Tips to ensure your printed menu is effective
This time we want to give you some ideas on maximising your restaurant's food sales by making sure your menu is well laid out.
- Obvious point, but so many make this mistake - make sure your menu is easy to read with a good print size and colour so it can be read by customers of all ages and in the lighting conditions (often quite low lighting in the evening) of your restaurant.
- If you can do smaller portions it is worth advertising the fact - a good number of customers (young and old) may well go for this option where offered.
- Where you provide extra side dishes make sure these are clearly shown on the menu and make it equally clear what customers are going to pay for them. Best to avoid any confusion about as to whether these side accompaniments are included in the price of the main dish.
- Make sure your pricing is clear and customers understand the pricing of different options.
- If you are cooking in certain ways like char-grilling, pan frying etc.
sell this fact on your menu.
- Children's menus go down well; and, come up with tasty appealing options other than chips or beans. If you are using additive free or good vitamin content ingredients make sure these positives are stated on the menu. The children may not be bothered about being healthy eaters but the parents certainly will be.
- Our feedback from restaurateurs is that you will do best selling puddings, coffee etc by having just the one menu with all courses on it.
If you don't people may not see or ask for, say, the pudding menu - and you miss out on those extra sales.