How to Make a Menu for a Restaurant: 7 Steps

2024 Author: Samantha Chapman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 09:13

Whether you're designing a menu for your restaurant, or you've been hired by someone to do it, here are some tips to follow and some things to consider in the process.

Steps

Step 1. Draw a stylized version of the basic menu layout

Initially limit yourself to choosing the design for the categories, section titles and graphics. Here are some general troubleshooting issues to keep in mind:

• Choose a color scheme that represents the style of the restaurant. For a luxurious restaurant, dark colors will give a sense of seriousness and professionalism. For a less pretentious restaurant, warm, neutral colors will be appropriate and inviting. For a restaurant with a young clientele or a more playful theme, the best choice will be bright colors. Unless you are unhappy with the restaurant's interior decor, or plan to change it, the safest choice will be to choose the same colors for the menu as the restaurant.
• Logically order your menu. Your menu should reflect the order in which your customers eat the dishes you offer. For a classic restaurant, this order will be appetizers, first courses, main courses, side dishes, desserts. Traditionally, common drinks are listed last; particular drinks (wines, cocktails) are usually found on a separate list or in an insert.

• Visually divide your menu into sections. You should divide food categories using large, simple titles, or if you offer enough dishes, set aside a page for each category. If you offer a large quantity of dishes, you may have to create many sections (Pizzas, Focaccia, First, Seconds) and subsections (White Pizzas, Red Pizzas, Meat, Fish). Other possible subsections include:

  • Region (Mexico, Japan, Thailand)
  • Style (grilled, fried, soups, stews)
  • Popularity (restaurant specialties, preferred by customers)

  

  Step 2. List the dishes and prices

  The easiest way to do this is to create columns (Food, Description, Price). Make sure it is clear to what description and what price the dishes refer to, especially if the font is small and the lines are not well defined. An easy way to do this is to connect the boxes with a series of dots. Offering a large variety of dishes is usually a good idea:

  • Be sure to offer some inexpensive dishes that cost less than the average fare, and some higher-value specialties.
  • Consider offering specific dishes to certain types of diets. Dishes reserved for vegetarians, vegans, children, or people on low calorie or very healthy diets will ensure you attract a wide variety of customers.
  • Decide whether to offer special prices on certain days or at certain times, and for particular groups of people, such as the elderly, military, etc. This can mean offering discounts in times of low turnout or to people who fall into a certain category.
  • If you want to give customers the opportunity to customize the dishes, enter the cost of replacements and additions.

  

  Step 3. Describe each dish

  The names of the dishes themselves should be evocative. For example "Pasta al pomodoro" is not a catchy title, but "Durum wheat pasta drawn with fresh tomatoes and basil" will grab the attention of your readers. After the name, include a brief description of all the ingredients in the dish. Eg "Durum wheat penne drawn with tomato sauce, fresh tomatoes, basil, parmesan and olive oil." It may be a good idea to point out if any of the following conditions apply:

  • The dish is spicier than most of the other dishes on the menu.
  • The dish contains common allergens (e.g. peanuts)
  • The dish can be eaten by a group of people who follow a particular diet (celiacs, vegans, vegetarians, low sodium content, etc.)

  

  Step 4. Add photos carefully

  Photographing food is notoriously difficult. If you can afford to hire a professional food photographer, images could help make dishes more inviting. The charm of food, however, derives from its scent, its texture and its three-dimensional shape, and for this reason even the best photos fail to do them justice. Generally, it's best to leave the look of your dishes to the customer's imagination.

  

  Step 5. Work on the final details by making a new sketch of the menu

  Focus on font choice, margins, spacing, and overall page composition:

  • Choose simple fonts. Don't get drawn into whimsical fonts, which can be fun, but will give the menu an unprofessional look. Don't use more than three characters in your menu, or it will look confusing.
  • Use large, simple fonts for a restaurant with a predominantly older clientele. People will buy more if they can read the choices clearly.
  • If in doubt, always prefer a simpler and clearer design. Do it especially if it is a high-level restaurant, where good taste and simplicity are a must.
  • For menus that contain a wide variety of dishes, consider pairing a number with each dish to ensure easier communication between customers and waiters and between waiters and the kitchen.
  • Try to give each page a visual balance. Draw a square around each content box, then evaluate the placement of the plates and the empty space that remains. Do the pages seem unbalanced? Do some sections seem uncared for, as if the restaurant doesn't have enough dishes to offer in that category?

  

  Step 6. Decide on the final layout

  Make sure your stylistic choices and menu content are accepted by the owner, manager and chef. Also ask a layman to give you his opinion; what might be obvious to a person in the restaurant world might confuse a common customer.

  

  Step 7. Check for errors and print the final version

  Pay close attention to any mistakes, because such oversights are bad publicity for the place. You could also hire a professional auditor to make sure you haven't missed anything.

  Advice

  • Be prepared for seasonal menu changes. Placing the products you don't offer throughout the year in an insert will allow you not to have to print a new version of the menu.
  • There are many free templates on the net that you can use. There are also specific programs for creating menus, but it is possible to create a menu using any graphics program, and if the layout is very simple you may be able to create it even with a simple word processing program.
  • Always have your choices approved by the manager and chef before moving on to the next design stage, or you will be forced to make numerous changes.
  • If you make changes to the content of a menu, the cover changes as well. This will suggest to customers that this is a new version, and prompt them to search for new products or reevaluate dishes they have never tried.
  • Never print menus on your home printer unless you have a professional quality laser printer. The cost of professional printing is very small compared to the impact of poorly printed menus.
  • When content changes affect pricing, encourage the owner to include new dishes and reorder the menu. Customers who notice the change in price of old dishes may decide to change premises.