A well-designed restaurant menu is an essential ingredient for running a profitable restaurant business. Careful planning and placement of menu items not only helps restaurants generate profits, but also makes ordering simpler for your customers. Your restaurant menu is much more than just a piece of paper with the dish.
Promote the most profitable items
Your most profitable item is one that requires low-cost ingredients, an item that doesn’t take much time to prepare, and that you can sell for a higher price. This item should be highlighted in the menu card or presented as a today’s special in order to attract the customer’s attention. Or, you can also place it in the “chef’s favorite” segment to encourage customers to order it. Playing on customer psychology goes a long way to optimizing your menu design. Menu engineering is an integral part of running a restaurant. Customers are more likely to order cheaper meals compared to an item that is expensive. Place your inexpensive but very profitable dish next to an expensive dish that perfectly complements the previous item. This way, you can highlight the expensive dish that complements the less expensive item and entices your guests to order more.
Use symbols and icons
Using symbols and icons has been shown in studies to draw attention to your menu items. Not only that, but they can be used to improve your overall menu design and make the daily special more readable. Using a star can show diners that this menu item is either very good or a popular item. You can also use symbols to denote vegetarian elements or vegan on the menu, instead of having to write it out or create a special section on the menu for them. A friendly tip would be to avoid using the heart icon. This generally equates to something that is healthy or “good for your heart.” Which usually translates to customers as “bland and tasteless”. Your menu should always focus on what you have to offer and not the price of the items. Promoting things like Euro menus or cheaper items is generally not a tactic that ends up working to a restaurant’s advantage.
Use images with care
There are two real schools of thought when it comes to images: those who really like big, bold images and those who avoid images altogether. Either way can work, but only if you invest in phenomenal photography. You need to hire a professional photographer to take photos of your dishes if you want items on the menu. Each image must be well lit and photographed so that it looks tasty. Grayish foods will not sell. If you plan to use food photography, stick to one or two photos of branded items. Also be wary of using stock images for menu design. The menu item when represented visually should be exactly what you are offering.