Restaurant Menu Design: Truth and Myths
When a client comes to a restaurant, one of the first things they see is a menu. Often happens the menu design does not get full attention in most establishments. If you don’t know how to design one, either hire someone else to make it or just use your own experience from eating out. It is great to have a clear concept of vision and valuable information that might help. But what if a lot of facts you’ve heard about are really myths?
Myth: Menu Design Isn’t That Important
A menu is one of the most essential things of every establishment. So its design is able to alleviate some of the questions commonly asked for servers and can put your top-selling items on display.
Myth: Most Attention Goes To The Top Right Corner
Surf the Internet and find some tips about how to design a menu, if you don’t know it. One tip, which is a myth is that people read menus from the top right corner. Actually, clients often look at the top right corner of the menu first because promotions are often advertised on the top right of the page.
A study with an eye-tracking technology that was able to track a person’s eyes when flipping through a book-style menu determined that if the menu is like a book, people will read it like a book. For example, the person will read the lists on the left first and scan down the right side of the page afterward.
The standard restaurant menu will be read left to right.
If you’re truly concerned that the person may be reading the menu from the top right down, you may want to consider a one-page option. A single page design makes the reader go down the middle of the menu and start reading it from the top. Most fine dining establishments often have a one-page design.
Myth: More Items Mean More Options
It’s nice to have options, but far too much work goes into reading massive menus. What I did notice is that anyone I know who also goes to the restaurant, will order the same dishes and not look through the menu often.
Smaller menus with key items tend to sell items faster and help increase sales.
Waste is also another issue of the menu’s enormous size. When you have a large menu, you must:
- Stock more ingredients
- Increase food waste
It’s a myth that a larger menu will lead to more profits. In a lot of cases, it will equate to lower profits because of increased food waste. It’s better to trim down and put the focus on your high-selling items that have higher profit margins.
Truth: Placement of the Item Is Important
Despite the fact that people don’t read from the top right corner, item placement is still very important. Of all of the sections of a restaurant menu, the top right has been shown to be the most profitable section.
It means that if you place your top margin items in the top right, you’ll have an easier time selling them. But don’t rely solely on this exclusive corner of your page. Instead, better use white space to your advantage. When you use it properly, you’ll be able to:
- Grab the user’s attention
- Put emphasis on certain items
A proper item placement means that you can increase sales for items and help patrons pair items with greater ease.
Myth: Images Don’t Matter
Remember that patrons are visual creatures, and seeing a food item can help make a sale. The issue is that a lot of restaurant owners do not put the time or resources into food photography although these photographs can greatly increase sales.
One study found that sales increase by 30% when pictures are added to the menu.
If you’re focused on higher clientele and want to promote yourself as a fine dining establishment, you’re going to find that pictures are not in style. A lot of owners view pictures as being less sophisticated, so you may want to focus on the paper and font rather than adding imagery to the menu.
Take a note that the right menu description will allow the person to fully visualize the dish and will impact sales. So you have to choose what’s right for your menu: images or in-depth descriptions.
Truth: Ratios Can Be Included to Menus
Menu design has grown over the decades, and it was found that ratios can be used to fill in your menu. A traditional ratio is:
- 31% appetizers
- 19% desserts
- 49% entrees
Of course, you need to have a drink menu as well if you’re offering alcoholic drinks. In total, 66% of a menu will be food and the remaining 34% will be beverages. The beverages should include primarily non-alcoholic drinks, but the next best-selling drinks are:
- Cocktails
- Beer
- Wine
If you’re going to focus on mixed drinks, you’ll want to dedicate about 25% of the menu to these drinks because they sell well and have high-profit margins.
Truth: Currency Signs Are Important
The research verified by the Center for Hospitality found was that using currency signs actually reduced the sales at restaurants. Dollar signs are considered pain points for consumers, and they also found that working the figure into the description works best.
For example, “15 — roast beef sandwich made with onions, cheese and jalapenos, smothered in a creamy sauce and placed on one of our homemade buns” neatly includes the $15 price and doesn’t use the dollar sign pain point.
The design of the menu is complex and scientific in nature. There is a lot that you can do to boost sales and make the menu more appealing. A few of the tricks of the trade that the top restaurants in the world make use of are: add icons to bring attention to dishes, bold specials and use white space.
Source: https://mcdonaldpaper.com/blog/myths-and-truth-of-restaurant-menu-design
