So, now it’s your concern, how to design a menu for a restaurant that’ll set you apart from others. Probably, it goes on in your mind how to design a captivating menu for your restaurant that nobody has done before! If yes, we say we can help you with a comprehensive guide on how to design an engaging menu for a restaurant business!
You may not take this seriously as a customer! But you have to consider ensuring an engaging design of the restaurant menu when managing the restaurant, and you want to see steady growth in the sales of your dishes!
Isn’t that so?
Consider when you visit a restaurant for dinner with your friends or family! Which thing you take a look at first? Surely, it’s the menu of the restaurant. Is it only the names of the dishes and the associated price to finalize your order? No, it’s not! You consciously or subconsciously look for something more: the “Design” that reflects the restaurant's identity!
Indeed, a menu card communicates with the customer about the overall ambiance of the place, builds an overall picture of the restaurant in the customers’ mind, and finally, creates an appeal so the customers can enjoy their time in that restaurant by ordering their favorite dishes.
So, how can you design a restaurant menu that will set your restaurant apart from the competitors with more than tasty dishes? Yeah!, this is a matter of great significance that’ll covey the overall appearance of your restaurant with the menu card! In this blog, we’ll cover a comprehensive guide on how to design a menu for a restaurant, from generating the idea to putting the menu card on the customers’ table!
Feel the vibe of an attractive menu can change the game? Read on.
Think about the differences between someone just telling you about the names of the dishes available and someone presenting the names of the dishes in a catchy way on a beautifully designed menu card! Which one will touch your mind? Surely, the second one.
With a design, you establish a position in the customers’ minds, which compels your customers to come to your restaurant repeatedly. You also need to please your customers so that they have a positive feeling even before starting the dishes!
To create a killer menu design—you must focus on everything like layout, color, typography, pricing psychology, image placement, and many more! However, to create such a design, you just need to follow several steps and follow them step by step to design an exceptional menu for a restaurant business!
You’ll be glad to know that we’ve done thorough research and selected the steps involved in the process with which you can create a design for your restaurant that creates ‘value’ for your customers! Better, we dive into the steps one by one and learn how to design a menu for a restaurant!
Know the choice of your audience! Understand their minds. After that, design an engaging as well as mind-triggering menu that’ll convert your customers into your guts. Your design begins with knowing more about your target customers. Look, you’ve already started your restaurant and understand whom you will serve, their taste, choice, and preference must be analyzed.
If you can ideally incorporate these into your design, it’ll surely be attractive to your target audience. Another more important thing is what your restaurant is! If you can align what you are with your target customer through your designs, you are supposed to create a bridge between you and your customers through the menu card design.
So, how can you define your target audience? Well, you can analyze who they are first. Make some criteria like:
While this is a draft questionnaire to get to know your target customer, are you wholly concerned about your restaurant? As you know your audience, you know what you provide them. Surely, set the key things for your design like:
After that, you can finish getting a complete idea about both parties and proceed to the next!
Indeed, a carefully planned layout helps to start the engagement with your customers and attract them to choose an item that represents your restaurant! So, incorporating design principles with the eye-tracking method blends and sets the perfect layout of the menu card.
So, what is the eye-tracking science we are talking about? Well, here is a brief idea on that:
The Golden Triangle: Customers first look at the top right corner or the middle of a two-page menu; they usually glance at the top center for a one-page menu.
Highlighting: Some hotspots, like the restaurant's unique or trendy items, can grab customers' attention. You must position these items in the most prominent places on the card to grab the reader's attention! So, you can present the layout with some tricks like:
This is closely related to your layout. You need to fix the menu size, which has a significant psychological impact on customers. So, here is a brief discussion of the different menu sizes and the results they are supposed to bring!
In addition, you can choose between “Physical” and “Digital” menu designs! Which one you should choose depends on who your target customers are. Are you feeling curious and want to know more? Here you go!
Where traditional foods are served, indeed. For example, you might prepare some Indigenous food to give the customer a feeling of returning to childhood and eating with Mom! Yeah. Physical design is ideal when your target customers are primarily middle-aged and above.
Well, the physical menu can be used in other places, too, if you can design it well. Physical menus need to be updated regularly. Besides, it offers the opportunity to present luxury items with attractive designs.
The discussion above is just a glimpse of a vast area! You must carefully analyze everything before finalizing your style because once you set one, it is not wise to change that quickly!
We are entirely on track to creating stunning restaurant menu card designs! We know our audience and what we want to sell. We also know how to arrange our menu cards to instigate our customers' curiosity! So, how do you categorize your items on the menu card?
Firstly, follow the logical order:
When offering a full-course item for lunch or dinner, you can follow the sequence you follow practically, starting with appetizers, then entrees, desserts, and finally, beverages. This helps the customers simplify their decision-making because they can pick the items they prefer from each group. Besides, you put some stickers or anything that goes with the group so the customer can feel the food before you make an order.
In each group, follow a pattern like high-priced foods first and then the signature item next with a catchy name! The pattern should be consistent in each group to help create a brand position in the customer's mind.
Secondly, creating clear sub-categories:
The more inclusivity you present, the more homely the customer will feel. Thus, you can create separate categories from your main dishes to help customers choose their customized foods!
Specify this sub-category for better understanding.
For instance — you can label like “Vegan’s Paradise” and add foods specially for vegetarians. Use the space on the menu card to separate each from the other. Creatively use images and designs that reflect the beauty of the certain group so that the customer feels honored!
How is a dish prepared?
After how many attempts and experiments is a recipe finalized? Don’t you think every menu card item has its own story? A story that tells you about the feeling you are going to get? So, if your customer only sees the name and moves to the next, won’t the story remain unnoticed? Besides, with the story behind each time, your offers get an added value that enhances your brand image.
So, how do you tell the story? The answer is writing short descriptions. The next question comes: How do you write an appealing description? Here is a guide for you to do that!
And yes, you need to combine those with attractive typography, icons, and other elements to deliver your message more effectively!
The same food may indeed be sold at different prices in different places. So, why will someone buy it from you if you are not offering it at the lowest price? Well, when you successfully make them understand that yours tastes the best and gives you a feeling that no one dares to do, you will win the battle!
But a customer can only taste food after ordering, right? So, you need to set a strategy to give the customer a feeling of gaining something special with the items! Here are some tricks to get the psychological advantage while setting the price!
You need to make an effort from different ends and thus create the pricing to please your customers. However, the taste of your foods will carry the next part though!
Your restaurant is special because it offers unique items found nowhere else! So, you need to place those signature items on your menu card in a way that will attract customers' attention! So, how to do that? Here are a few tips from us!
While these are our suggestions, you can brainstorm and implement more innovative ideas! However, we have tips for another important part: getting the most out of your high-profit items with your menu card! So, how do you increase the sales of your high-profit items with the menu card?
It’s an ongoing process. You continuously research and find better ideas and incorporate them successfully!
Choosing the perfect color and typography is more important than you think. It’s not just about looking good; it’s about presenting your identity to your customers! To choose the suitable color and style of typography, you can follow some of our tips!
Apart from the above, here are other tips regarding the font to select for your menu!
With a careful combination of font color, size, alignment, and other elements, you can create a menu your customers will like to remember even after leaving your restaurant!
You have selected the right font, color, and other elements. You need to incorporate stunning visuals and images to increase the customer's taste. Are you wondering which one to choose? No worries—we are here for you!
In some cases, you can use images drawn by hand instead of actual photos, like the coffee beans drawn with pencils, to make that more aesthetic. Some items are more than foods; coffee or beverage items are like those. On the other hand, you can take the opportunity to show your creative talent to build a next-level image of your restaurant!
The blank area of the menu card is not useless; instead, it significantly enhances your menu card designs. Here are a few ways to use the white spaces on your menu card for effective navigation!
Yup. Your customer is your asset, and you need to get the best out of a customer by achieving their satisfaction. So, when you are selling food your customer is looking for, your smartness can add something more to that, increasing your sales and making your customer even happier!
So, how do you do this cross-selling? Here are a few tricks you can follow!
Besides incorporating innovative ideas, you should train your staff to provoke customers smartly.
What is the type of your restaurant?
Is it a small coffee shop or a buffet place with more than 300 items? Who are your target customers? Go back to the top of this article and consider who you serve.
What are your customers looking for? Remember that it is not you; your customers are heroes, and you are just helping them win! Here, you will give them a vibe of getting the best food in town! So, arrange your menu card accordingly. If you sell seafood, you can use blue waves as a cartoon image of dolphins, octopuses, and others so that the customer feels like they are in an ocean of seafood after seeing the menu card!
So, choose a theme that connects you and your customers and start a relationship with the card!
After much research and effort, consider that you have completed your menu. Accept the fact that your customer may still not like it. So, what to do?
Create different menu cards, such as one single page and another folded one. Then, compare which one looks good.
Try to use alternative colors, themes, or fonts and compare which shows better appeal.
After finalizing your menu card and launching it the next day, try to gather customer feedback. Make it effective in the following way:
For the menu card, try to use boxes in different colors. This helps you separate one group from another. You can group the key items of your restaurant, while similar foods can be placed in another box.
While these boxes can enhance the beauty of your card, they can also improve the layout of your menu card. With each box, you can create something new!
Yeah!
You never know how vital the proofreading is! A stunning design can be abandoned because of a simple typing mistake. So, before final printing, keep a sample print and check every detail meticulously. It’s better to dedicate a team to reviewing the design and all others so that the quality remains as you expect.
When everything is absolutely fine, go for printing and wait for the massive change to occur through your menu card!
You need an eagle's eye to keep everything in order and meticulously nuanced! Even after working so hard, your design may not appeal to your customers as anticipated. So, what went wrong? Here are some ideas you can work with to find the fault!
So, what are your thoughts about designing a menu card now? Have you found the above guide on how to design a menu for a restaurant helpful for you? Yeah, your answer is maybe yes!
Hold on a second. Has it changed from what it was initially? Think from the raw! Customers can cook at home and enjoy the food with their family. So, when they are in your restaurant, they expect something extra that is not in their home. Now, if you think that the delicious food is everything they are looking for, you’re wrong!
The whole environment of your restaurant and the aesthetics are part of your success. It starts with the menu card! It’s the way to create the first impression, which is also supposed to be the last one. So, follow the guidelines and know how to design a restaurant menu!
Sure, you can use your creative self with your marketing genius to stand out from your competitors! Let the creation of your brand image start with the menu card you will provide to your customers! On the contrary, if you feel any hassle with how to design an engaging menu and from where? Simply, we recommend you Graphic Design Eye will be the best choice for you to create a highly engaging menu for your restaurant!
Why Graphic Design Eye? They have a team of top-class graphic designers and they design masterpiece menus for their clients. So, why not for yours? Yeah, you look into top-notch menu design services, so, no doubt, Graphic Design Eye will be the best choice for you!
We love to see you going with Graphic Design Eye for an exceptional menu design idea for your restaurant! 🙂
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