Building your restaurant menu // the simple rules to follow for a menu that sells !

According to Auguste Escoffier, “composing a menu is one of the most difficult aspects of being a restaurateur; you have to find the right balance between the products available, the specialties for which the establishment is renowned, the essential renewal and the customer’s good pleasure (large or light meals, traditional or original)”.

The card is no longer simply a medium for presenting a simple overview of the services offered to the customer or even a cook’s “memory aid” document, it is an essential tool for merchandising, presentation and the reflection of all the functions of the restaurant. ‘business.

1. Marketing

The card promotes sales, it is the restaurant’s window, the company’s brand image. The card informs the customer.

2. Management

The analysis of the card’s sales makes it possible to adjust its offer and to monitor costs. The card participates in the good management of the company and the development of its profitability through the technical sheets produced in comparison to actual consumption.

3. Organization

The card is a result of decisions about the organization of the restaurant’s resources: Human, technical, material, economic and financial. Above all, you have to adapt your concept to your available resources.

The restaurant card is the result of very complex analyzes in the technical, commercial and psychological fields.

• market research allowing the restaurant owner to determine the needs of his potential clientele (targeted clients, food trends, tastes, psychological expectations of the consumer) ;
• the study of the restaurant’s equipment, the qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the existing or planned staff to produce and serve the menu ;
• taking into account the seasonality of fresh products, the use of semi-processed or finished products. More generally, the availability of products and their associated prices.

The composition of the card is therefore crucial. There is no such thing as a miracle recipe or an absolute model, it is a combination of elements to be successful. It is clear that the menu of a gourmet restaurant will be different in nature from a themed restaurant depending on the data specific to each company. Once the house identity has been deciphered and identified (concept) and the objectives of profitability (margin), organization (human and technical resources) or management (financial objectives), it is the imagination, the creativity that must practice in order to differentiate yourself from the competition !

One of the key points in the elaboration of the menu consists in determining the ranges of the products offered, that is to say the assortment offered through the products on the card and menus.

4 ranges of proposals: starters, main courses, desserts, drinks. To these 4 ranges of products can then be added more specialized ranges, possibly corresponding to the theme of the restaurant: fish, grills, salads, … or to different services: to share, snack, … You have to understand the needs and expectations of your customers in order to adapt your proposals.

The organization and presentation of these ranges is better suited for a list of dishes (a la carte) than menus. A la carte products allow much greater flexibility for the restaurant owner and for the customer, who can simply choose a dish or who, for reasons of time, does not wish to linger at the table. The menu offers more freedom but the menus retain many supporters.

As part of a menu proposal, they must absolutely be consistent with the menu, both in choice and in quality, and in terms of price. The menu is not just a cheap formula for targeting different targets.

If there are no rules to define the optimal length of a range, it depends mainly on the number of meals served by the restaurant. In too long a range, we consider that 20% of proposals achieve 80% of turnover (20/80 rule – pareto law). In terms of marketing, organization and management, this is absurd. In addition, current trends tend towards smaller menus to guarantee freshness and home-made food.

For a restaurant that serves an average of 80/120 seats per day, the menu should be structured as follows :

Range	Proposals min.	Proposals max.
Starters	5	7
Main dishes	6	8
Cheese	1	1 (Tray)
Desserts	5	7
Proposals of the day	3	5
Menu (including children’s menu)	3	5
Total	23	33

Depending on the theme or the specialties of the restaurant, it is possible to extend one or another range in favor of another, a total of 40 proposals constituting a maximum. It’s all about good balance.

Depending on the type of your customers, the longer the menu, which also does not make it easier to take orders and prepare in the kitchen, the longer you can keep it for a certain period of time.

Knowledge of the popularity index of a dish is essential: A very simple sales analysis method.

• The sales index // Ratio of the total sales of a dish over the total sales of all dishes.
• The presentation index // Ratio of the number of presentations of a dish to the total of presentations of all dishes.
• The popularity index // Ratio of sales index to presentation index.

There are other more complex methods of monitoring the study of its card including the engineering menu with the calculation of the “average asking price” and the “average price offered”. Discover this method in my blog // “Engineering menu – method for your restaurant” with its matrix.

These marketing approaches make it possible to make the best decisions on the dishes offered, their prices, their contents as well as their cost prices according to customer demand, therefore their popularity or attractiveness.

Personalize

• Take up the brand and the theme of the restaurant;
• Adopt the colors used in the sign, logo or decoration;
• Give the card a particular shape with possible cutouts;
• Choice of the medium (including the increasingly current digital medium) in harmony with the other elements;
• Don’t hesitate to be original;
• Choose good photos or good drawings by playing on their quality or originality;
• Compose the whole with the will to be different

Simplify

• Adopt a format that allows the document to be held securely with both hands, making it easier to read;
• Speak in simple terms;
• Avoid professional cooking jargon;
• Avoid not too regional appellations incomprehensible to the traveler;
• If a professional term or patois used, give the translation;
• Do not use pretentious vocabulary or unnecessarily high-sounding names;
• The names must not count lengthy words, the dish then being expressed by a whole sentence;
• Speak the language that suits the formula: fast food // simple and direct language – theme catering // language of the theme to make you dream – gourmet catering // classic language ….;
• Leave blank spaces to rest reading;
• Avoid confusion by eliminating overlaps between texts and drawings.

Suggest

• Give the customer a support that he wants to read;
• Use an evocative vocabulary: origin of some products, promotion of the territory, for example;
• Use words that whet your appetite;
• Drawing or photo may suggest better than words;
• Give the reflection of what will be served by being perfectly honest.

Promote

• Choose the specialties that are the basis of the theme and the personality of the restaurant and that you want to “push” for sale;
• Place promotions or certain communications in the best places on the menu card;
• Put promotions or certain communications in a box or in a “drawn” box;
• Use larger or bolder characters for promotions;
• Take advantage of the promotion of a dish to associate it with the promotion of a good wine;
• Communicate on the history of your establishment, your address, your social networks or upcoming events;
• Often change the menu and the dishes offered according to the type of clientele;
• Promote the sale of desserts (high margins) through a special dessert menu;
• Place the desserts at the beginning of the menu;
• Put at the top of the menu the desserts which require a fairly long preparation time;
• Put the cards ahead on each table.

Achieve

• Develop a very detailed model so that you can discuss specific bases with the printer or do tests if printing internally;
• Have the card produced with colors, designs, heading headings, solid sub-titles and offset or internally replicate the dishes or prices that change each time the menu changes;
• Choose highly legible characters with a minimum height of 2.5 millimeters (legibility);
• The colors must be clear;
• Harmonize the different characters chosen on the basis of the defined typo;
• Take a card holder that is resistant to wear, customer handling, water or any liquid;
• Change the concept of the card after a while (2 to 3 years maximum, every year for certain concepts).

In conclusion, It should be remembered that a restaurant menu is the essential element in attracting customers. From the doorstep, the restaurant menu is the one who will decide passers-by to enter or not. It is essential to make it both attractive and interesting in terms of quality / price ratio.

To satisfy regulars, plan a fixed menu with specialties that set you apart from other restaurants and that make or will make you successful. At the same time, the principle of the dish of the day in addition to the classic menu, can attract new customers or satisfy the curious who want to test new products. Mobile slate generally works very well.

To create an attractive restaurant menu, two essential rules: clarity and dynamism. Take the time to choose a graphic charter that matches your establishment, the image you want to give it. It is better to stay sober with a perfectly decipherable font.

Note that for a three-fold menu, the central page remains the most attractive, the best seller: here, highlight your specialties, the dishes that generate the most profit. For a bifold card, the upper corner of the second page is best, as it is particularly eye-catching. Above all, ventilate the text to make reading more pleasant.

To facilitate a quick understanding, take care of the presentation and writing of your menu. Go to the point, avoid poetic culinary jargon for the title of your dishes. Keep it short and to the point! Do not hesitate to mention the homemade label to distinguish yourself from the competition and showcase your expertise. Think carefully about the right price for your menus. If your restaurant is located in a tourist or business area, consider creating bilingual French / English cards.

To elaborate your wine list, beyond the grape variety and the region of origin, add a few words of explanation on each bottle to help guide the customer in his choice, especially if he is not a connoisseur. Do not hesitate to offer safe values, known to all, to make life easier for some. In your main menu, you can combine dishes and wines that go well.

To create your restaurant menu, find the right size: the menu must be readable, but the format of the card not too large so as not to be too bulky, under penalty of spilling a glass! Also remember to be able to easily stack and store the cards. Prefer card stock, resistant to handling and other dirt. Possibly study the digital solutions that are developing and that can correspond to the concept of the restaurant.