As you can imagine,for the grumpy old woman, going out to dinner isn't as straightfoward as it may seem
All diners study your menu but when designers dine out, we are not only looking at the fine dishes you have on offer. Oh no! But remember that the 'average' diner is also affected by the look of your menu, even if it is only subliminally. (If you find that hard to believe, imagine menu A and menu B. Menu A is hastily typed on a thin piece of card with spelling errors and the odd gravy smear. Menu B is beautifully bound, with no typos and is beautifully clean with no fingerprints or other marks upon it. Which menu would you rather order from?)
If you see a diner studying your menu and circling errors with a pencil, if that isn't me, it's a designer.
There is, of course, no excuse whatsoever for typos in a menu. Not one. No excuses. At all. Ever. If the restaurant is so careless that it allows typos in its menu, what is the food going to be like? Not paying attention to detail in the menu suggests a lack of attention elsewhere. In food preparation? In pricing. Or, the worst scenario ... in hygiene?
But many restaurants fail to realize that a menu is not a simple list of dishes available. Yet this is often what the diner sees. A menu that isn't properly engineered and that doesn't draw the diners attention to the most profitable food items is doing only half its job. Yes, there are still restaurateurs out there who DON'T direct diners to the dishes THEY want to sell. How crazy is that? Anyone would think that diners had a choice :)
And I still see aligned prices. It doesn't matter how rich your customers are. Even the bloke who has just breezed in from his mega-trillion dollar yacht wearing his diamond-encrusted t-shirt WILL instinctively choose by price if he sees a column of menu item prices. Yes he will.
A good method of evaluating your menu is to first evaluate your business. What do clients want from a restaurant? Good food, cleanliness, consistency ... they are a good start. Does your menu reflect those values? Consistency? Yes. If a regular diner has a favorite dish, he expects it to be consistent. Imagine you see a menu as follows:
Pan-seared tuna with basil-lemon sauce served with seasonal vegetables - $30
Honey Baked Ham - Served with mango cilantro chutney, mashed potatoes and fresh vegetables ... 30
There are only twenty five or so words but how many inconsistencies can you see there?
(OK, then. If you use a hyphen in pan-seared, you should do the same for honey-baked. The same applies to basil-lemon and mango-cilantro. Why the capitals for Honey Baked Ham? What's the difference between fresh vegetables and seasonal vegetables? Why does served have a capital 's' in the second menu item? Why is it preceded by a hyphen? -30 or ...$30? And so on ...)
The best way to avoid these problems is to work with your design company to develop a menu style guide. Even if your menus are printed in-house because of ever-changing specials, your menu will always be consistent if you are following your style guide.
The above, as you have no doubt realized, is the tip of the iceberg. More common menu errors will no doubt follow shortly....
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