Restaurant Menu Design Best Practices

Restaurant Menu Design Best Practices That Can Help Increase Sales

A great menu is one of the best sales and marketing tools a restaurant can have . Almost every customer will look at it, and what they see can impact what they order. There are some restaurant menu design best practices that can help make your menu easier to use and even help your restaurant sell more.

A menu is more than a list of food and prices. It’s a piece of marketing that your customers use every time they visit. Guests should be able to item they want without having to make sense of a confusing layout. If they have to ask their server where something is listed, the menu needs some work.

Make Ordering Easier

One of the biggest things to look at when designing a menu is how easy it will be to use.

The menu needs to look great, but it also needs to work. A customer shouldn’t have to spend ten minutes trying to find a burger or figure out what comes with their meal.

Good graphic design can help with that. And when customers can find what they want faster, the staff can take orders faster too. During a rush, that can make a difference in how many tables can be served.

Make Your Menu Easy to Read and Navigate

Navigating through the menu should make sense. Things like appetizers, salads, sandwiches, burgers, entrees, and desserts should all be easy to find.

The order matters. You probably wouldn’t have desserts at the start of the menu. If you do, you’re probably running an ice cream shop, in which case they should be first.

Make the headings clear and easy to follow. Don’t come up with a clever name for every section just for the sake of it. A simple heading like “Burgers” is usually all that is needed.

As with any design piece, always consider the amount of whitespace used. Just because there is room for another photo doesn’t mean you need to add one.

Give the items some space and it will make the whole menu easier to read.

Font size is another thing to watch. Some restaurants have less lighting. Some guests might not have great vision. A menu that looks fine on your computer screen might be hard to read at a table. Make sure the fonts are at a size that can always be easily read.

Limit the Fonts and Colors

Using too many fonts is a quick way to make a menu look and feel messy.

Aim to use one or two font families. Different font sizes and weights can be used to separate headings, item names, prices, and descriptions. Using 5 different fonts will not do that any more effectively and will actually just increase confusion.

Colors are the same way. Adding more colors won’t likely make the design better. The opposite will happen and it will be harder to read and use.

Look through the design and make sure there’s enough contrast between the text and background. Not only does this help with accessibility, but it is good for the design. If someone can’t easily read a section, they might skip right over the whole section.

Keep Your Restaurant Menu Design on Brand

Your menu needs to fit in with the rest of your brand.

Think about a local sports bar and a high-end steakhouse. Their menus should never look the same. Even two burger restaurants would look different as each has its own branding.

Your menu is a piece of marketing. The design should be connected to your logo, signage, website, business cards, and any marketing materials you use.

There is no point in having a great brand only to hand customers a menu that looks like it came from a different restaurant.

Make Your Best Menu Items Stand Out

Not every item on your menu needs the same amount of attention.

Maybe you have a burger that’s your best seller. Or there’s an appetizer that customers love and has a great profit margin. Draw a little more attention to those items.

This could be done with a box around the item, a background color, or a small graphic. The key is something simple and subtle.

Just don’t add those effects to each item.

I’ve seen marketing pieces where so many things are highlighted that it’s hard to know what you’re supposed to look at first. Restaurant menus can have that same problem.

Place Prices in the Right Spot

Here’s something I think a lot of restaurants overlook when designing their menus.

Where are the prices placed?

It’s common to see the prices lined up along the far-right side of a menu. That makes it very easy for customers to scan down the prices and compare the cost of each meal before even looking at what comes with it.

I prefer putting the price right next to the item name. This keeps the price with the food instead of making it a separate list of numbers.

That doesn’t mean you should hide your prices. Customers still need to find them easily. If someone can’t figure out what a meal costs, that’s another question the server has to answer.

You want customers looking at the food and deciding what sounds good. Not just picking whatever has the lowest price.

Use Food Photos Sparingly

A good food photo can make someone hungry. A bad one can make a great meal look pretty unappealing.

Think of the hamburgers in McDonald’s commercials. They look amazing! That’s because a lot of work goes into staging the food, lighting, and photography.

Only use great photos on your menu if you’re going to use them. The food should look great, with the perfect lighting, and the photo needs to fit in with the rest of your branding.

But don’t add too many.

Menus already have a lot of information crammed in them. Adding photos takes up space that could be better used.

If your menu looks crowded, look at how many photos are used. Removing one or two might be all that’s needed to open up the design.

There’s nothing wrong with a menu that doesn’t have any photos. Many experts even say they’re more effective.

Make Sure Your Menu Works in Print and on Your Website

Restaurant menus should be designed with the printed version in mind. There are a few things to consider beyond how the menu looks.

Think about the size. If your tables are small or customers sit close together, a big, wide menu might be awkward to hold. No one wants to bump into the person next to them just to read the appetizers.

The paper is important too. Synthetic paper is one option that can be cleaned and reused. That’s a great option for busy restaurants where menus get handled all day.

Over the year prices change, dishes get added, and items get removed. Set the menu up so you can update the design and information as needed. This is one of the benefits of working with a professional designer for your menu.

Your website menu needs attention too. It should match the printed menu and be easy to use on a phone.

I’d much rather see a restaurant have a mobile-friendly menu on its website than a photo of the printed menu that I have to keep zooming in and out of to read.

Before you print hundreds of menus, print a sample and look at it while sitting at one of your tables. You might catch something that wasn’t obvious while looking at the design on a computer.

Good Restaurant Menu Design Helps Your Business

Your restaurant menu must look great, connect with the brand, all while making it easy for guests to decide what they want. It’s also a chance to help sell some of your best and most profitable dishes.

You don’t need fancy graphics, five different fonts, or food photos to have a great menu. Sometimes taking a few things away makes the design better.

At Full Scope Creative, we help restaurants with menu designs that look great and work for their customers and staff. If you’re looking to update your current menu or need a completely new design, check out our restaurant menu design services or contact us to talk about your menu.