Inspired Ways to Refresh Your Online Restaurant Menu

If you're seeking inspiration to design an enticing online menu for your restaurant, this guide provides valuable insights. A well-designed menu can create a positive first impression and boost business. However, an outdated, confusing, or non-optimized menu could deter potential customers. This guide outlines strategies for creating a user-friendly and profitable online menu.

The visual aspects of a menu play a crucial role in influencing diners' decisions. A streamlined design that is easy to read and navigate can lead to increased sales, while a cluttered or challenging-to-use menu can drive customers away. This guide showcases several successful restaurant menus as well as the features that contribute to their success.

Ease of Reading

To make a menu easy to read, consider the typography, color scheme, and layout. Choosing clear, readable fonts, sufficient color contrast, and logical organization are key to ensuring customers can quickly find desired items.

User-Friendliness

Ensure the menu is intuitive and easy to navigate. Place high-margin items in prominent locations, like the top-right corner or center of the menu page. Use typography, color cues, and spacing to direct customers' attention and reduce ordering friction.

Brand Consistency

Align the menu's visual elements with the restaurant's overall theme and atmosphere. For example, a rustic Italian restaurant might opt for a warm color palette and handwritten fonts, while a modern Asian eatery could choose clean lines and minimalistic design.

Enhancing User Experience with Key Features

Mobile-First Design

With the majority of online orders coming from mobile devices, having a mobile-friendly menu is essential. A mobile-first design allows customers to easily navigate and browse the menu on their smartphones.

Clear Visuals

High-quality images can attract customers and showcase the dishes available. Images can also help customers make informed decisions, particularly for those with dietary restrictions or allergies. A study suggests that 75% of customers find images important when deciding where to dine[1].

Streamlined Ordering Process

A good menu should be efficient, allowing customers to browse and place orders quickly. Aim for an order process with minimal steps to prevent potentially losing customers due to frustration or indecision.

Customization Options

Customization allows customers to tailor their orders to their preferences, such as adding toppings or choosing sauces. Offering this option can help create a unique dining experience for each customer.

Special Promotions and Upsells

Implementing special offers and upselling compatible items can increase the average order value. For example, suggesting a appetizer or dessert when a customer orders a main course can drive additional sales.

Orderable is a WordPress plugin that simplifies the process of creating and managing an online ordering menu. With Orderable, you can add an online ordering system to your restaurant's website, customize your delivery schedule, and efficiently manage orders.

Implementing Key Features with Orderable

The Orderable Platform

Orderable is a user-friendly plugin that allows you to create and manage a visually appealing and efficient online menu. The plugin enables you to tailor your menu to your preferences and target audience, and it offers various customization options.

By using Orderable, you can implement key features such as a mobile-first design, clear visuals, streamlined ordering process, and smart upselling. This can greatly improve your menu's overall functionality and profitability.

Inspiring Menus from Real-World Restaurants

To draw inspiration for your menu design, consider the following successful examples from leading restaurants around the world.

Chipotle Mexican Grill

Chipotle's menu is simple and easy to navigate, with high-quality visuals showcasing its offerings. The menu offers customization options, which adds personalization and increases customer satisfaction.

BAO City

BAO City's menu is organized hierarchically, with primary dishes at the top and secondary items below. It is designed for mobile users and features clickable menu cards for quick ordering.

Sweetgreen

Sweetgreen's menu offers extensive customization, allowing customers to select ingredients and modify portions to their liking. It also provides a calorie calculator for health-conscious diners.

Domino's Pizza

Domino's menu is adaptable across various regions, offering a range of localized menu items to cater to diverse tastes. The menu is easy to navigate, and customers can customize their orders according to their preferences.

SusieCakes

SusieCakes features large, high-quality photos of its cakes alongside customer ratings for added credibility. The menu design seamlessly integrates with the company's brand identity.

Joe & The Juice

Joe & The Juice's menu features a real-time calorie calculator and displays allergen information for each dish, catering to health-conscious customers' needs.

These examples illustrate the importance of offering a user-friendly, customizable, and visually appealing online menu that caters to customer preferences and dietary requirements. By taking inspiration from these successful menus, you can create a winning design for your own restaurant.

In conclusion, designing a user-friendly and profitable online menu requires careful consideration of essential features, such as ease of reading, mobile optimization, customization, and smart upselling. Using tools like Orderable can streamline the process and ultimately help you create a menu that drives sales, enhances the dining experience, and reflects your restaurant's brand identity.

To offer product add-ons and cater to customer preferences, consider following Chipotle Mexican Grill's example by providing easy-to-navigate menus with customization options.
Optimize your online ordering process by designing a mobile-friendly menu, like BAO City, which is organized hierarchically and features clickable menu cards for quick ordering.
Enhance the customer experience by offering menu customization similar to Sweetgreen, where diners can select ingredients and modify portions according to their taste.
Adapt your menu to regional preferences, as Domino's Pizza does, to cater to diverse tastes and increase customer satisfaction. Furthermore, you can use clear visuals, such as high-quality photos of your dishes, and include allergen information, as demonstrated by Joe & The Juice. By doing so, you can create an appealing and accessible food-and-drink menu that aligns with your lifestyle and home-and-garden aesthetics while attracting a wide range of customers.

Inspired Ways to Refresh Your Online Restaurant Menu