The restaurant menu is what you call your restaurant’s business card. It is a powerful marketing tool to attract guests and lead them to your venue. Therefore, owners should pay high attention to a good food menu. Creating a menu requires careful planning. What needs to be considered in the design? How do you achieve higher turnover through marketing? We sketch out step by step how you can create your perfect restaurant menu.
Written by Max Falkenstern. Originally published in German, this article has been updated and adapted for restaurateurs working in English-speaking markets
Creating a Menu: Why Your Menu Is Your Most Important Sales Tool
Just imagine for a moment that you place an ad for a restaurant that guests simply can’t ignore. Moreover, they carefully study it, word for word. In 2026 (and beyond), this might sound like a silly fantasy at first, but it isn’t! Restaurants provide the perfect example with their menus. It is undoubtedly one of the few marketing tools we are happy to engage with willingly.
In an age of constant stimulation, where the average attention span is shrinking, browsing through a menu brings focus back. In fact, we associate it with positive feelings—the anticipation of discovering delicious culinary delights. Restaurant operators must keep this in mind when creating their menus.
Those who thoughtlessly list dish after dish let the most valuable two minutes of their guests’ culinary journey slip away unused. Conversely, this usually means lower revenue, fewer guests, and no customer loyalty for the restaurant in question.
A high-quality cover for an appealing feel, premium paper—all crucial for your brand’s appeal. But the real work begins much deeper in strategic menu design, also known as menu engineering. In this context, the menu is not a list of kitchen offerings, but a guide for the mind.
The key takeaway is this: Your menu is the tool you use to manage which dishes will make your business a success and which will leave you with a profit at the end of the day.
109 seconds until the final decision
Let’s start by looking at the basics: According to research by the U.S. polling firm Gallup, diners spend an average of about 109 seconds reading the menu. Depending on the menu’s length, that may sound like a short or long time.
However, what happens during that time is crucial for creating your future menu. A common misconception among restaurateurs is that guests read your menu “from cover to cover” like a book. Studies by Dave Pavesic (see box below), however, come to an entirely different conclusion: guests don’t read; they “scan.”
For strategic menu design, this means that restaurant operators must place highlights in such a way that the guest actively notices them. Let’s break this down using three key principles:
- Strategic Placement: Since the eye often wanders first to the center and then to the upper corners, that’s where the dishes with the highest profit margins belong.
- Visual Highlighting: By using boxes, frames, or colored backgrounds, individual “signature dishes” (ideally those with the highest profit margins) can be isolated, thereby directing attention to them in a targeted manner.
- The power of typography: The strategic use of bold type or varying font sizes helps guests navigate the flood of information without feeling overwhelmed and putting the menu aside.
These “eye-catchers” consciously or unconsciously draw your guests’ attention to specific dishes.
The Paradox of Choice
More is more? It seems this adage doesn’t hold true for restaurant menus. The idea that extensive menus with a wide variety of options indicate good food service quality doesn’t line up with what Pavesic found in his studies. According to his research, a large selection overwhelms many diners. In other words, too much choice is no choice at all.
Successful menus only need 18 to 24 items, which account for about 60 to 70% of sales.
Aside from the fact that an extensive menu increases the cost pressure on restaurants and raises reasonable doubts among guests (“Can all of this really be freshly made?”), restaurateurs should therefore consciously focus on highlights when creating their menus.
For you, these would primarily be revenue drivers; for the guest, they are culinary highlights, as long as the value for money is right. So it is explicitly not about manipulation but about “silent” advice.
The strategy behind a high-profit menu—3 steps to success
Now that we’ve figured out the basic strategy, the next step is to build our profitable menu. We need to make it easier for guests to decide what to order—rather than overwhelming them with too many choices—so that our menu can fulfill what Pavesic calls its “silent” sales role. The layout is a big part of this.
1# Menu Layout – Content and Structure Are Essential
Successful menus focus on the key dishes in your restaurant’s line-up. There simply can’t be one-size-fits-all recommendations for every restaurant; that’s because the concepts on the market are too diverse. Restaurant industry specialist Dave Pavesic analyzed successful restaurant chains and concluded that, in these locations, 18 to 24 items make up to 70% of sales.
- Clear layout: Dividing the menu into the main categories of appetizers, main courses, desserts, and beverages has proven effective in practice.
- Limit categories: A maximum of 7 to 10 items per group (appetizers, pasta, etc.).
- Make room for quality: Fewer dishes allow for more precise costing and a guarantee of freshness that guests can taste.
- Sharpen your focus: Depending on your restaurant’s concept, it may make sense to dedicate separate menus to seasonal items, beverages, wines, cocktails, and, if applicable, desserts (see tip below).
Ideally, the menu should immediately show guests that they can look forward to a high-quality dining experience at your restaurant.
Since menus are no longer just available on-site but are also consulted by potential customers before their visit via the restaurant’s Google profile and website, very little should be left to chance here.
2# Daily Menus, Seasonal menus, and more: Which formats do you really need?
The decision of whether to bundle everything into one menu or spread it across multiple menus isn’t just a matter of personal taste!
Of course, your concept sets the general direction: a traditional family-style restaurant doesn’t need to go out of its way to impress with a trendy cocktail menu. However, a carefully curated wine list featuring wines from local winemakers may be undoubtedly what guests are looking for.
Depending on your restaurant concept, the options below have proven effective for 2026:
- The daily/weekly menu: a must for regional, upscale cuisine. It signals freshness and a focus on seasonal ingredients. In a classic pizzeria, however, constantly changing menus are rather uncommon (which doesn’t mean there can’t be any variety!).
- The seasonal menu: The ideal marketing tool for promotional weeks (asparagus, chanterelles, game). Present it as an insert or a separate menu to direct the guest’s focus.
- The separate dessert and beverage menu: When beverages are listed separately, it makes navigation a bit easier. A dedicated dessert menu makes desserts feel “more exclusive” and minimizes the risk that a guest will reject ordering dessert later on simply because of the price when first reviewing the menu.
3# Menu Engineering
Pricing also has an impact on the profit margin of your business. Menu engineering—the strategic design of a menu to increase sales—is a crucial aspect that every restaurant owner should consider, even if their restaurant opened several years ago.
Some useful tips on menu engineering:
- Organize strategically: When creating your menu, avoid sorting items strictly by price from “cheap to expensive” or vice versa. Otherwise, you unintentionally encourage guests to choose dishes based primarily on price. Mixing expensive and inexpensive dishes makes it harder for guests to compare prices. This puts your culinary highlights back in the spotlight.
- Avoid currency symbols: Listing prices in € or EUR unintentionally reminds guests of the bill. Instead, write 9.90 instead of 9.90 EUR or 9.90 €. Or simply round up all dish prices to the nearest “10.”
- Use the anchor effect: List selected expensive dishes first on your menu. This makes the cheaper dishes immediately below them seem more affordable, which stabilizes your order rate in the mid-price segment.
- Visual cues: Use borders, color-coded boxes, icons, or professional photos to showcase your most profitable dishes. But don’t overdo it: if you highlight everything, customers won’t notice anything in the end.
- Upselling through personalization: When guests can choose their own (high-quality) sides, toppings, and sauces, you can effectively boost revenue per table even further. Labels (in moderation!) such as “Recommended” or “Popular / Most Ordered” can boost effectiveness.
- Quality and origin seals can make more expensive dishes more appealing to guests. However, the seals should be recognized and credible. Overuse is not recommended, as it can backfire.
Menu prices: Calculation vs. Psychology
Pricing is a crucial factor for both guests and restaurant owners. If you set prices too low, you won’t make a profit. On the other hand, if the prices on the menu are too high, you may end up with more empty tables. So, when setting prices on your menu, you have to walk a fine line. Gut feelings should play as little a role as possible here.
The “right price” on your menu is based entirely on your business expenses.
You need to bring in more revenue than you spend on energy, staff, supplies, and other costs. Any cosmetic or sales-persuasive adjustments—as we discussed in more detail in the previous chapter—are essentially ineffective if your menu is unprofitable based on the raw numbers.
To work out the best prices for your dishes, a combination of three pillars has proven effective:
- Cost-based pricing: Perhaps the most important starting point for menu pricing. How high are food costs, labor costs, and overhead expenses such as rent, electricity, and heating? A classic markup calculation using a factor of 3 or 4 falls short here because the real cost drivers—labor in particular—are underrepresented.
- Competition-based pricing: Looking at comparable restaurants is common in the industry, but it doesn’t account for your cost structures and thus carries significant risks. Just because the Italian restaurant around the corner offers pizza for €9.00 doesn’t mean they’re making a profit. Blindly copying prices may mean you’re adopting your competitors’ miscalculations.
- Demand-driven pricing: Here, what matters is the perceived value of otherwise comparable dining experiences. Guests are willing to pay more for a schnitzel at a restaurant in a prime location with an exclusive ambiance than at a modest but charming village restaurant. In addition to quality, factors such as the income levels of the target audience and the location are therefore decisive.
With this in mind, having a solid understanding of costs and pricing is essential for your restaurant business. A data-driven menu analysis using the “stars and dogs” method has proven effective in this context.
This method helps you identify high-margin dishes, which, in turn, can significantly boost your revenue through strategic menu engineering. The data required for this should already be available in your point-of-sale system.
Design your menu—easier than ever for today’s restaurants!
When it comes to menus, design likely plays the most important psychological role. Even reasonable pricing and a carefully curated selection of dishes can quickly be overshadowed by an unattractive and carelessly crafted menu.
The bottom line is this: a menu’s overall look and feel should align with your restaurant’s concept and live up to the culinary experience you promise your guests.
Create your own menu or let the experts do it?
Thanks to dedicated, user-friendly software and AI tools, it’s easier than ever for restaurant owners without in-depth design expertise to create a decent-looking menu.
There are basically two ways to create a menu:
- Do it yourself: Online tools like Canva and VistaCreate already offer thousands of templates, photos, and graphics for affordable menu design. This approach offers the greatest possible flexibility later on, for example, if you suddenly need a new daily specials menu. However, you should be willing to invest the time and effort to familiarize yourself with the basics of the software, design rules, and psychological design techniques for menus.
- Outsourcing: For a more personalized design, it’s worth consulting a professional graphic designer. The costs are significantly higher, but in return, you’ll typically receive a consistent package tailored to your restaurant brand. Please remember that skilled designers have a keen eye, and their work—such as logos, menus, table displays, and other items—can have a significant impact on sales and guest satisfaction.
Presently, we don’t recommend using pure AI-generated menu designs. This is mainly because it’s tough to consistently produce high-quality designs that align with your brand image. Plus, more and more people are rejecting so-called “AI slop”—content that’s obviously cheap and made by AI. So, even if your intentions are good, it could end up reflecting negatively on your restaurant.
Look and feel: Don’t save on the wrong things
When printing your menus, it’s best not to cut corners on quality. If a guest gets a “cheap” impression the moment they pick up your menu, it often subconsciously affects their expectations of the food and service. This can even influence your restaurant reviews on Google and the tips you receive.
- Paper selection: Use higher-quality art paper with a higher grammage. It feels better in the hand, and such menus are also more durable.
- Hygiene and durability: Your menu should be easy to clean and resistant to stains (e.g., through lamination or high-quality binding materials).
- Sample print: You can place the print order at your local print shop or online. Online print shops are generally more cost-effective, but you’ll typically receive better advice in person and can start with a “sample print.”
How to Write a Restaurant Menu: Things to Consider Before Printing
Whether you’re writing a menu for the first time or are already an experienced pro, it’s important to carefully review your menu before printing or publishing it. Few things undermine a restaurant’s credibility more than simple typos.
So please pay special attention to these red flags:
- Grammar and culinary terms: Misspelled dish names and typos (which are particularly common) can quickly come across as unprofessional and may cause guests to doubt that your restaurant stands for quality. It’s best to have someone proofread your draft. For a quick check, AI assistants like ChatGPT and Google Gemini are also very helpful.
- Price errors: Double- and triple-check every price listed on the menu. Incorrect prices put your restaurant staff in an embarrassing position. They also unsettle guests, who then have to ask for clarification.
- Legal requirements: Yes, your menu must also comply with certain legal requirements, such as the labeling of allergens and additives. Failure to comply can result in hefty fines!
Nevertheless, typos can never be completely ruled out.
This is where the digitalization of restaurant businesses comes to the rescue: if you use a digital menu like the one from resmio, changes can be made in real time. There are no costs for reprinting the menu—but more on that right away!
The Evolution: From Paper to Digital Menu
Traditional paper menus undoubtedly have their place, but they are reaching their limits in an era of increasing digitalization. When it comes to day-to-day management and reliability, the digital menu is far superior to its paper counterpart.
Furthermore, they offer a range of additional benefits for the modern restaurateur:
- Easy maintenance: Changes to the menu can be made at any time with just a few clicks and are immediately visible to your guests—regardless of where the digital menu is displayed.
- Integration with restaurant ordering system: Your digital menu informs guests while also driving more revenue. Thanks to the integrated ordering function, you can easily set up a takeout and delivery service.
- Up- and cross-selling options: Additional items such as toppings, sauces, sides, and complementary drinks can be displayed directly alongside the dishes. This has been proven to increase the average order value.
- Reduced workload for service staff: Using a QR code ordering system linked to the digital menu, guests can order and pay directly at their table. This reduces wait times and gives your team the freedom to focus on providing excellent service.
To spread the word about your new digital menu, simply share it on your restaurant’s website, Facebook, Instagram, and Google Business.
Your restaurant deserves more: Try resmio 30 days for free!
Conclusion: Checklist for creating a restaurant menu
If you’re a restaurant owner looking to design a profitable menu, what you need most is strategic planning, precise cost calculations, and psychological guidance on how to guide the eye.
Our final checklist for your menu will help you set the right course:
- Structure and Focus: Does your menu focus on the essentials? Are the dishes divided into clear categories so as not to overwhelm guests?
- Cost Calculation Check: Do the prices on your menu reflect your current cost structure?
- Menu Engineering: Does it apply psychological techniques like the anchoring effect, visual highlighting, and omitting currency symbols?
- Legal Compliance: Does your menu meet legal requirements, particularly labeling obligations and price display regulations?
- Quality Assurance: Have you checked for typos, especially in all listed prices?
Please keep in mind: your menu is a work in progress. To keep your restaurant profitable, you must continually adjust your options to reflect your costs and guest expectations. After all, a menu that works today may be outdated tomorrow due to rising labor and food costs. Forget the classic margin calculation; it’s better to calculate the individual contribution margin for each dish. Cut out the losers and focus instead on your high-margin stars. The result: a leaner menu that works harder for your bottom line.
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