How to make a restaurant menu: layout, words and prices

How many dishes

The most common menu mistake is having too much on it. A long menu is slower to read, harder to cook from, and means more stock going to waste. A shorter menu lets each dish be better, and makes customers more confident in choosing.

• Five to seven dishes a section is plenty for most cafés and restaurants.
• Every dish should earn its place: it sells well, it makes good money, or it uses ingredients you already stock for something else.
• Share ingredients across dishes. The roasted peppers in the salad can go in the sandwich and on the flatbread.
• Cut the dishes nobody orders. Look at your till: the bottom few rarely deserve their space.

Sections and their order

Group dishes the way people eat a meal, so they can find their way without thinking. A typical order:

If you serve different menus through the day, such as breakfast until 11:30 and then lunch, show only the one that’s being served. A printed menu has to carry both; a phone menu can switch at the right time.

Dish descriptions that sell

A dish name tells people what it is. A description tells them why they want it. One line is usually enough, and specific words beat grand ones.

• Name what’s special: the cooking method (slow-roasted, charred, hand-pulled), the main ingredients and anything local or made in-house.
• Keep it honest. “Homemade” and “local” should be true; customers notice, and so do trading standards.
• Mark dietary needs clearly: vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, spicy. And give allergen information the way the law asks; see menu allergen labelling for the 14 allergens.

Pricing your menu

Price each dish from what it costs you to make, then adjust for what your customers will pay. The usual starting point is the food cost percentage: the cost of the ingredients as a share of the price.

Many cafés and restaurants aim for food costs of roughly a quarter to a third of the price, but the right figure depends on your rent, wages and how much work each dish takes. Drinks usually carry a lower cost share than food, which helps balance a menu.

• Recost twice a year, or whenever an ingredient’s price jumps.
• Write prices plainly: “12.50” or “£12.50”, lined up on the right or after each description. Long rows of dots leading to prices invite people to compare prices instead of reading dishes.
• Show prices the way the law asks. In the UK, prices shown to customers should include VAT, and any service charge should be made clear on the menu.
• Use sizes where they make sense (small and large, a slice or a whole cake), rather than two separate dishes.

Layout that’s easy to read

• Big enough type. Menus are read in dim light, by people of every age. If you’re unsure, go bigger.
• One or two fonts, with dish names in bold and descriptions in a lighter weight.
• Space between dishes. Crowded menus look cheap and are slow to scan.
• Highlight a few dishes, such as a signature dish, a special or a best seller. Highlight everything and nothing stands out.
• Hours, address and how to book on the menu people take away or see online.

Make it in Menu Maker

1. Open Menu Maker and add your place’s name, address, hours and currency.
2. Add sections in the order above, and dishes to each: a name, a one-line description, the price (up to three sizes), dietary tags and the 14 allergens. Or import your dishes from a spreadsheet.
3. Choose the VAT and service lines that show under the menu, such as “Prices include VAT”.
4. Pick a theme, a colour and a font, and turn on bigger text if your customers will thank you for it.
5. Share and print: a link and a QR code for phones, table cards with the QR code, a window poster and a printed menu as PDFs.

When something runs out, mark it sold out in one tap. A free menu lives inside its own link, so after a change you share again and print new codes; with Menu Maker Pro’s short link (yuzool.com/menu/your-name) the printed code stays the same and shows the change once you press Update. Pro also adds more menus that open at their own times (breakfast, lunch, drinks), specials on chosen days, happy hour prices, pictures on dishes and more languages. The step-by-step for the QR code itself is in how to set up a QR code menu.

Test it before you print

• Read every price aloud against your till or price list.
• Ask someone new to order from it. Watch where they hesitate.
• Check the allergens with the kitchen, dish by dish, recipe by recipe.
• Open it on a phone in the corner of the room with the weakest signal.
• Print one copy and look at it at arm’s length before you print fifty.