Effective Restaurant Menu Layout & Design Ideas For Best Results

Great restaurant menus enhance dining experience and guide even a new customer in making the right culinary choices. A menu that generates income and increases customer base is also capable of serving the role of an advertising tool. This is because a menu, if well designed, can communicate a brand’s identity and drive profits.

DEFINITION OF A MENU

For the uninitiated, a menu is nothing but a list of food or drinks that is sold by a restaurant along with a mention of the prices.

TYPES OF RESTAURANT MENU

There are 5 major types of restaurant menu. Being aware of the difference between them will help a restaurateur to follow the right pricing strategies to be followed in a restaurant menu. A

A La Carte Menu

This menu lists each item and its price separately. Items on such menus tend to be priced higher. But customers have the flexibility to choose individual items and also work out combos in their own way as they pay for every item separately.

Du Jour Menu

Du Jour is a French word meaning "of the day". Such menus change everyday depending on what is available or the recipe that the chef has prepared. So, ‘pork du jour’ or ‘soup du jour’ would mean ‘the pork that is available today’ or ‘the soup that is available today’ respectively.

Cycle Menu

A cycle menu is a part of the menu or, sometimes, even an entire menu that provides repeated options during a particular period of time. For example, let us suppose a cafe sells only chocolate cakes on a Monday, only blueberry cakes on a Tuesday and only strawberry cakes on a Wednesday. If any such pattern continues for 7 days and if the same 7-day pattern is implemented for weeks together, the cafe can use a cycle menu. Such menus are very useful for bars or cafes that may use it along with a static menu to showcase the same collection on the same days throughout a week.

Table d’Hote Menu

This menu offers guests a combo of an appetizer, entree and a dessert at a fixed total price. This provides the customer with a lot of freedom. Most restaurants allow their customers to choose one appetizer from two options, one entree from two (or three) options and one dessert from two options. Despite individual choices, the total price does not change. Since the options are few with a predefined or pre-determined total price, this kind of menu comes under Fixed Menu.

Prix Fixe Menu

It is a fixed menu with very little or in fact no variability, but for a fixed total price. Guests are offered an appetizer, an entree and a dessert. This can be customized or modified according to their dietary restrictions or taste preferences. However, there is only one option to choose from per course. A Prix Fixe menu is very similar to a Table d’Hote menu, just without the choices. While they may seem rigid, they can be adopted by chef-driven restaurants that wish to serve kitchen items as per the directives of the chef from the kitchen.

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Effective Restaurant Menu Layout & Design Ideas For Best Results

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