Restaurant Menu Design

What makes a great menu design?

We’ve been designing menus as part of our restaurant branding work for over 12 years, and having recently reviewed old and current designs, we thought we’d collate all our favourite designs in one blog. But before we start with the actual examples, it’s worth delving into what goes into a great menu design, the thought process behind the different artistic decisions, as well as the customer psychology behind some of those decisions.

A key element of any menu design is first understanding the business. Is the restaurant quick service or fine dining, does the concept need a fast turnaround of tables or does the client want more dwell time? Is it advantageous to include some text about the concept, the cuisine, the cooking techniques and the heritage of the dishes or chefs? A lot of design decisions are made by the concept itself.

Positioning

In some ways, colours will be governed by the concept – a Caribbean restaurant, for example. Typically, it won’t use muted or black-and-white tones. The interior design plays a part, as does what the client likes. For a more in-depth look at colours, take a look at our Colour Psychology Blog.

Colours

Fonts need to be easy to read, especially if a restaurant has low lighting in the evening or an older demographic. Fonts are an easy way to quickly communicate the brand’s key fundamentals; for example, modern, classical, family-friendly, or cuisine from a particular country like India or China.

Fonts

Those dishes that make a restaurant unique are the ones that really need to be made prominent within the menu design. The eye must be drawn to them and given a mouth-watering description. The use of colours, graphics, font sizes and boxes all helps to draw attention and ensure they get the promotion they need.

Layout – Signature Dishes

For concepts which are original as well as those that have a particular story drawn from culture and/or heritage, a menu introduction is a great way of communicating what the brand is all about. A short paragraph helps to educate guests on traditional cooking techniques, seasonality and highlight suppliers of note.

Intro

Traditionally, companies tended to price items at, say, £4.99 rather than £5.00, although there’s only a 1p difference; psychologically, people associate £4.99 with £4 rather than £5. A modern trend in menu design is to remove the £ sign in favour of just a number – there is some evidence to suggest the £ has negative connotations, and without it, customers will pay more for a dish.

Descriptions – Pricing Psychology

The restaurant positioning will largely govern the menu format; after all, a QSR won’t have menus printed on expensive paper, and fine dining restaurants obviously don’t want menus on TV screens. Obviously, the number of dishes also plays a big part in the menu format.

format

Restaurant Menu Design Examples:

Restaurant menu design for Spice Shack featuring sections for thali specials, curry boxes, wraps, biryani, sandwiches, sides, naan, drinks, and an illustration of a woman riding a scooter on a street with buildings and power lines.

Spice Shack

Spice Shack serves amazing Indian street food. The business started from a food truck, and as the business grew to brick-and-mortar sites, it needed a rebrand. A key part of our branding work was creating a stunning new menu. The front cover really communicates the Indian street food origins of the business and the dishes served. The eye is drawn to the Grill items and other signature dishes. The menu is easy to read with lots of white space and colourful fonts. For more details, please visit our Spice Shack restaurant branding case study page.

Restaurant menu design for Papa Dum
A menu displaying three colorful cocktails with garnishes, labeled as 'Drinks Menu,' including a green drink with mint, a yellow drink with orange garnish, and an orange drink with a lemon slice in a dark setting.

Papa-Dum

To help with the next stage of growth, Papa-Dum wanted to redesign the menu to incorporate new dishes as well as upsell certain sides. Popular dishes like the grill section were made more prominent, as well as giving nicknames to traditional dishes which British customers may not be familiar with. One area which we identified for growth was cocktails – they are very visible on the existing menu and really help increase the spend per head. We took them off the main menu and created a stand-alone cocktail menu which sat on the tables at all times, which resulted in a lot more being sold.

Open menu with pages showing drinks, a pixel art dragon breathing fire, coins, and a pixel art scene with a moon and clouds. The background is a pixelated sky.
A pixel art style video game scene with a dark blue background, featuring a large cocktail glass with ice and an orange slice, floating above platforms made of bricks and lava, with pixelated coins and explosions resembling clouds with fire in a game environment.

Double Dragon

Named after the 1980s video game and with a brand design heavily influenced by pixelated gameplay, the drinks list was a continuation of that theme. For the cover, we briefed the photographer on the shots we wanted – ie photos of a number of drinks shot from the side rather than the top. These were then added to a graphic game play scene. In the menu itself, each section was divided into Rounds, and as Sake Bombs were a particular drink the client wanted to promote, we gave them their own page with a pixelated explosion above the sake cup. The restaurant kept having to reprint the drinks list as customers were taking them as mementoes! Visit the Double Dragon restaurant branding case study for more details.

A restaurant menu for Indian Express featuring drinks, ice cream, set meals, and offers, with a decorative blue and gold design.
Logo for Indian Express featuring a decorative emblem above the words 'Indian Express' in gold and white text on a black background.

Indan Express

The client favoured a traditional, classic Indian design for their takeaway menu. We used Opulent colours of gold and navy blue for the main colours, and traditional Indian patterns and boxes were used to promote set meals and offers.

Coffee and salad menu sign with price options, featuring decorative green leaves, a woman with outstretched arms, and promotional offers for salads and coffee.
A tablet displaying a contact page for a business, featuring a "find us" section with a map, contact information, and a photo of the business interior; also includes a design with a boy jumping and a row of food images at the bottom.

Diggs

Located in the heart of Clerkenwell, right by the very competitive Exmouth Market, all day eatery and coffee shop Diggs wanted a fun and vibrant brand which would translate across all their brand touchpoints. The menu was to be printed onto a large foam board behind the bar, so those queuing could quickly see what they wanted. Using collage, graphics and geometric shapes that created a distinctive design full of fun with a passion for healthy living. Visit the Diggs restaurant branding case study for more details.

A Japanese restaurant menu featuring snacks, small plates, bao, teriyaki style dishes, gyoza, and a duck leg salad, with images of sushi, rice, and meat dishes.
Multiple smartphones on a table displaying screens with Asian cuisine-themed content, menu options, and promotional announcements for a food establishment.

Manga Banga

For the Japanese Izakaya restaurant Manga Banga the menus we designed were all themed on anime and manga. We created a fun, distinctive menu design and as the lighting was always low in the restaurant, the fonts were bigger and a light background used. Some Japanese characters were also used to reinforce the authentic Japanese dishes. Check our the Manga Banga restaurant branding case study for more details.

A menu for a Mother's Day set meal featuring a starter of cod and crab fishcake tempura, main of butternut squash and chestnut ravioli, and dessert of Greek yogurt parfait and homemade chocolate truffles. The menu is on a white background with orange text accents, next to a poster showing two whales swimming in the ocean.
Two whales swimming near the ocean surface, viewed from above, with water splashing around them, and text that reads 'For a mother like no other' and 'Antipodea'.

Antipodea – Mother’s Day Menu

All-day Australian brasserie evolves throughout the day and effortlessly morphs from laid-back breakfasts to sumptuous lunches and a bustling night-time dining spot. It needed a design for its Mother’s Day set menu, and our team used a striking and on-brand stock image of a whale and her young, beautifully complemented with a simple layout and muted fonts and colours.

Triptych menu for an Indian restaurant called Nepal, featuring sections for traditional menu, starters, tandoori specialties, mains, biryani, sides, desserts, and beverages, with prices listed in British pounds.

Nepal

For London’s first Nepalese restaurant, Nepal, we created a restaurant brand which used the Himalayan peaks as inspiration as well as a vibrant colour palette. The restaurant serves a lot of dishes, and therefore the layout was very important. There are quite a few signature dishes which were added to a Traditional section of the menu and given a different colour so that section really stood out.

Website displaying Nepalese restaurant dining options on a computer and mobile devices, featuring images of traditional Nepali dishes.