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[mattm]

In response to my offer to have the restaurant community forum take on a menu design make-over, Lynn from The Soda Fountain has requested your help and advice on their menu. Please follow this attachment to see their current menu Soda Fountain Menu

Please ask questions and make suggestions by replying to this thread. If you are not already a member, please sign up and join the fun.

[mattm]

Lynn, this looks like a fun restaurant. What a classic!

The first thing that I would like to know is, what style and size of menu covers are you using? You have 5 pages so what are you doing with the other view in your menu cover? Are you open to changing the size and style of menu?

The main issue I see with your menu is the lack of white space on pages two and three. If you compare pages four and five to those pages you should see that it is much easier on your eyes. It is also easier to lead people to the items that are your specialties. These are the items that are going to bring people back again and again.

I will search some design sites and see if I can find a good description of how to use white space in your design. If I can't find that I will do a quick white paper on the subject. It is a very important aspect of design.

[LynnB]

Matt-thanks for the feedback. Here are some answers to your questions. The last page is blank because we have been working on a history and how we got started. We have not perfected it yet and don't want to put the page out if it's not perfect. We are always open to other ideas and it seems you have some very good suggestions.

Besides our burgers, our All Day Entrees are where we really shine. Yes the restaurant is a fun atmosphere but we don't want to be known as a burger joint. We will not have the crowd we need for dinner just on burgers. I would agree we need more spacing but I was unsure of how to make that happen. I designed the menu and all of the descriptions but I am not a menu designer nor do I have expertise in the subject. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Lynn

[Menu Designer]

Hi Lynn
I like to think the first rule of designing a menu is keeping it true to your theme and you have. You make it fun to read and appetizing. Here are a few changes I would make.

Let talk color scheme. Heavy borders are overpowering and are creating an illusion of tight space within the menu “this is called lack of whitespace.” If you need a border then try one along the top and bottom this will open it up. Bring a color into the categories and item. Bold dark colors. Blue, Deep Red, Green etc (Keep in mind that red is always hard on the eyes) If space allows photos of your theme or food are always a nice option.

Fonts. I’m not crazy about “Font Diner.” But the descriptions are easy to read. Not crazy how titles are centered then items are left align with indent. Center it all or left align all. Another thing you could do is add 3 columns to the top and maybe 2 at the bottom to create flow. Keep in mind that on a two page menu the readers eyes move in a “Z formation” So you want to place things in other zones that will drawn attention.

Let’s talk about food and profit. I don’t see any one item that sticks out. Showcase your “hot” items by boxing them in or adding a tiny graphic “icon” that specifies this is a house specialty.

Prices. I assume your customers come to you because they love your food and atmosphere so remove the price “$7.99” right after the item’s name and place it behind the description in the description font size. Remove the dollar it will give your menu a cleaner feel. You have all your prices ending in 9’s which is very smart.

I love your menu item’s name. Very fun and I can see a lot of thought when into it and it shows.

Check out food networks Food Trends of the 2010…keeping it real, grandma’s cooking with a twist. Locally grown…. If you have a chance to incorporate any of these into your menu as Martha would say “It’s a Good Thing”. Best wishes. Donna

[kristianmn]

Those are great ideas for the 'working' aspects of your menu! For the visual aspects at a very low cost, I like to use elance.com. On elance.com you can post your menu project and a price you're willing to pay. You'll get access to thousands of graphic artists from around the world who will bid on your project. The nice thing about this is some are from countries where the dollar ISN'T tanking, so $50 gets you a long way.

I've used a company from Argentina called NetMenCorp and have always been blown away by the results.

Another great strategy for saving money on design is to trade-out with a local graphic designer. Artists love to eat, too!

[JonathanMunsell]

i think that all the comments are great! I think Menu Designer hit nail on the head. To expand on his comment about profit and boxing Item comment. Review your menu from a profit contribution aspect and see which items you are a fan of i.e. present well, easy to get out etc. but also have a high contribution. Contribution meaning dollars in the bank after production. You will want to box these and call attention to them and people will order them ultimitely driving profit. It is amazing. Try it with a few items and watch your profitability kick up. This is not necessarily the items with the best food cost % but at the end of the day you don't take %'s to the bank you take dollars.

Good luck and keep us posted as you make changes.

Jonathan

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jonathan Munsell owns two restaurant brands and a catering company. Jonathan Munsell works with current and aspiring restaurant owners specializing in restaurant startup and growth. In 2007, Jonathan launched Restaurant Success System conducting national seminars and professionally speaking on restaurant startup, operations, marketing and finance. Download a free report to learn "How to Double Your Restaurant Profits" at www.RestaurantSuccessMonthly.com

[mattm]

Thanks to everyone for your input. I think Lynn is getting some great advice.

Lynn, I bet your head is just spinning at this point. You must be thinking; what do I do now! Don't worry, this is a process and it will take some time.

Let's start with the basics. Menu Designer and Jonathan are both on the same point. What makes you money. Money is what keeps you in business. So, the next step is to decide what items you need to feature to make sure you 1) make money and 2) impress people so they want to come back.

At the same time, think about all the items you have and try to eliminate the ones that are not profitable and the ones that cause headaches. Talk with your staff and see if you have items that are ordered very seldom and end up taking special care because they are not part of the normal flow of things.

Finally, it looks like you have letter size triple menu cover. If you are not able to eliminate enough items then I believe you either have to go to legal size paper, or start using the back for your drinks and give yourself more space.

It appears that you really have two groups of customers; 1) the burger bunch 2) the Grandma's Cooking crowd. To help them both feel like they came to the right place you may want to consider a book 3 menu cover. The book 3 menu will give you the same number of views, but you can have two pages for Starters, Soups and Salads, and Entrees and another two page spread for Burgers, Dogs, and Fountain Favorites.

Hi Matt-Sorry for the delay in getting back to you in regard to my menu. I found your response in my junk folder recently. The responses I've read make a lot of sense however it may seem strange but we don't have any dogs on our menu (non-sellers). WE do have items that are of low profitability but we are unable to take them off the menu e.g. our burgers, the macaroni and cheese bites (very popular). We are debating on raising our burger price. This as you know, can be a double-edged sword.

We are currently working on taking your advice and moving some items around on the menu. First we are moving the drinks to the back page which will allow us to add more room to the first two pages of the menu. The second change we are making is to the red border on the outside of the menu this will allow for more room on each page. The menu holders you are suggesting are the exact ones we currently using except they have a red border. Any other advise that anyone can give us would be helpful as we are updating our menu right now. I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks-Lynn

Originally Posted by mattm

Thanks to everyone for your input. I think Lynn is getting some great advice.

Lynn, I bet your head is just spinning at this point. You must be thinking; what do I do now! Don't worry, this is a process and it will take some time.

Let's start with the basics. Menu Designer and Jonathan are both on the same point. What makes you money. Money is what keeps you in business. So, the next step is to decide what items you need to feature to make sure you 1) make money and 2) impress people so they want to come back.

At the same time, think about all the items you have and try to eliminate the ones that are not profitable and the ones that cause headaches. Talk with your staff and see if you have items that are ordered very seldom and end up taking special care because they are not part of the normal flow of things.

Finally, it looks like you have letter size triple menu cover. If you are not able to eliminate enough items then I believe you either have to go to legal size paper, or start using the back for your drinks and give yourself more space.

It appears that you really have two groups of customers; 1) the burger bunch 2) the Grandma's Cooking crowd. To help them both feel like they came to the right place you may want to consider a book 3 menu cover. The book 3 menu will give you the same number of views, but you can have two pages for Starters, Soups and Salads, and Entrees and another two page spread for Burgers, Dogs, and Fountain Favorites.

[crazy_cajun]

I hope that I am not to late on this, but I will give it a shot anyway. If you have printed your final menu, I would love to see the final layout of it, and what advice you did take into account. I think that Menu Designer was spot on with the recommendations that were given.
There were a few things that jumped right out at me from a first glance over. I am writing this after a quick once over so that I can point out the things that jumped quickly.

1) The italics, I have never been a huge fan of this on the descriptions, although some clients have chosen to use it. I would also try to bring play with the font a little and see if you can find one that looks right and is a little smaller than your title. Once again that is a personal choice.

2) I noticed some issues with the spacing on the prices next to the names. I am not sure what program you used or how set it up, but you may want to work with that. It is something small, but something that will stick out to many people.

3) I would definitely move the prices from where you have them now. When your customers are looking at the menu, you want the focus to be on the dish and what the dish has to offer. You want them to read the description and not care about the price, only the fact that they want it. I would move them to the end of the description, and remove the price symbol. I agree with not having it there, since to me it does make a menu look a lot cleaner. I would also keep the price written just like the description that comes before it. You don't want your customer to focus in on the price before everything else. Take a look at the Blue Water Seafood Menu and maybe grab a couple of ideas from there.

These are just my opinions, and I hope that I have been of some help to you.

Thanks

[RestaurantDoctors]

First off, as a new-ish member here, I think its awesome that a site like this exists now to give such constructive community based feedback! Even just 10 years ago I wasnt privy to such an amazing resource! Kudos to the community!

So then:

1) The information is awesome - but I think its hard to get through. Sticking with two font types and bold would draw the readers attention to where it needs to go. The italicized, while I'm sure its meant to look like a more "spoken word" ends up being hard on the eyes - especially with so much info on each page.

2) Aligning all titles and descriptions to one side ( left? ) and prices adjusted to the right would increase uniformity while still giving your funky style plenty of space to spread its wings.

3) On page 3 where you specify the cost of additional toppings...if you want to specify the price of each additional topping, then perhaps move all pertinent info to the bottom of the page / section. However you may simply want to list what toppings are available and that "extra charges apply"

4) You have so much extra space on page 4 and 5, but things seem crowded on pages 1 - 3. Perhaps spreading the information out more evenly would help.

Good luck!!