter clockwise. These
areas should be reserved for more profitable dishes since it is the
best place to catch, and retain, the reader‘s gaze.
Remember cheap, popular staples like a burger should be harder to
locate. The order in which dishes appear is also important. People
most often remember and buy the first two items or the last menu
item in each menu category. Place your menu items with the highest
gross profit in these spots.
Finally, do not fear white space as it allows the eyes to pause and rest.
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8. See the change of seasons as an oppertunity to
introduce spring, summer, autumn and winter menus.
Reflect the seasonal products
available and holiday eating habits
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9. PRICING
Once you have your restaurant menu drafted, it‘s time to decide on
setting the prices for each dish.
In order to maximise your proofit it is important to understand the
psychology of pricing.
ABOVE £5? - ADD 95p
Since price increments of less than £1 don‘t change the perceived
value of a dish, add £0.95 to any item that’s available when it costs
more than £5. For example, since £12.50 and £12.95 have the same
perceived value, go with £12.95 to maximize your profits.
SCANNING
Avoid listing prices down the right-hand margin. This can result in
customer scanning down the list of prices and choosing the least
expensive items. It is much better to add the prices at the end of each
description inline with the body of the text and using the same font.
Removing the £ sign can further help the customer focus on the
product, not the price.
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10. If your customers have trouble pronouncing the names
of your menu items, number them.
Its much easier to correctly pronounce
“No. 9” than “Nicoise Salad”
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11. MENU DESCRIPTIONS
Your menu description should make a guest‘s mouth water. The
adjectives used to describe a dish can be as important as the names
of the ingredients themselves.
What would you rather eat
“garlic chicken” or “flame-grilled
chicken with garlic marinade”
Avoid making descriptions too long, a sentence or two is fine. The
names of your dishes should intrigue the customer. If they have
more questions, their server should be able to give them further
information about a dish or recommend a house favourite.
Incorporating local references and traceability can also help your
restaurant menu stand out. Galway Bay Oysters sound very inviting.
I was recently in a great little restaurant in Scotland that use
blackboards to display their daily fish specials and included the name
of the fishermen who had pulled in the catch!
Check out the glossary of food buzz words at the end hundreds of
scrumptious, yummy, heavenly, melt-in-the-mouth, indulgent and
irresistible adjectives.
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12. Enlist the talent of a local artist to design your menu
cover. Perhaps you could showcase a different artist
each time you reprint the menu.
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13. MENU TIPS
WHAT TO DO
• Offer a balance of unique dishes and old favourites
• Give personal recommendations
• Position side orders and add ons in a prominent position
• Promote new items and specials
• Choose a great typeface (check out dafont.com)
• Make the desserts sound like a must have treats
• Use table tents to promote the deserts menu
• Have high and low food costs for a reasonable profit margin.
• Highlight sharing dishes
These are often bought by couples on dates who are more
concerned with the experience than the price
• Include symbols and icons for healthy options and allergy free dishes
• Offer wine and beer to go with food dishes
• Always ensure that your menus are clean
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14. MENU TIPS
WHAT NOT TO DO
• Over-work dishes by using expensive and pretentious items
• Litter your menu with superfluous adjectives
• Add too many pictures or busy backgrounds
• Use clipart or similar images
• Use £, $ or € signs
• Have too many dishes
The optimum number of dishes in a category is between five and seven.
Too many dishes decrease the value of each item
• Have any spelling mistakes in the menu
• Make your menu too long
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15. Glossary
Take advantage of your menu‘s power by including menu lingo that sells.
Below you will find 100‘s of foodie buzz words to help you write an inspired menu
Vegetables
Array of
Autumnal
Baby
Candied
Caramelised
Cholesterol free
Chunks of
Chunky
Colourful
Complemented by
Crispy
Crunchy
Field mushroom
Fresh
Generous Portion of
Golden brown
Hand Cut
Home-style
Julienne
Local
Locally sourced
Medley
Mushy
On a bed of
Organic
Orgasmic
Oven Baked
Presented on
Roasted
Rustic
Sautéed
Seasonal
Spring
Steamed
Stuffed with
Summer
Sweet
Warm salad of
Winter
Pasta & Rice
Al dente
Aromatic
Fluffy
Specify your pasta:
Farfalloni
Fiorentine
Linguine
Penne
Spaghetti
Fedelini
Fettuccine
Vermicelloni
Side Orders
Accompaniments
An assortment of
Bite Size
Paired with
Perfect for dipping
Served with
Your choice of
Dressings / Sauces
A balsamic glaze
Aioli
Aromatic
Blend of secret spices
Brushed with
Buttery
Chunky
Cooked to order
Crowned with
Decadent
Devilishly hot
Drizzled
Fiery
Finished with
Flavoured with a hint
House
Light
Lightly seasoned
Mouth watering
Rich
Roasted garlic
Tangy
Rubbed with
Saffron-infused
Sage Jus
Signature BBQ sauce
Smothered in
Splash of
Sticky
Sweet
Topped with
With an extra drizzle
Soup & Sandwiches
A rich and creamy
Country style
Floured Bun
For extra crunch
Fresh crusty bread
Hearty
Lightly Toasted
Low Calorie
Meaty
Open faced
Our unique recipe
Oven toasted
Scoop of Jersey cream
Wholegrain
Winter
Meat
28 day aged
100% prime beef,
Aged
Aged just right
Black angus beef
Braised
Char-grilled
Choice Cut
Cooked to your liking
Cured
Encrusted with
Expertly seasoned
Fall-off-the-bone ribs
Flame grilled
flavoured with
For an indulgent steak
experience
Free Range
Game
Grilled to your liking
Skewered British Beef
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16. Glossary
Meat ctd
Fish
Pizza
Top side of Succulent
Tender Dry-cured
Skewered Seared Juicy
Perfectly grilled
Hand-carved to order
Hand-selected
Hand-trimmed
Juicy
Our aged prime rib
Over a red hot grill to
seal in its bold flavour
Pan Fried
Seared on a red hot
grill
Seasoned to
perfection
Sizzling
Slither
Slow-roasted to
capture the full
flavours
Smoky barbecue
Steak lover’s steak
Steaming Hot
Thick cut filet
Battered
Broiled
Catch of the day
Caught by
Crispy Batter
Daily catch
Farmed
Flash fried
Freshly Caught
Fresh water
Griddled
Hand battered
Hand-Breaded
Lightly Breaded
Delicately grilled
Oven-roasted
Sautéed in butter
Sea
Simply Grilled
Smoked
Steamed
Sustainable
Tempura
Classic Neapolitan
Hand rolled
Hand-stretched
Italian seasoning
Mediterranean
Made to share
Our thinnest & lightest
From the heart of Italy
Shaved Parmesan
Stone baked
Thick and fluffy
Thin crust
Wood Fire
Dessert
A crunchy concoction
An all time favourite
An indulgent twist
A perfect combination
Copious
Creamy
Crumbly
Delectable
Divine
Dollop of
Enveloped in
Generous portion
Guilt Free
Have your cake & eat it!
Irresistible Desserts
Lashings of ice cream
Lavishly made with
Luscious
Melt-in-the-mouth
Moist layers of
Molten chocolate
Naughty but nice
New York-style
Pureed
Retro classic
Shouts “eat me!”
Simply irresistible
Something sweet
Sumptuous
Taste sensation
Tender
Treat yourself
Warning - addictive
Baked Goods
Artisan
Baked fresh daily
Gluten free
Heavenly
Indulgent
Plump
Straight from the oven
Kids
Adult free zone
Chewy
Deep Sea Dippers
Messy
Gooey
Itsy Bitsy
Jelly delight
Just for kids
Made for dunking
Mini me portion
Munchy
Nutritional
Scrumptious
Yummy
Zesty
Beer
American Style
Chilled
Clean Finish
Cold-filtered
Dark
Distinctive Bite
Fuller-bodied
Pilsner-style
Popular Import
Served in Frosty Mugs
Strong and crisp
Wine
A versatile all-rounder
Bursting with flavour
Complex
Dark and luscious
Easy Drinking
Fresh and fruity
Fresh, zesty flavours
Full bodied
Mellow
Packs a punch
Sensuously smooth
Seriously fruity
Stunningly complex
Subtle and spicy
Succulent
Superbly light
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