The restaurant menu is often ignored but it is one of the most important internal advertising tools. If you are in the restaurant business, you have to invest in your menu because it gives the customer an instant snapshot of your offerings. In the end, a clean menu is crucial to communicating your brand.

When it comes to menu design, there are two options here – hiring designers or designing it personally. If you design it personally, you should consider a tool. Some tools are free some are not so you have to check at the onset or you can get more info here…

To help you get started, here are the things that you need to know about designing restaurant menus:

Take steps before designing a menu

As with any creative endeavor, desired outcomes cannot be achieved without the following:

• Research: the initial step is research. When designing, you have to collect data from different sources. As much as possible, read industry sources like published research or trade publications.
• Examine: the next thing is to examine your numbers and the sales mix.
• Check the competitors: you have to check the competitors by visiting their websites and menus. In general, you should know about their marketing efforts.
• Consider the location: keep in mind that your customers will usually come from residents living within a 10-minute drive. With this, you have to determine your restaurant menu, common items versus competitors and variety.

Think about how your menu best represents your restaurant’s personality

When it is time to make a design, you should think about how your menu best represents your restaurant’s personality. If your restaurant is trying to exude a classy and sophisticated place, a small and plain text menu can be used to enhance the restaurant’s elegance.

If the restaurant is trying to exude a festive side, a thick and flashy menu can emphasize just like that. As soon as you identify your restaurant’s personality, you can start crafting the look for your menu to match that or you can visit here.

Mimic the dining experience

When designing a menu, it should at least mimic the dining experience you want. Here are some things that you should consider when mimicking the dining experience:

• You should arrange the items chronologically from appetizers to salads, soups, entrees, and desserts.
• It is recommended to put the star items on pages that have more visual knack than others.
• To draw attention, you can simply set photographs or markets around the featured items.
• Put a spotlight on specialty or signature items. You can also do this if you introduce newer selections.

Avoid common pitfalls

If your menu creates problems for your customers, they will less likely to return. With this, you have to avoid common pitfalls that include the following:

• If the menu print is too small that it is hard to read.
• If the menus are too big to easily handle.
• If the menus do not have English translations especially for non-English phrases or words.
• If the menus do not have daily or weekly insets.
• If the foods are nothing like their photos.