To run a successful restaurant business, you need to manage various aspects including infrastructures, manpower, food quality, ambience, pricing and much more. And one of the important requirements is writing and designing a restaurant menu.

Preparing a restaurant menu looks simple but it requires some concepts and ideas to make it effective and well-written. A menu is a vital part of a restaurant as it resembles the restaurant’s concept and image.

So, how do you write and design a restaurant menu?

Well, there are some checklists and suggestions you can follow while preparing an attractive menu for your restaurant.

First of all, let’s learn the tips on writing a professional restaurant menu.

Best Tips to Write and Design a Restaurant Menu

Know your target market well

Before jumping into writing a restaurant menu, you need to clarify and analyze your target market. The pricing, food types, location, interior decoration and other things can vary according to the market.

If the market area is lavish, you must focus on providing top-quality services with high-quality foods. The menu must look professional and also must offer a luxurious feeling to the customers. Talking about the pricing, you can keep it expensive considering the top-quality services you are providing.

On the other hand, if you are focusing on a budget restaurant, you can prepare a short restaurant menu with fast food at affordable prices. 

Know your budget 

A budget is an important factor while deciding to write a menu for your restaurant. You must be sure how much budget are you willing to spend.

The print quality, graphics, images and professional photography are required for designing high-quality and attractive menus. In this scenario, the amount of your budget can play a big role.

If you can create graphics and design menus yourself, you can spend your budget for printing only. But in case you require professional photographers, designers or graphic artists, the price goes up.

Make your decision on Menu Concept and Styling

Your concept is the primary source for a professional restaurant menu as it represents the main product line. 

Creating a concept and deciding on its various characteristics allows you to finalize food selection and allocate price ranges.

Some restaurants want to specialize in cuisines like American, Italian, Mediterranean, Desserts, Sushi, Indian, Nepali style and so on. This can become a concept that leads to the service style of your restaurant which may be fine dining, family-style, fast food and much more.

For example, you may have heard about Thakali restaurants in Nepal. These restaurants specialize in Thakali foods meaning the typical Nepali Dal Bhat with various curries, spices and meat products. In that way, the menu concept, styling and pricing can be generated in accordance with the foods you want to serve to the valued customers. 

Decide on your menu offerings

After you finalize the target market, budget and make a decision on the menu concept, you can start creating a list of food items, beverages, desserts and other meals.

You should plan your menu offerings based on the target market and also keep a balance between common food items and new unique items. Some restaurants offer today’s special, chef’s special, festival special and so on. In that case, you should not overdo the menu items.

Also during preparing menu items, you need to ensure the chefs are well-experienced, the ingredients required are easily available and the cost can generate ample profit for your restaurant business.

One useful tip is that you should keep your menu simple without including too many food choices. It may confuse your customers and also create problems for your kitchen operation.

Allocate proper pricing for each food item

Pricing is the most important factor for finalizing your menu because it is the main reason behind the success of your restaurant business. Pricing the food items looks somewhat simple but it requires some calculations to generate profits.

You need to calculate food costs considering the labour costs, ingredients, equipment costs, utilities, rental charge and so on. If you just determine prices without considering these aspects, there is a higher chance for loss than generating profit.

Some key areas you need to focus on are:

Finalize your ideal food cost percentage which means the share of sales spent on food. The standard practice is to keep an average food cost between 25 to 35 per cent. However, it can change as per your restaurant’s requirements and target market.

Determine the raw food cost of every item you offer. You can calculate the price by dividing the Raw Food Cost of Items by the Ideal Food Cost Percentage.

Generate idea for Menu Layout and Design

After you finalize all the above steps, it is now time for menu layout and design. It depends upon your restaurant theme whether the menu needs to be simple, elegant, lavish, or professional.

The menu layout and design will be attractive if you try to blend the font, colours, graphics, images with the restaurant’s ambience, feel and the type of foods you serve.

If you are a graphic designer or can design a menu yourself, you can save your budget. In case you are not confident, it will be worthwhile to hire some professional designers and create visually appealing menus.

An experienced graphic designer can suggest you the best layout and design and also can quickly convert your concept into the design.

Include pricing and description

As per various research and surveys, customers at restaurants are keen to know the prices first. So, you need to clearly mention the prices along with additional VAT and service charges.

Besides prices, you can keep descriptions for each food item but make sure it is short. Otherwise, customers might find the long description annoying. Restaurant experts suggest using words like ‘crispy’, ‘explosion of flavours’, ‘melt-in-your-mouth’ and so on to captivate customers.

You can also include the ingredients used in food items on the description labels.

Finalize your Menu

After completing all the steps discussed above, you now need to finalize your menu with layout, design, list of food items, pricing, and description.

You can use high-quality photos or graphics to lure your customers. Food stylists, professional food photographers and graphic designers can help you to decorate your menu to make it visually appealing.

If you find some spaces left on your menu after including all basic things, you can keep your contact number, location, social media pages and so on.

You must also make sure the print quality of your menu is excellent. Sometimes, a great restaurant menu layout and design might look substandard due to the low-quality print.

Conclusion

The strategies we discussed in the article above are the important factors for creating a professional restaurant menu. You can follow the awesome techniques and produce an effective menu to run your restaurant smoothly.

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