Menu boards for cafes and restaurants

Restaurant Menu

Designing a menu to meet the appetite needs of different customers with different food preferences can be quite tasking. Nothing can demolish an eatery’s image than a poor-quality menu.

Simply consider it: If your menu is hard to understand, it will cause your customers to pose any inquiries, ringing your waiters back and forth and keeping them from running really important errands. 

Notwithstanding, this can be fixed if your menu’s design is clear, all-around planned, and introduced in an alluring way. 

Optimising your menu to suit your customers is by far the best investment your company will make.

Here are 4 tips that your restaurant board menu can never go wrong with

1. Comprehensibility

Yeah! See how it took you a little while to get acquainted with what I meant by ‘comprehensibility.’ That is how we leave most of our customers confused as they read the menu. The  illegibility of our huge digital menu board leaves them with two options - ring your waiters again or run through the exit (right after you've had a piece of their mind.) 

When the fonts on your letter boards are not readable as the words seem to be jumping on each other fighting for a chance to get seen, the snap frames are hanging fearfully as if they'll fall at the slightest chance they get, the poster displays are a horrible sight and look like it was painted by Jimmy in his cradle years; Then you have a lot of work to do. 

If you will say 'Well, it isn’t that bad.'

Yeah, I agree. Give it two more days and the lightboxes will drop right in the customer’s meal.

Here’s what you should do:

Use fonts that are clear enough – nothing overly stylish that may cause people to have difficulty reading.

Also, remember to use lettering that contrasts with the background so it's obvious on the page. Imagine having a dark font colour on a black page. Incredible! 

In terms of the content, use language that is distinctive and engaging, but doesn’t bombard your menu. 

A simple 'Here's a list of our favourite dishes we thought you might like:' would be more engaging whilst saving your customer's time than 'We have a variety of options that would satisfy your buds and keep you coming back for more.

Be direct and concise too. After all, you don’t want your customers spending all their time just reading the menu!

2. Be seductive

Your letter board has the most perfect of fonts - stylishly crafted, clear, and readable even by Lora's pet dog.

Your snap frames are now hanging safely - no one has to keep off your door signs or menu board displays to avoid being hurt.

The room is properly lit - I can tell the grey hand sanitiser from the white one.

In fact, everything on your menu board seems perfect except for… 

What could go wrong?

Here’s what - I have no mental image of what I’m about to get served with. What if the descriptions are misguiding? What if I don't know what a Banger and mash look like and I am allergic to sausage? What if the words don't match my order?

Well, save us all the stress. Add photos. Yeah! Why not? Not just any photo - high-quality, tempting, yet undistracting images.

 Choose an overall theme and be consistent with it.

3. Show variety! Diversify!

Get creative with your menu. Don't stick to what your nana taught you. 

Humans like to see a scope of choices (both in food and fee).

There should be a few assortments on your menu - not one with a staggering sum, but rather enough to entertain different preferences. If there are fish and chips for us humans, they should also be Purezza for our veggie heroes.

Add a few occasional things to your digital menu board to make some urgency. Nothing gets us intrigued like a "restricted-time-in-particular" bargain! We want to try it while it's available. We don't want to miss the rush.

Get flexible! Get creative! 

4. Razzmatazz your identity

They shouldn’t forget who it is they’re buying from and enjoying such great customer service. 

Throw your brand in their face and keep it there. 

Flaunt your customised shirts. 

Keep your logo upfront on your menu board.

Carefully sneak them into your restaurant décor, wooden frame, menu folders, paper roll, restaurant pad, table sign, wooden and all you can without having it look like it's a kids party.

Have a commercial display on your digital menu board at reasonable intervals.

Use your brand as the first page of your menu.

Let it hang like those beautiful lightboxes suspended from your customised ceiling.

The thought is to make a novel environment, and your menu can achieve this by letting it talk with your image, voice, and trademark qualities. 

5. Categorise menu items and be clear on their prices

Categorise all the items into an appetiser, entree, dessert, or any other category you'd like. 

Then, decide how you want the menu items to appear on the menu; you may want appetisers to appear at the top of your menu, and you may want a particular appetiser to be at the top of the list because it's a star — high profit, high popularity — just work with your menu worksheet and be sure to be clear on their prices so we don't have to call 911 to come to calm a fight. 

Your restaurant's menu is one of the most important parts of your guest experience, and it’s your restaurant's 'hotspot' (or selling tool). Whether it’s a digital menu board, or on a hanging menu board, a well-designed menu can boost your profitability while enhancing your guest's experience.