Did you know that on average, customers only spend 109 seconds looking at a menu? So the way restaurant owners layout their menu can make or break the restaurant as it is their main selling tool.
Keep reading to find out what you can do to take your menus to the next level.
Restaurant Owners Should Consider Their Brand
Your menu is an extension of your restaurant, so it should match the feel and aesthetic you have going in the rest of the restaurant. For example, imagine a French bistro that has doodles and uses Comic Sans typeface on their menu, it just doesn’t make sense. From an aesthetic standpoint, the colors and typeface you use should be identifiable with your restaurant and easy to read.
Consider Currency Signs
When designing a menu, you’d think that including currency signs is a given, but it can be detrimental. Recently studies have shown that by adding currency signs to your prices, you’re making your customer more aware of how much they’re spending. So drop the currency sign in the design process.
Break Down Your Menu Into Section
By splitting your menu up into sections, you make it much easier for your customers to find what they want to eat, but it also makes the most out of the time they spend looking at the menu. For instance, a vegetarian will be able to completely skip the meat sections and focus on the sections they’ll be choosing from.
By categorizing your items, you can also place your best items in the most prominent places on the menu. This will let your high profit, high popularity items shine.
Consider Menu Makers
If the concept of creating your own menu from scratch makes you nervous, you should consider using a menu maker to help you build your menu. These services let you browse templates you can customize, includes stock images and designs, and you can download them immediately. This is a great way to create a menu as it offers various design tips and ideas that you can implement.
When to Use Photos
While photos are a great way to show off your food, the more images you add to your menu, the more distracted your customer will become. You want the item names and descriptions to be the main focus of your menu, not photos.
You might decide to only add photos of your most profitable items, but you have to remember that the photo quality matters here. Consider hiring a food photographer specializing in food presentation to get the most appealing photos.
Let Your Menu Shine
Restaurant owners, managers, chefs, and designers can all benefit by knowing how to properly layout a menu to ensure it is appealing and functional. Your menu is the first thing people see, so if your menu isn’t appealing, nobody will taste your great food. Spend time creating the best menu possible that truly represents your brand.
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