How to make a menu for a restaurant?
How to make a menu for a restaurant?
The menu is one of the most important attributes of every restaurant. Without it and even more importantly, without it's quality structure it will be really hard to develop a successful restaurant. To create a high quality menu there are plenty of important factors. They are the menu's content, subject and purpose, main layout, design and order.
The menu itself could be digital or made from paper. Both versions are having their positives and negatives. But the digital menu is a brand new tendency in the restaurant business, the paper one is classic and it could always play a good role in your complete strategy.
Let's have a look at the elements of one good menu.
The purpose of a menu
It could be defined by lots of factors, Some of the questions, that you have to consider are:
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Who are the clients that you would like to attract?
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What would they like to receive?
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What does the area could propose?
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What kind of meals to trust - native or worldwide?
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What is your staff capable of?
For example, if your Chef is good at making sushi or pasta, so this is a sign that you have to trust exactly these skills. If the area could offer developing attractive native meals, this is another factor. Third example is if there are some clients who have unsatisfied needs - for example a wish for a barbeque bar.
Answer the above questions and you will be able to choose the purpose of your menu, which is going to work for your restaurant.
The structure of the menu
On first place, the menu has to be made in an equal order. As well, it shouldn't be as long as a classic novel. Just think about what difficulty this creates. In this case you will need to take care of products for meals which you sell not very often. You prefer the quality than the quantity. Bonus, we could trust the fresh products of every season. Their availability is easy to maintain, and the clients usually prefer the season meals with them.
Offer diversity of range and separate it in groups. It's not needed to overload every group. You choose the quality. The clients are going to appreciate it.
It is very important the first page of the menu to be a patent of the "Daily specials", more seen here as the Lunch menu.
The content of the menu
It depends fully on the staff that you have. Meals which we see very often could be missing in your menu, but this doesn't mean that it's forbidden. You could just rely on the different stuff.
When you decide what your final assortment is going to be, it's important in what order you will make it. It's not necessary to start always with the salads which you offer. You could start with some soups or appetite developers. Whatever you choose, you have to consider the clients habits. If your type of restaurant's standard menu starts with sushi, choose sushi for start. If salads are the standard for start, start with them. After all, the main thing is to navigate easily in it..
It's important to focus on the order of the different groups. Their order could start from the cheapest to the most expensive or from most wanted to the most exotic. The optimal way is to mix and put more forward at least one meal that you want to show.
If your restaurant is visited often by families, you can create a kids menu. The importance of it is to be considered for the kids. The rights size of the portions and avoiding junk food is extremely useful for it.
Design of the text
Before you send the menu for a stamp, make sure that there are no mistakes - the order is right, text types are the same and considered with the light in the restaurant, text is easy to read. As well, it is very important not to forget the weights and prices (including the currency). Another advice from us: Imagine the menu of someone you know, very often we can't see our own mistakes, even if they are easy to notice.
If you are planning to start using the digital menu, then it will be easy to correct your mistakes. In this type of menu we still need to follow the following rules: similar text type, talking names of specialities, weights, texts which are easy to read, nice order, prices. You can also include some allergy information.
Translation
If you think that foreigners will be visiting your restaurant, so a translation of your menu is going to be needed. But for that you need to double check if everything is translated properly, because we can't rely on Google Translate. You can't have mistakes in the menu, especially in front of people who rely on this translation, so they can order the meal that they want.
Creating prices
For this part of the menu there are few main factors. The first one is the rivalry. It is also important to know and plan what income and expenses your restaurant is going to have. Surplus charge should be different for every product. There is no way to have the same surplus charge for alcohol and soft drinks, they need to be considered with the delivery companies and the prices on the market for final clients. The last and most important thing - Your restaurant is functioning to make a profit. Create prices and use good enough extras and buffers for unexpected expenses.
Design
The design has to be similar to the style of your restaurant. Very important are the type and materials that the folder is going to be made from. The restaurants and menus colors need to be similar. The pages need to be clean and classy. The content has to be clearly divided into columns and readable.
These rules are for paper and digital menus. If you have a digital menu you can easily change and adapt the design to the restaurant's aims. After consultation with the specialists who maintain your menu, you can choose the most suitable and most functional design.
Take the innovations on your side
Do you know that 31% of the restaurants are renewing their menus every month and 24% - every season? (Restaurant Success Report, Toast Tab)
Exactly that's why some of the big shops, for example Starbucks, pointed their effort in having less expenses from paper menus and they chose the digital ones.
The digital menu is a great step to less expenses, easier maintenance and personalising. Not accidently one of the biggest advantages of 21st century is the digital power. Today is easier than ever to have a digital version of your menu, to have digital system for reservations or to give an option for online orders to your clients. In the same time the customers are using the technologies more and more and they see the advantage in doing that. That's why we can help you to make it easier for them, and they will appreciate it with more loyalty. You can find more for the digital products, which can transform your business: https://tabl.bg/za-nas
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