The menu is also a tool to help restaurants promote business efficiency and make customers more satisfied. If you know how to apply the right principles of menu construction that VDS shares in the article below, your shop will have a scientific and effective menu, bringing many benefits and helping the restaurant’s business grow sustainably.
1. What is a restaurant menu, eatery?
The restaurant menu is a document providing information about food and drinks that the restaurant can serve to customers. Through the menu, customers can understand what dishes the restaurant has, how much they cost, what ingredients are in each dish, … so customers can easily order dishes that suit their needs and tastes.
The menu does not have to specify the price of each dish, the shop owner can consider what information to put on the menu to suit their preferences. Typically, the menu is written in up to 3 languages and interspersed with images of food and drinks to enhance visual appeal and attractiveness.
2. The characteristics of restaurant menus
Nowadays, restaurant menus are designed based on menu construction principles and have increasingly diverse, attractive, and international elements.
Furthermore, menus not only need to provide sufficient information to customers but also need to have a close relationship with the brand identity of the establishment. Additionally, restaurant menus must be arranged in a logical sequence, presented in an easy-to-read and elegant manner. Moreover, a restaurant menu should demonstrate the following:
List all the dishes and beverages served by the restaurant.
The language used in the menu should be concise, easy to understand, and accurately describe the food items.
Present a visually appealing menu that is not cluttered, does not contain excessive information or images that are hard to read.
There should be a maximum of 3 languages in one menu. For a restaurant, menu development should be given priority, and restaurants should invest effort in researching and designing to prepare a menu that is suitable for the restaurant’s style and convenient for customers.
3. The role of the menu in restaurants and eateries.
The menu serves not only to list dishes but also as a tool to attract and persuade customers to spend more money at the establishment. In addition, the menu brings many other benefits to the restaurant, which you can learn more about in the section below:
3.1. The powerful advertising tool
The main menu is a means of conveying useful information to customers. You can embed a lot of important information in the menu to advertise the Shop to customers in a unique and impressive way. For example, images of the Shop’s special dishes, brand stories, award-winning images received by the Shop,…
3.2. Help prepare a plan and calculate input costs
The menu will help the business and kitchen, bar counter departments to plan service and calculate ingredient costs effectively. In addition, customers when reading the menu will also estimate how many dishes are reasonable with their budget and appetite.
3.3. Support management supervision
Based on the menu, restaurant managers as well as chefs, serving staff can grasp and supervise each step from processing, serving dishes, revenue,…
3.4. Basis for accounting and balancing budgets
Based on the menu, the Shop owner can calculate profits in investing in various dishes. From there, make decisions on what dishes to continue selling, what to remove to suit the restaurant’s situation at each time.
3.5. Skillful Upsell tool
Arranging images, information about special dishes, best-selling dishes or promotions, combos in prominent positions on the menu is a very skillful and effective way to upsell. Customers will automatically pay attention to that information and consider ordering more.
4. The principles of building a scientific and effective restaurant menu
The principles of building a menu are things that shop owners should pay attention to so that the menu content is not only scientific but also optimized effectively. Here are the details of the principles of building a restaurant menu:
4.1 The menu must be suitable for eating habits
Eating habits here are the food preferences of customers. That means restaurants should choose types of food that are suitable for the target customers they are aiming for. For example, Italian food, Chinese food or forest and seafood menus.
4.2 The menu must be economically suitable for the target customers
Every restaurant targets a specific customer base. The economic status of the target customers will determine what dishes the restaurant should have on the menu. The prices of the dishes listed in the menu must be reasonable for the customers’ budget, some dishes with high costs or seasonal prices should have separate notes.
4.3 The menu must be suitable for the weather
The weather is divided into two main seasons: hot and cold, building menus that are suitable for the weather will make customers more satisfied.
4.3.1 Menu construction for the hot season
The restaurant menu for the hot season should focus on dishes that are cooling, with light and pleasant flavors, and avoid dishes with strong smells. In terms of design, choose fresh and cool tones to create a comfortable feeling for guests.
4.3.2 Menu construction for the cold season
During the cold season, restaurants should build dishes with warm and rich flavors. Hotpot dishes or broths, soups, etc., are very suitable for this weather. The menu design should mix warm tones to create a cozy atmosphere for diners. 4.5 Menu catering to the tastes of local consumers
4.6 The menu meets the local consumer’s taste
When applying the principles of menu construction for a restaurant, you need to keep in mind that even if the restaurant serves dishes from different regions, you still need to select dishes that are suitable for the local customers’ tastes. If you choose dishes that are too exotic and do not meet the customers’ tastes, then surely the customers will not want to enjoy them.
4.7 The menu must match the seasonal nature of ingredients
There are many types of ingredients that only appear seasonally. Therefore, when constructing a menu, the restaurant owner needs to choose dishes with ingredients available at the time the restaurant serves that dish to customers. In cases where the ingredients are not always available, you need to clearly note that.
4.8 The menu must have a reasonable food structure
The principle of constructing a menu for a restaurant is very important, which is to arrange the food structure reasonably. The menu should include appetizers, side dishes, main courses, beverages, etc., to provide a complete meal for the customers.
4.9 The menu must meet design requirements
The menu needs to be consistently designed, visually appealing, easy to read, and preferably accompanied by illustrations to attract more attention from customers. Using tables and columns in the menu will create a neat overall appearance. Each menu page should only use 1-2 columns with wide margins to make it comfortable for customers to read.
In addition, the columns need to have a simple structure, symmetrical spacing, and combine with attractive fonts. Regarding color, you should coordinate colors to match the brand colors. Do not forget to intersperse sharp and eye-catching images of the dishes and drinks from the restaurant to entice customers and make them feel hungry, curious, and eager to order immediately.
Additionally, special decorations for signature dishes are essential. You can add arrows, ribbons, border lines, etc., to the images and information of those dishes.
5. Refer to how to build a famous restaurant menu
To have your menu built best, refer to some famous restaurant menus below
5.1 Menu for self-service buffet restaurants
The buffet menu is a menu that customers choose and serve themselves. Therefore, the menu for self-service buffet restaurants needs to list all the food and drinks being served at the counters.
5.2 Menu for restaurants to choose dishes
The principle of building a menu for a restaurant is to intersperse detailed information about the dishes as well as images of the dishes to make them visually appealing and attractive to stimulate customers’ appetites and curiosity about the food.
5.3 Building a menu that changes according to the meal
The menu for each meal is usually a set menu consisting of 5 – 9 dishes, suitable for the time when customers order. You should build a menu that suits the appetite and taste of customers for each meal: breakfast, lunch, dinner.
5.4 Building a menu that changes according to the season
If your restaurant serves seasonal dishes, the menu should reflect the characteristics of the food based on the characteristics of each season.
6. Building a restaurant menu template according to scientific and efficient principles at VDS.
If you want to design a restaurant menu yourself to save costs and easily update menu content while still ensuring the principles of menu construction, then take advantage of VDS’s menu template repository. VDS’s menu template repository provides ready-made menu design templates that meet scientific and efficient standards. You just need to use basic drag-and-drop operations to change the content on the available template according to your needs and preferences, and you can have a standard and impressive menu for your restaurant.
The above are important information about the principles of building a menu for a restaurant, apply them to optimize your restaurant’s menu, bring high business efficiency, and increase revenue for your restaurant! Contact VDS for advice on designing a menu using available templates directly.
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