There is much more to a menu than just the items to order and the prices. Many considerations have to be made when developing a menu. Demographics are very important. Pricing wholly depends on the average salary a person or family makes within the area of the restaurant. You may notice when visiting a chain restaurant in several different towns that they have the same menu items but the prices may be different. The cost of living in an area dictates how much a restaurant can charge for an item. The same item may cost a few dollars more at a restaurant inNew York City or Boston than it does in a small town in Ohio.
Demographics make a huge difference in what is to on the menu at a restaurant as well. If an area has many elderly people the restaurant may want to cater to them by giving them discounts or the menu may allow for smaller senior meals. The print on this menu may need to be a little larger to make sure the elderly can read it. If the area has families then they want to have a children s menu with family friendly food. If the restaurant is in a business district they may want to cater to business people bringing clients out for lunch or dinner and the menu would be a little more formal.
Some menus give you a huge selection of what you can order and some are very limited. They may have just a few entrees and they may change from time to time. The items on a menu are usually in groupings. A simple grouping would be Appetizers, Beverages, Entrees, Side dishes, Desserts. Some menu categories are more varied. Entrees can be classified by the ingredients in them like seafood, pasta, sandwiches, etc.
Usually a menu will start with appetizers and progress from soups and salads. It will then detail a listing of entrees and their side dishes then go on to desserts with beverages being last. Other menus will go from breakfast to lunch to dinner. Traditionally the items are placed in each section the least expensive to the most expensive. However, that may not be the most ideal way to place things on a menu. It has been proven that placing items the restaurant wants to sell first will sell more of those items. Maybe they have a specialty no one else has been able to make in a similar fashion and it appears on the menu at the top of the entrees even though it is the most expensive. The restaurateur wanted people to order it so it was placed first on the menu.
Illustrations are essential for some menus including a family menu so the children who cannot read yet can pick by picture. People like to see illustrations and photos of the food they will be ordering. There are many places that one can get stock pictures or just use a digital camera. Good restaurant menus can include a description of the menu item. A more formal menu should be less graphic oriented and more word oriented. A detailed description should be included and some restaurants go as far as placing words from the chef or the pedigree of a dish.
The color of the menu should reflect the personality of the restaurant. A red and white checkered tablecloth might be a great background for an Italian restaurant menu. A brightly colored menu is good for a family restaurant. A classic black and white menu exudes formality for an expensive classic restaurant. The font should follow in the same manner. Use scrolling letters for classic restaurant but stay away from font with too many curlicues for a family restaurant as it is a little hard to read. Parents with hungry kids want to see what is on the menu and order it as fast as they can. Menus that have more than two columns tend to look like they were printed at the local newspaper so stay to no more than the two columns.
Menus come in different shapes today instead of the plain rectangular type that open to a square. A pizza restaurant can have a menu in a circle just like the pizza if they choose to. If the menu looks clean and tidy people will automatically think the restaurant is the same way. If the menu looks like fun and contains some fun filled quips about the food people will automatically think that in coming to that restaurant they will have fun. Design of a menu has a great deal to do with how the public thinks about the restaurant.
Menu items that are popular should be placed in the top left panel of the menu. This is where the eye goes when first opening the menu up. If there are daily specials, this is the place to put them. If the restaurant has a signature dish or two, this is the place of prominence where all eyes will see them. Prices should be placed in different areas after a description of an item. Placing them in a column makes it so that customer does not have to read the descriptions. They just look at the prices to see what is the cheapest dinner.
A good menu reflects the personality of the restaurant and leads customers to entrees that are popular and successful. A good menu has just enough description to wet the appetite and not to bore the reader. A good menu is easy to read and customers will remember the basics of what was on it several days after they have seen it. A good menu has a either pictures or descriptions that will tell the customer exactly what they are getting. Most important a good menu is priced right as to the area and gives the customer a great deal for good food.
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