Menu Template | Fillable | PDF | WORD | RTF
Sponsored Links
A good restaurant menu has to seduce its readers. A menu is essentially a sales prospectus, and it must first entice prospects into entering your establishment and then it has to paint so evocative a mental image that the now-customer must feel as though he or she can taste and smell you entrees just by reading it.
Sponsored Links
How to Use a Menu Template
A menu must not be too large in size or in pages. This is about food and fun; it is not a college catalog or a corporate prospectus. But, the fonts should be on the large size, because older folks with weak vision are the biggest spenders.
Your menu should flow just like a full course meal would. Appetizers, salads, entrees and desserts should be presented in that order, so even if a diner doesn’t want the each course, he or she will know where to find them.
Within each category, especially the entree section, your offerings should be grouped. All the chicken dishes should be highlighted together, as should be the steak, fish, and vegetarian offerings. This is what people expect. People generally know about what they want, and a steak eater isn’t usually interested in fish, and is almost never interested in vegetarian items. In addition to sizzle and artistry, you menu should be about convenience.
You would certainly want to highlight the dishes that produce the most profit for your establishment. Avoid pictures, as they are one dimensional, and do nothing for the senses of smell and taste. Good food photography is very expensive, and you have better places to invest you money if you own a restaurant. The exceptions to this rule are if you run a very high-end establishment and money is no object, or if you have a customer base that doesn’t all speak the same language, and pictures might make things easier for everybody.
There are many Restaurant Menu Templates available online, and many of them are free. They are available for users of all the popular platforms, but as you might expect, the greatest number of templates are designed for use with Microsoft Word.
Most of these online templates come in one of two forms. The first is simply a fully formed menu, which you can modify with the names of your dishes, their descriptions, and prices. You will be able to add or delete items as needed.
The other form is a bit more complex, but is much more flexible. Here, an outline is offered, and there is a dashboard present, usually on the left side of the computer screen. Here, you can choose to include, or not include, “global” headings like Appetizer, Soup, Salad, Burgers, Pizza, and anything else, in any order you choose. You also name your own dishes within the category. All along, you get to mix and match fonts, font size and colors, and you can add your own artwork if you choose.
Writing Tips
There are a number of other writing tips to keep in mind when creating a menu:
- Don’t include too many items–customers could have more difficulty deciding if you do.
- Consider using the native language if your dishes are, for example, French or Italian, and then describe them in English.
- Don’t use overly fancy typefaces that are hard to read.
- Use language familiar to your customer base: more casual language for casual dining, and more sophisticated language for fine dining. Be sure the language is clear, however.
- Make sure your descriptions are accurate, including ingredients, portions, and origins of ingredients.
- Consider phrases like “fresh” and “center-cut” to increase the items’ appeal.
Download (PDF, 39KB)
Sources
Sponsored Links