Sample menu from StockLayouts
Last week I was telling you about the importance of bathroom lighting in a restaurant. Sometimes though, you don’t even have to go that far to see the #FAIL. It comes straight to your table out of the hands of a friendly waitress.
My tribulations brought me to a nice crêperie, in one of Lyon’s poshest neighborhood. It was lunch time. I was famished. I love crêpes. Sweet deal! The place is super cute, brown wall, colorful accents, friendly, clean. The staff is amicable, the dishes on the other tables look delish… everything works to perfection until… they bring me the menu.
I totally understand that a crêperie, in France, has a little bit of the same issue as a diner in the U.S.: a VERY complete menu, that often changes and does not always fit. This is no excuse to bring me the ugliest green plastic folder with photocopied pages that they did.
Too many items? Cut through! Keep what sales and what gives you the best R.O.I. Be smart. If you want to be creative, do it through specials. Not everything needs to be on the menu.
The menu is your business card inside the house. It should show your restaurant’s personality and help the customer make decisions. Not drown him into a see of choices until he gasps for air.
In today’s world, you don’t even need to invest in the service of an expensive graphic designer if you can’t afford it (although I would still recommend to do so for higher-end businesses that cannot afford to see their menu design in another local restaurant). There are options to purchase templates for as low as $99 and they look pretty good. I would totally recommend the one above to my crêperie.
What constitutes a great menu design?
The most important thing to keep in mind when designing your menu is your customers. Research shows that most people look to the top right corner of your menu first. This is a good place to feature one of your most popular menu items. One thing is sure, never ending pages of content are a bad idea. Let it breathe! Highlight things, use the layout to tell a story…
According to Dr. Dave Pavesic, a former restaurateur who now teaches courses on restaurant cost control, financial management, and food production at the Cecil B. Day School of Hospitality at Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA, in his article Psychology of a Restaurant Menu,
The menu is the most important internal marketing and sales tool a restaurant has to market its food and beverage to customers. It is the only piece of printed advertising that you are virtually 100 percent sure will be read by the guest. Once placed in the guest’s hand, it can directly influence not only what they will order, but ultimately how much they will spend. Menu design directly influences sales revenue. Management is constantly forecasting business volume to estimate how much to buy, keep in inventory, and prepare. A properly designed menu makes these kinds of decisions easier and more accurate.
So whether it’s on the customer end, on the management/cost-control end or on the staff end, a well-designed menu is a win-win-win! Maybe something to consider investing in…
