When you’re in the hospitality industry, dining out becomes an entirely different experience. You notice every little thing the restaurant du jour does, from the sign outside, to the staff uniforms, to the cleanliness of the silverware, to the freshness of the bread that’s brought out before your meal. The fact that every detail of a restaurant’s presentation contributes to creating its overall image is probably not lost on you. But when you’re scrutinizing your competitors’ menus, noticing every little imperfection, inconsistency, or food stain, do you stop to think about the image you’re presenting through your own menus? Does the font you chose truly represent the feel of your restaurant, or the feel you’d like it to have? Is the cardstock of high quality? What color scheme have you chosen, and does it make sense, considering your target market?
When your guests sit down, they’ve already decided to eat at your restaurant. But they haven’t yet decided what to eat, or how much they’d like to spend. The look and quality of your menu can have a ton of influence on the choices they make, and ultimately have a huge effect on your bottom line. If you’ve decided that your restaurant could indeed benefit from a better quality food and wine list, here are some points to consider when designing and printing your custom menus.
1. Make the menu match the décor.
This might seem like a no-brainer, but we’re constantly surprised by how ill-fitted many restaurant menus are to their interiors. If, for example, you’ve worked very hard at creating a Victorian-style, classic feel in your venue, it wouldn’t make sense to pair that with an overly modern font, like comic sans, or even something semi-modern like a courier font. At the same time, you don’t want to go too far in the other direction by choosing a font that’s got a Gothic or Medieval overtone. Something with curly edges and a handwritten look might be just the understated writing style to suit your business; if you’re running a sports bar, of course, your needs would be different. On top of the font you choose, make sure the borders on your custom menus work with the overall layout and feel of your place, not to mention any graphics. For some excellent inspiration, see examples at EliteFlyers.com
2. Text is everything.
When preparing your custom printed menus, you would do well to run them by a real writer. It may seem that the most important part of your restaurant is the delicious food, but you’re going to be relying on your menu to sell that delicious food, so if it’s not written well, your guests will never know how great that tuna tataki or spring salad really was. Make sure the descriptions of the menu items highlight the strengths of each dish, and that they’re the proper compromise between brevity and thoroughness. For example, simply writing the words “House Salad” on your list is pretty lame. Calling the dish the “Adventure Salad,” and including a description like, “This salad has a little bit of 
everything: Organic greens meet tangy feta cheese, cucumbers, fresh beets, juicy tomatoes, bright raspberries and crispy red onion in a light bath of house-made lemon-chia vinaigrette.” Now that sounds like a salad.
3. Don’t skimp on printing.
For some minimalist-design restaurants, perhaps a stark and simple black and white menu will work. But for most, if you want your restaurant to exude an air of quality and allure, you’d be better off choosing a capable professional printer to handle your printing needs. EliteFlyers.com, for example, offers a wide array of print options for your custom menus – including custom sizes, number of pages, and a rainbow of high quality inks so that you can make your menu – and your restaurant – shine on paper as well as off.
Why wait another day? Go to EliteFlyers.com now to start your order right away!
About Jenny DixonJennifer has been apart of the EliteFlyers.com team for over 15 years. She brings a deep understanding of web marketing, thoughtful strategies, that she's able to design, manage, print, deliver multi-media campaigns to meet all client's goals. Her personal portfolio includes high-end design and printing of business cards, flyers, post cards for elite businesses and individuals from all over the world.
