6 Tips to Help Inspire Your Menu Design

6 Ways to Design the Most Effective Restaurant Menu Possible.

On average, a restaurant-goer spends 100 seconds gazing over the menu before deciding what to eat. This isn’t a very long time – so you need to make the most of it with an effectively designed menu.

The way you set your menu out and organise your dishes makes a huge impact on people’s perception of your restaurant.  To layout your menu to look it’s best you should first decide on all the critical information that needs to be included. then take this information and lay it out. Once you have done this, you can see how much space you have left and decide whether there is enough to include any special information such as social media links.

Here are 6 tips to help you get the most out of your design. As well as organising the information on your menu to make sure there is not too little or too much, you should carefully categorise your menu items. The category headings we recommend are:

• Starters

• Side Orders

• Main Meals

• Grills

• Vegan/Vegetarian Dishes

• Desserts (unless you have a separate dessert menu)

1. Use descriptive text
   Excite your customers’ appetite and engage their senses with vivid descriptions of your food and drink items. For example, rather than simply saying that you serve ‘Fish and chips with peas’, jazz it up and say ‘Crispy beer battered cod, served with triple cooked chips and fresh garden peas’.
   
   As well as enticing the customer to order your food it also gives your restaurant a more professional and luxurious feeling.

2. Contrasting Colours
   Certain parts of your menu, for example your category headings, prices and special offers should be highlighted in a contrasting colour to your main body text. This will make your menu pop and will also draw the reader to dishes or deals.
   
   When choosing your menu colours consider the light levels during service time and the interior design within the restaurant. Will the text be easily visible? Will the menu match the interior design of the building or will they clash?

3. Logo
   It sounds obvious, but make sure that your logo and menu match including colours, font, style and message. If it doesn’t match, you are communicating a confusing message to your customers and making your brand look messy and disjointed.

4. Photos
   Only use high resolution images in your menu, after all these pictures will highlight your key dishes, inspire the customer to order them and show off your chef’s culinary skills. Don’t use low resolution photos as these will give the customer the impression you are unprofessional and cheap.

5. Spotlight your specials
   Draw attention to premium dishes or special offers with accents, colours, arrows or other decorative features. This will not only encourage your customer to order these dishes but will break up your menu so it isn’t all text and makes for an easier read.

6. Create multiple menus
   Having multiple menus helps to increase your sales by getting your customers to think about ‘The Bigger Picture’, like what they will have for pudding or what sides they might want with their main dish. Some menu titles we recommend are:

• Dessert Menu

• Daily Specials

• Children’s Menu

Here at The Printing House we will print your menu design to the highest standard, in any size, any paper weight and any shape. As well as regular printing why not make your menu pop with spot UV varnish or foil blocking.

Don’t have your design yet? Send your content over to our graphic design team and for a small fee they will come up with an innovative design for you.

For a quote, ring 01270 212100, email enquiries@theprintinghouseltd.couk or click here.