How to design a restaurant menu

Start with the list, not the layout

Before choosing fonts or colours, decide what is on the menu. Write every dish with its price on one page. Cross out anything that sells rarely, takes long to prepare, or uses an ingredient found nowhere else on the menu. Many independent places find that cutting a menu from 40 dishes to 25 lifts sales of the dishes that remain, because the kitchen is faster and the guest decides sooner. A useful rule: if a dish has not sold ten times in a month, ask why it is there.

Then sort what is left into sections that match how a guest eats. Starters, mains, sides and desserts work for dinner; coffee, bites and sweet things work for a cafe; signatures, classics and zero-proof work for a bar. Aim for five to seven dishes per section. Fewer looks thin, more looks like a wall of choices.

The golden triangle

Menu engineers often describe a “golden triangle”: when guests open a single-page menu, their eyes tend to go first to the middle, then to the top right, then to the top left. The exact path varies with design and has not been proven in every setting, but the practical advice is sensible. Put dishes you most want to sell, the ones with healthy margins and that you are proud of, in the top half and near the centre. Put the plain, reliable choices where people will find them anyway, and do not bury your best dish at the bottom of a long column.

Do not push this too far. A menu that obviously steers people feels pushy. A calm layout where the best dishes are simply easy to find does the job.

Price anchoring and the price ladder

Customers judge a price relative to what is near it. A $38 steak makes a $26 chicken look sensible; a $9 starter beside a $5 starter looks expensive. This is price anchoring. Use it honestly: include one premium item in each section, not as a trick but because some guests do want it, and let the middle items be the ones you want to sell. Keep prices within a section in a narrow ladder, so one dish is not an outlier. If a price needs explaining, explain it, with weight, serves-two or the ingredient that costs the money.

For the common ranges across menu types, see our pages on restaurant menus, cafe menus and cocktail menus.

Currency signs: the debate

A well-known study from Cornell’s hospitality school found that guests spent more when menu prices were shown as bare numbers (“12”) than with currency signs (“$12.00”). Later work gave mixed results, so do not treat it as a law. The design logic is simpler: a column of plain numbers looks calmer and less like a bill, and decimals and trailing zeros add visual noise. On the other hand, a casual place such as a food truck or takeaway benefits from the clarity of a dollar sign and cents. A reasonable approach is to drop the sign and zeros on a sit-down menu and keep them on casual price lists, and to be consistent throughout. The tool lets you try both in a few seconds.

Writing descriptions

Descriptions have one job: help the guest decide. Name the main ingredient, the cooking method and one detail. “Pan-roasted salmon, lentils, salsa verde” tells the guest everything and takes eight words. Avoid empty adjectives (delicious, amazing, finest), superlatives you cannot prove, and long stories. Keep descriptions under two lines. Some dishes need none: guests do not need a description of a Caesar salad.

Use the words your kitchen uses. If you say “chargrilled”, make sure it is. Where food has a regional origin, say it only if true. Guests notice mismatches, and in some places misdescribing food is a legal matter.

Dietary marks and allergens

Use small, consistent marks for vegetarian, vegan and gluten free, with a legend, and add a line inviting guests to ask about allergies. Make the claim only when you can back it up. Legal requirements for allergen information differ by country and region: the UK and EU require the major allergens to be available to guests, and US rules and local health departments set their own requirements. Check with your local authority.

Layout and legibility

• Single column or two. A single centred column suits short formal menus. Two columns fit longer lists on one page.
• Align prices. Put them in a right-hand column, or after the description, but not scattered. Dotted leaders help a long line.
• Type size. Aim for at least 10 pt for dish names and 9 pt for descriptions on a printed page. In dim rooms, go bigger and cut dishes instead.
• Contrast. Dark ink on a light background is the safest. Reversed-out text, such as white on black, is fine for headings but tiring for long text.
• White space. It is not wasted space. It tells the eye where one dish ends and the next begins.
• Photos. Use them sparingly. Photos can help in fast casual settings and hurt in fine dining. Poor photos are worse than none.

Paper, size and printing

US Letter (8.5 by 11 in) is standard in North America and A4 (210 by 297 mm) almost everywhere else. They are close in size but not identical, so a menu laid out for one can clip on the other. Choose before you print. For a counter or wall, one page is plenty; for table service, a folded card or a two-page menu feels more generous. Matte paper reads better than gloss under spotlights. Always print one test copy and read it in the real lighting before you print thirty.

A quick checklist

1. Can a guest find the starters, mains and prices in five seconds?
2. Is each section between five and seven dishes?
3. Are prices aligned and in one format?
4. Is every description under two lines and true?
5. Are dietary marks accurate and is there an allergy line?
6. Does it print on one page at a readable size on your paper?
7. Has someone who does not work here proofread it?

When you are ready, the menu generator turns a pasted list into a layout you can edit, so you can test these choices in minutes instead of days.

Common questions