Restaurant Menu Design
We understand that there are many elements that must come together to make a restaurant or bar successful. Menu design is one of these, it perhaps seems less important than the actual food but creating a menu that reflects your brand and also influences the dining experience and customers choices is a powerful marketing tool and something you should always consider.
Here’s why a good restaurant menu design is so important and few of our favourite designs we’ve kept and collected over the years.
Importance of a Good Restaurant Menu Design
Brand Reflection: The menu is an extension of your restaurant's identity. It should convey the theme, style, and ambiance of the establishment, whether it’s casual, upscale, ethnic, or modern. It should be created using your brand guidelines, using your fonts, colours and imagery.
Customer Experience: It is important that guests feel relaxed when ordering, they don't want to feel intimidated when sitting down to order. Therefore, a well-organised menu enhances the customer’s dining experience by making it easy to navigate. Clear sections, legible fonts, and concise descriptions help guests find what they want quickly, reducing frustration and enhancing satisfaction.
Sales Tool: Strategic menu design can help drive sales by highlighting high-margin items, specials, and chef's recommendations. Designs could include using boxes, bold fonts, and colour highlights to draw attention to these items and subtly guiding customers' choices.
Communication: The menu is important in communicating crucial information about the dishes, including ingredients, preparation methods, and potential allergens. Here the copy is crucial as it helps to give guests an insight into the wonderful dishes on offer.
Differentiation: In a competitive market, a unique and visually appealing menu can set your restaurant apart. A restaurant or bar that has taken the time to design or illustrate a menu makes the entire dining experience more enjoyable and memorable.
Operational Efficiency: Helping your guests to understand the menu easily, reducing the number of questions for the staff, speeding up the ordering process, and preventing errors.
The Blind Pig
The menu is much more than a list of offerings; it’s an integral part of the dining experience, carefully crafted to reflect the bar’s unique brand identity. The menu is themed around famous children’s literature and helps to showcase the creativity and inventiveness of the cocktails, as well as immersing guests in the brands nostalgic and whimsical journey.
Each children story inspires the illustration of the menu, and the design of the cocktail.
Harry's Half a Pint o’ Buttah
Ingredients: Whisky, Kamm & Sons, thyme, beer, butterscotch
Inspiration: Harry Potter
Description: This drink offers a magical blend reminiscent of the wizarding world’s favorite beverage.
Winnie The Pooh’s Hunny Pot
Ingredients: Buttered rum, mead, apple brandy, lemon, honey
Inspiration: Winnie the Pooh
Description: A comforting and sweet concoction that transports you to the Hundred Acre Wood.
Mr Tumnus Tipple
Ingredients: Gin-based
Inspiration: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
Description: A refreshing and mythical drink, perfect for a journey through Narnia.
Paddington Bear Mix
Ingredients: Peruvian Pisco, marmalade
Inspiration: Paddington Bear
Description: This cocktail offers a taste of adventure, just like Paddington’s journeys from Peru to London.
Dream Jars
Ingredients: Glowing ice cubes
Inspiration: The BFG by Roald Dahl
Description: A magical and visually stunning drink that captures the essence of dreams and imagination.
The Alchemist: Innovative Menu Design Inspired by Chemistry
The Alchemist bar and restaurant is renowned for its inventive approach to cocktails and immersive customer experience. Central to this experience is their creatively designed menu, which draws inspiration from Mendeleev's periodic table. This unique design not only aligns with the bar's scientific and theatrical theme but also enhances the overall dining experience. The Alchemist uses its menu design to reflect its brand and captivate its guests.
The Palomar
The Palomars’ graphic identity, was created by Here, intended to conjure up the “romantic and nostalgic feelings of bygone days.” Drawing its inspiration from many of the classic details of the restaurant’s interior, whilst also reflecting the crafted nature of its menu.
This is done through the graphic detail of a hand drawn script and uppercase extended sans-serif typography, and materially using the texture of uncoated paper and the gloss and perceived quality of a gold block foil. This links a variety of assets that included menu design and coasters, neon signage and business cards.
