In a market where suppliers, staff and consumers are constantly changing, the menu is one of few restaurant mainstays. Once a functional list, today’s menus are dynamic marketing tools, carefully designed to boost the bottom line. We talk to Louisa Sumagui, Group Marketing Director of Spilt

Milk design company, on how to make your menus work in 2016.

A new order

A customer enters your restaurant, they are greeted by your server, seated and given a menu – it’s their first physical

interaction with your brand. The contents of that piece of paper can determine their entire experience. Too much choice and menu anxiety sets in, too minimalistic and there is a feeling of being ripped off. Striking a balance that fits your brand can be difficult. But since the menu is — arguably — a restaurant’s most important piece of marketing material, it’s worth getting it right. But what does ‘right’ mean?

There are three tenets of successful menus: user-friendly, comprehensible and current. Let’s start with usability. Your menu’s primary purpose is to tell the customer what dishes are available; overcomplicate this and you’re in trouble. “If there’s one rule to follow in menu design it is K.I.S.S – Keep It Simple Stupid,” advises Louisa Sumagui, Group Marketing Director of Spilt Milk, sister company of interior design firm Stickman. “There’s really no excuse for making this process anything less than

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pleasurable or you run the risk of confusing customers, slowing service and negatively affecting the average spend,” she continues. In a nut shell, leather-bound directories of dishes with hundreds of tabs should be used as a doorstop and nothing else.

Next on the list is comprehensibility. What sort of clientele visit your restaurant or resort? Chances are you’ve got Arabs, Europeans, Russians and Chinese, to name just as few. Each and every one of your guests needs to be able to read and understand what’s on offer: that means dual language menus. But don’t get caught out with a rookie error. It’s important that the English and alternative description appear in the same entry - if you relegate the second language to the back of the menu how will your English speaking staff know what is being ordered?

Being comprehensible also extends to what is on offer. Got hogget on your menu? Don’t make your guests have to ask the waiter what it is (and feel foolish in the process). Instead

provide a glossary explaining unusual items. As Sumagui warns, “A great menu should be the start of the conversation, never an impediment.” Symbols also comes under comprehensibility. Vegetarians, vegans and those with allergies or intolerances tend to scan the margin of a menu looking for signs identifying suitable dishes. Give them a hand and dot a breadcrumb trail of icons across the menu.

Lastly, be current. Before you can get creative with your menu design you need to make sure the content is correct. There’s no point including salmon in your specials if your supplier hasn’t delivered in three months. Missing dishes are liable to infuriate diners, especially if it’s their favourite. “F&B outlets need to update their menu at least twice a year in order to stay fresh and innovative,” explains Sumagui. “Seasonal updates are always nice, but ultimately it all comes down to costs,” she concedes. If the budget doesn’t allow for quarterly reprints then use inserts as a cheap and easy way of keeping offerings up to date.

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Novosibirsk, Russia. A single Russian firm designed the entirety of this café, but it’s the menus that really stand out. Going down the

picture root, the menu features colour-saturated, high resolution photographs of their actual

dishes. The food literally sells itself.

Vera, Saragoza, Spain. The team at printing craft workshop El Calotipo made these beautiful, thick wooden menus for cafe Vera. The white lettering is printed manually on an in-house press and, in a nice touch, the prices are printed on stickers to ensure they are always accurate.

The menu for Frangipani restaurant in Abu Dhabi, as designed by the Spilt Milk team.

Cellarmaker Brewing Company, San Francisco, US. Designed by Gamut, this menu not only provides you with a comprehensive list of beverages, it also serves as a helpful reminder of what you’ve already sampled. Each tipple can be ticked off the list!

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13 Wives, Singapore. The team at creative agency Foreign Policy took

the concept of the menu well and truly outside the box with this project.

The bar’s beverage list is a story of the 13 women who inspire each drink

found in this little black book. The team behind it hand assembled and

printed 35 copies.

Fade St. Social, Dublin, Ireland. Created not by a design firm but illustrator, this Irish gastropub opted for the colourful doodles of Steve Simpson. The striking scribbles communicate the restaurant’s relaxed atmosphere and showcase its unique Irish character and charm.

L’Encant, Spain. Design company Nuria Vila went for a fusion concept with the

menus a L’Encant, a Spanish sushi bar. Designed to reinforce the restaurant’s

blend of Japanese and Catalan culture, the team developed this concept to

connect the prevalence of fans in both Spanish and Japanese culture. Inside the wooden cover, menus are printed

on stone paper.TIPS AND TRICKS TO MAXIMISE MENU SUCCESS

“Human habits have a huge effect on design. One that’s engineered correctly with great design draws the attention of the consumer directly to the desired item, driving the sales mix and flat out increasing revenue” explains Sumagui. The best way to do this?

• The eye naturally gravitates to the upper right quarter of a menu.

• Boxes, borders and bold font draw the eye.

• Get colourful. Red stimulates the appetite and yellow grabs our attention. But Sumagui offers a word of warning: “never use green for anything other than juices – it tends to be associated with food that is mouldy or has gone off.”

• Seven is a magic number for menus. Any more in each section and diners feel overwhelmed by choice.

• Drop the price symbols. A study from Cornell University found that writing prices out using full words rather encouraged people to spend more money.

• Speaking of words, longer descriptions sell more food – up to 50% more according to one study.

• Start the menu with a couple of expensive offerings and it makes everything else look reasonably priced.

• Get snap happy. Giving a visual representation of a dish is a great trick for stimulating the appetite and increasing the average spend. Careful though, the pictures need to be high quality, and too many of them can make you look like a cheap fast-food joint.