What Are The Steps To Be Considered While Designing Restaurant Menu From Scratch?
Last Update : 15 March 2022
Help Your Customer Try Everything You Want To Offer and Increase Orders!
A restaurant menu should be strategically designed to attract customers. With unique designs and food descriptions, your customers could make the right orders that increase your reputation and revenue-generation opportunities. Find out what experts in restaurant menu design services have to say about strategic menu planning and design.
Your restaurant’s menu is the most powerful tool for attracting customers and positive reviews. It reflects how your restaurant celebrates food as culinary arts. No wonder big restaurants spend hefty amounts on curating and designing menus.
If you are planning to redesign your menus, this is a must-read blog. You will definitely get many new ideas and insights by going through the information shared by a top restaurant menu design company.
How To Understand Restaurant Menu Design
1) Menu Engineering:
Menu engineering involves the calculation of the profitability and popularity of items in the menu. It is analyzed how these two factors determine the placement of items on a menu. Menu engineering involves steps like estimating the profit per plate which is served, making the menu visually appealing, and information portrayed, etc.
2) Customer Research:
Menu design can effectively be created after researching the customer’s preferences. This can only be achieved with the help of customer research. Identification of the type of customer your restaurant will attract is important. Customer research can be carried out with the help of independent surveys initiated from the side of the restaurant.
3) Colors and Food Psychology:
Even before the diners see the food, they see the menu. The color of the menu should make them feel happy and affect their appetite positively. Colors like purple and dark blue might fascinate a few people but might serve to demotivate a majority. It is advisable to choose natural colors that go with the food items.
4) Identifying Revenue-Generating Items:
Your menu should eliminate those dishes that are seldom ordered by the customers. Highlight the dishes that are revenue-generating so that they are frequently ordered. There should be a regular revision of the items on the menu to understand what is standing out to be the favorite of the crowd. High profits and high popular dishes should be the star of the menu.
5) Storytelling:
Menus have evolved from a notice board to an experience providing means. Dish origination, ingredients sources, and farm to restaurant stories are told in the form of a story in menus to give the customers a wonderful experience.
Designing Restaurant Menu From Scratch
The Pre-Design Phase
1. Research And List Your Menu Items Based on The Right Category
Popular and Sells Fast (Lower prices) – Easy Revenue
Include snacks and other dishes which are the crowd’s favorite and comparatively low priced. The quantity of the orders sold will ensure easy revenues.
Popular and (High-Priced) – Bigger Revenues
High-priced items should be on the menu for all kinds of demographics. These items ensure bigger revenues even when sold in limited quantities.
Restaurant’s Speciality Items – High Priced But Sells Less – Source of High Profitability And Reputation
Exclusive dishes that have special ingredients should be included in the menu. It reflects the expertise of the chefs and quickly becomes the favorite of the people.
Other Items – Low Revenue and Popularity
There should be different types of items on the menu. Such items should be unique yet within the budget of all the people, especially students, so that your restaurant pulls the interest of a young audience and easily gets known in the city.
2. Makes Notes About Season and Trends
Design Special Menus For The Season
Revamp your menu during special seasons such as Valentine’s Day, Halloween, Diwali, etc. This attracts the people to visit the restaurant all year long.
List Items Based On The Category Mentioned Above
Trends about the ongoing pop culture and other things help in creating an interesting menu. Items that match these trends attract fans and other interested people to try the new food items.
Research And Find Out About Combo Offers
Combos are the most liked items on the menu. The customers like it better when they get to create their own combos. Combining the popular dishes with lesser popular dishes as a combo is effective for business.
3. Identify The Most Used Eye Scanning Patterns
A menu should be attractive to the eyes in terms of color, design, fonts, and other graphics. It is seen that people usually read menus in a generalized way and not line by line. Therefore, human eye scanning tendencies should be studied.
4. Divide And Combine Menu Items in Logical Groups
Place Highly Profitable Items At Top
People usually get attracted to the items placed on top. Therefore, high-revenue items should be placed there.
Make Highly Visible – Bigger Revenues But Less Popular Items
To grab the people’s attention, consider making the fonts clearer of those items that aren’t so much ordered by people and yet fetch higher revenue.
Place Highly Popular Items In The Middle Through Subtle Highlights
The items that are mostly ordered by everyone should be placed in the middle. These items will eventually be found by the people, owing to their popularity from the suggestion of their friends.
Make Combos of Low Revenue/Popularity Items With Popular Ones
People love trying combos due to the right quantity provided. This is the best opportunity to pair up the most and least popular items together.
Plan The Right Accompaniments
Accompaniments such as breadsticks, dips, bread, chips, coleslaw, etc., are to be paired as per the taste with the main dish. This way, the meals can be enjoyed to the fullest.
5. Research
Key Priority Customer Segments
Customer segment could be done on the basis of age-group, income-group, professional background, etc. On the basis of that, the tastes and preferences of the customers could be deduced.
Buyer Personas Per-Key Customer Segment
To have a buyer persona per key segment means to have a representation for your target audiences. It helps in working on the items that are to be offered.
Most Trending and Liked Themes, Trends, Stories Based on Buyer Personas
The buyer persona’s preferences should be taken into consideration to know what kind of menu they enjoy reading and analyzing. So, design it as per their recommendations.
Color Schemes and Visuals That Appeal The Most
Loud colors on the menu drive people out. Appealing colors such as yellow, orange, and others could be tried.
The Design Phase
1. Menu Size and Dimensions
A menu should be easy to hold. The too bulky menu makes it heavy. Too small menus aren’t comprehensible. That’s why the perfect size should be there.
2. Experiment With Shapes, Forms, Themes, Typography
Your menu should stand apart from another menu. Incorporate various shapes to make it unique. However, the typography and fonts should be understandable.
3. Choose Sensorial Photos For Selected Items And Create a Photo Page
A menu shouldn’t be only filled with words and numbers. A food gallery would, in the beginning, or end, lead the customers to order those items.
4. Draft The Ideal Storytelling
The ideal storytelling should revolve around a journey, history, or the people of the restaurant.
5. Choose The Best Layout Based On Your Experiments And Needs
Choosing a layout that is evenly spaced-out spreads calmness in the minds. Otherwise, congested words exert a feeling of chaos.
6. Experiment With Different Logical Divisions
Working on the basis of different logical divisions leads to the understanding of what may be a better option for curating the menu.
7. Choose A Background and Theme That Best Goes With Your Story and Revenue Generation Techniques
a) Does Your Coffee Mug Tell Stories – Highlight Them:
Crockeries and cutlery should have designs and little things that convey a hidden meaning. Ideas like bearing a quote at the rim of the coffee mug are liked by people.
b) Does Your Special Items Tell Stories – Illustrate Them:
Stories may be illustrated with the help of special items that may carry, for example, hand-drawn illustrations.
c) Are Children Your Revenue Generators – Focus on Them:
No menu is complete without a kids-special menu and a play-zone. There should be special chairs and cutlery for them.
8. Choose Typography That Enhances Readability and Style
Enhancing the readability helps in better decision-making which choosing the items. Typography needs to be distinct and clear.
9. Crisp, Clear, Item Descriptions
A description such as spice level, whether it is vegan, allergy warning should be mentioned. An A1-line description of the item should be there to express the cuisine and dish.
10. Choose 2-3 Digital Versions and Print Versions
There should be options for both conventional physical menu cards as well as digital menus. Not everyone may be acquainted with the digital menu; hence the printed versions should be there. More than one digital version should make the ordering easier.
The Post Design Phase
1. Measure Your Menu’s Impact
A menu’s impact is well understood when the customer is able to understand it without the help of the restaurant staff. When you see there is significant sales of all the items, even the less popular ones.
2. Let Your Staff Enhance Menu Item Visibility
The staff of your restaurant who work face-to-face with the customers knows what the customers want, more than others. Let them make calls as to what is to be included on the menu for improvement.
Conclusion
To enhance the business of your restaurant, it is best to engage a restaurant menu design company that is able to design your menu using the right psychology, art, and master strokes of the right design. A well-designed menu also represents the value the restaurant gives to its offerings.
Språk Design
Språk Design is the best in the field of offering restaurant menu design services. If you are looking for an expert that has experience in designing a menu for different kinds of restaurant, then consider Språk Design as your helping hand. Contact us today!