Restaurants are an industry of special significance. Those who venture into this field do so primarily because they are passionate about it and could never envision working elsewhere. This is an entirely understandable feeling.
According to WebFx, 90% of adults enjoy eating out at restaurants. These statistics show that the restaurant industry will only boom in the coming years. As you can imagine in this growing market competition can get tough which means running a restaurant can be very challenging.
To mitigate this challenge, restaurants must prioritize building a strong brand identity to make sure people continue recognizing and visiting their establishments.
The first step in achieving this goal is designing the best restaurant menu. A restaurant’s menu design can directly affect the revenue it generates every day and the morale of its patrons.
Have you ever wondered how something so simple can greatly impact your overall restaurant sales? This blog will explore the impact of menu design on a restaurant’s success and tips for making your menu design stand out. Let’s dive in!
What is the Importance of Menu Design in The Restaurant Industry?
Marketing for restaurants can be tricky, but it can be very successful when done correctly. Restaurants tend to focus their marketing efforts on tools such as social media, Google My Business profile, display advertising, and other similar tools. There is little recognition of the importance of restaurant menus as a marketing tool.
But if you get it right, you have the ace. Why is that? What do your customers expect when entering your restaurant, taking out counter, website, or another online platform? While they enjoy reading your story and browsing other designs, the menus catch their attention. As a result, it needs to impress them right away. With the help of a unique restaurant menu design, you can highlight your eatery’s branding elements like logo, colors, theme, and even USP.
For this purpose, it’s a good idea to get professional restaurant logos designed so you can add them to the layout of menus.
Today’s customers browse countless options online before selecting a restaurant menu, which is why menu design matters so much. Your menu design can determine whether they choose your diner or ignore it.
What constitutes a good menu design for a restaurant? How can you make the impact effective? What should you look for? Let’s discuss these questions in detail.
3 Major Elements of a Good Menu Design
Aesthetic preferences may differ; however, all good menu designs must incorporate certain features. There are many important characteristics to consider when creating a restaurant menu design since many people consider design subjective.
Your restaurant menu design should be:
Readable
Draws customers to the food establishment
Maintains the identity of the brand
1. Readability
This is one of the most significant factors in a restaurant’s menu design. If the customer cannot read the information about your food items, no matter how great the names of the items are and how delicious the dishes taste, all is lost.
You need to make your menu design easier to read and scan. The information you provide your customers must be clear and easy to access. You should not have them search for more than five seconds, or you are at risk of losing their attention.
2. Attractiveness
Dining out is not only a culinary experience but also a visual one. Our eyes get the taste of the food before our mouth. For this reason, chefs spend a great deal of time preparing the presentation of their dishes.
Make sure your restaurant menu design extends the same courtesy to your customers by tempting them to place an order the moment they see the food. Your menu should be designed in such a way that it would tempt someone to order more than just the starters.
3. Brand Identity
Lastly, You need to make sure that all the branding aspects like your restaurant’s logo, professionally designed website, color palettes, and typography follow a consistent theme.
A well-designed restaurant menu displays your brand to potential customers. Does it belong to a luxury chain of restaurants or a small family-run diner? What kind of establishment is it?
As a result of these factors, the customer will have the right expectations, leading to long-term delight. Your message is much more effective when communicated through design and stays with the recipient longer.
Features of Effective Menu Design For Restaurant Business
Now, let’s talk about some of the most effective features to add to your menu design to grab customer attention and stand out.
1. Follows Eye-scanning Patterns
Since the beginning of the 80s when diner culture started to gain traction, most restaurants designed their menus so that the “sweet spot” at the top right of the page immediately attracted the customer’s attention. In that corner, the items with the highest profit margins were located.
According to recent research, most customers read menus from the left-hand corner of the menu and prefer menus presented in a book-style format. What makes a good menu presentation is the subject of many opinions and statistics. That’s why it is always best to contact a good menu designer to create a well-designed menu for your restaurant.
Screenshot: Source
2. Minimal and Relevant Cuisine Photos
If the food photography is done professionally, adding photos to a menu effectively attracts customers. However, you should be careful not to add pictures of all types of dishes as it will clutter your design. Always go with the less is more approach.
Only add pictures sparingly for your main courses or if you have some seasonal specials. This lets people experience the food with their eyes first.
Image Source: iStock/phaisarn2517
3. Attractive Menu Cover
The inner pages of the menu are instinctively thought of when discussing menu design while menu covers hardly get any attention. However, it plays an important role in capturing the customers’ attention. The first thing customers notice when they review the menu is the cover. You can also use your restaurant’s menu cover as a thumbnail or cover image for your restaurant’s banner ad on your website or social media page.
Here are a few key factors to consider when designing the cover of your restaurant’s menu:
Make your restaurant’s branding and logo prominent at the center or top right corner.
The design style should complement the theme of the restaurant.
Provide details regarding your online presence like adding social media handles and website URLs.
The paper quality and specification for the cover should be included when you are working with a design team to develop a restaurant menu.
Screenshot: Pinterest
4. Limited Use of Currency Symbols
Researchers at Cornell University have found that when people order from menus without dollar signs ($), they spend significantly more than those ordering from a menu with currency symbols ($).
Customers clearly understand the number that appears next to the menu item. The dollar symbol, for instance, is associated with spending money, so it should be avoided altogether.
Make sure that dollar signs are removed from your price list and that prices are not listed in a single column because comparisons are immediately possible.
5. Clear Borders or Boxes to Separate Food Items
You can also put food items with the greatest profit margins, which can also be marketed in unique-shaped boxes.
You may have noticed that many high-end restaurants display their entrees or special menu items in boxes of various shapes. This is a clever tactic that persuades customers to try them out.
Screenshot: Source
6. Use of Brand-Relevant Typography
Typography plays an important role in restaurant menu design. Before selecting a typeface you need to consider these two factors:
Approximately how much text must fit on the page perfectly?
Using more than one typeface is necessary to distinguish the item names and descriptions.
7. Eye-Catching Color Themes
What is your restaurant’s theme? What are your target customers? All these questions will determine the color schemes and theme for your diner. For your restaurant’s menu booklet, you can pick a maximum of two or three different colors for different food sections. Don’t overdo it with the colors.
Image Source: iStock/Luxcor
8. Optimized for Website and Social Media
You should ensure your menu can be viewed online, as people love to browse through different restaurant’s menus online before deciding where to dine.
Many restaurants add their menu on the website in PDF form to highlight the beautiful design. It’s also a good idea to have it written out directly on the page (as HTML text) to make it accessible for guests with screenreaders.
Image Source: iStock/grinvalds
Essential Tips for Designing Your Restaurant Menu
1. Divide Your Menu into Logical Sections
You might have noticed that restaurant menus are typically divided into various sections. These sections are labeled with headers like Appetizers, Specials, Entrees, Desserts, and so on.
These sections are ordered logically so that people can easily search for all the available options. As you can see an organized menu makes it easier for customers to decide what they want to order.
Screenshot: Source
2. Consider Using Illustration
If you don’t want to add real pictures of food to your menu, then consider using creative illustrations. Instead of telling your customers what they can get, you can use illustrations in your restaurant menu design to show them the food options.
Illustrations are also a great way to showcase your restaurant’s personality if you cater to bold and edgy taste buds. Remember the last you ordered something from a menu only because it looked delicious and appealed to your taste buds.
Image Source: iStock/Marchiez
3. Use White Space for Clarity
No one likes to read too much text on the menu. An uncluttered restaurant menu design makes it easy for people to scan each listed item and also improves readability–another important element of the restaurant menu design we discussed earlier.
To overcome the cluttered design, you need to leave some white space around each section and corner. This helps people quickly go through your menu and make a prompt decision.
Screenshot: Source
4. Reduce the Burden of Choice
We all have heard this saying too many choices can confuse people even more. People have already put so much time into selecting a place to eat that it’s an even bigger toll on them to go through a long list of menus.
Adding too many menu items may seem like a sensible thing to do because logically the more options you have the bigger the chances of capturing various taste buds. However; in reality, the opposite happens. When you give too many food options to people it takes longer for them to compare and decide what they want to order.
This can ultimately impact your restaurant’s sales as people will take a long time to place orders which will increase the table turn time.
Image Source: iStock/paseven
Conclusion
There you have it! Our in-depth discussion on how you can design your restaurant’s menu to promote your food business. We have discussed that developing a high-quality menu is one of the key components of a successful restaurant strategy. You should also ensure that your menu reflects your culinary style and highlights your most profitable items.
Remember these important points when you sit down to create your restaurant menu design.
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