When organizing your menu, here are a few fun facts that may be helpful to increase sales…According to SoftCafe, a developer of menu software for restaurants, customers often remember and order the first two items and the last two items in each category on your menu. Reviewing and analyzing itemization reports regularly will lead to insights that might not be obvious at face value. This is a relatively inexpensive, simple task, but it is one that many restaurants have yet to accomplish. The menu layout should be logical, with the most profitable items emphasized and organized in a manner that makes the entire menu easy to scan and read. Restaurant week specials: Often, a community’s restaurants will come together to collectively offer specials. A menu is a list of the foods and beverages available for purchase at a restaurant or eatery. Every market is different for hiring talent. There are three main factors I think you should concentrate on when you are putting together your menu. You need to consider every cost of running your business including the rent, insurance, utilities, equipment, maintenance, small wares, labor, taxes and benefits to name a few. To tell you the truth, it’s not important what you want to serve. Don’t overdo the merchandising, but guests will often appreciate guidance and order highlighted items on a well-merchandized menu. People rarely eat what they don’t understand. Aaron Allen & Associates. In addition to evaluating menu pricing, evaluating and updating menu offerings should be done twice a year. Ensure there’s a checkmark in the desired printer’s row. Restaurants that build a menu based on what worked and was popular yesterday instead of what will be popular tomorrow are not relevant. Inefficient layout or overuse of add-on prices for menu item variations is frustrating and confusing. | O'Dell Restaurant Consulting's Blog. In most restaurants, at least 80% of the day’s revenue comes from the rush periods where you are putting through as many people as you can possibly serve. In a restaurant, the menu is a list of food and beverages offered to customers and the prices. We bring practical, relevant experience ranging from the dish room to the boardroom and apply a holistic, integrated approach to strategic issues related to growth and expansion, performance optimization, and enterprise value enhancement. It also needs to have items that spread the work load across the different stations and equipment in your kitchen. Menu engineers suggest that each menu category should have no more than seven items: seven appetizers, seven mains, seven desserts, seven cocktails, etc. Such fluctuations are normal and ongoing, and if restaurants don’t increase their menu prices when cost of food rise, they often lose their profit margins. Maybe your customers won’t know how to verbalize it and let you know that your food really stinks, or maybe they’re just too nice to say it, but it will still show in the ever decreasing number of guests you’ll serve. Your menu is your moneymaker, which means it plays a huge role in attracting guests to eat at your restaurant and consider it their usual haunts. For example, all menu items under the menu category need to go to both a kitchen printer and a salad bar printer. On the flip side, for a menu to be ultimately successful, it must also contain items that appeal to everyone who reads it, which means, in my opinion, a blend of both innovative and classic dishes. You can check it out at http://ezinearticles.com/?Menu-Development-for-a-Startup-Restaurant&id=5920927. Your menu selection needs to be limited to only the number of items that you have the equipment to cook. Try to keep your menu under 32 items for optimal productivity, and to minimize confusion and anxiety among your guests. You can’t just go and write your dream menu without considering the factors that will affect your ability to produce the food on that menu. Here are some of the most common restaurant menu design mistakes we see. Before starting to sell, they should know the menu inside and out, and be able to answer questions about how dishes are prepared, which are most popular, and common allergens or dietary restrictions about each item. If you’re an independent restaurant owner like Jenn, you may also be wondering if it is a good idea to provide calorie counts on your menu. Your menu is your moneymaker, which means it plays a huge role in attracting guests to eat at your restaurant and consider it their usual haunts. On the same token, if all of a restaurant’s competitors offer the same plate of spaghetti, customers will compare prices and choose the cheapest option. Some establishments even go so far as to print their menus on wood or other unconventional, though brand-appropriate, materials, giving one of the most important pieces of restaurant collateral a unique aesthetic and increased durability. What's the optimal number of menu items for a restaurant? Your aim with your menu is to get as many repeat customers as you can get. 30 Items that Should Be On Everyone’s Basic Grocery List. An alternate drink menu can be appropriate if there is a large selection of alcoholic beverages, and a specials insert can be okay, too, if it suits the tone of the restaurant. 9. All together, the other costs of running your business make up a lot larger part of your financial picture than your food costs do. Often, the format is a reduced-price fixed menu from which diners can choose. I’m not sure what it is about the restaurant business that turns an average cook into an overbearing, pretentious egomaniac chef or restaurant owner that thinks they can stick something on a plate no one has ever heard of before and people will pay them $50 a plate to eat it, but I wish they made a pill to cure that disease. In fact, a study using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that the medium lifespan of a restaurant in the western US is only 4.5 years. That said, I still think those two show are the most important shows on television for current and would-be restaurateurs. Robert Irvine is a bit more respectful, but still tough. When creating a menu, you need to consider how much every item on your menu costs to make. The placement and format of prices has a huge psychological impact on guests. If your restaurant needs to scale back its menu, deciding which items should stay and go can be challenging. Don’t offer the same items as everyone else, and don’t sell two items that are essentially the same. Make sure adjustments are gradual and avoid adding a dollar or more to the price all at once. The items you put in the area of sales concentration should be selected with care and purpose. A menu should function as a tour guide of the best signature items and those with the highest gross margin – it can be so much more than just a list of simple dishes offered. Your wait staff will definitely get the most questions about the menu, and they should be the first ones to know it inside and out. On the other hand, having widely fluctuating prices isn’t a good idea either, so consider swapping out menu items if the price of ingredients is rising too quickly. Create something new with no direct competition, and profit margins rise almost instantly. You can also select multiple printers. I only have to bet my reputation that I’m right, you may have to bet your business you’re not wrong. If you have 10 different saute items, and only 4 burners, you’re going to keep a lot of people waiting for their food. Too many dishes won’t generate value for the restaurant… Your staff is another limitation you have to take into account when creating a menu. A truly effective menu should be simple. I’m starting to annoy myself. Many physical menus are overly susceptible to food, grease and water stains, tears, and other common restaurant wear and tear. Static menu boards are not only less interactive, but they are difficult to update when implementing menu changes. Your menu selection needs to be limited to only the number of items that you have the equipment to cook. Most places live somewhere in the middle. For instance, the price for substituting onion rings for fries should be listed at the top of the burger section. Menu items should be one of two things: easy to prepare on the spot, such as by sautéeing or grilling, or easy to prepare ahead of time and reheat. If you have to have everything flown in from some exotic far away place, people in your area aren’t likely to know what it is or even care. Find the perfect line between serving everything you can make and challenging chefs to create more dishes. A truly effective menu should be simple. Sure there are some adventurous people out there like me that love to try anything new and interesting they can get their hands on, but we are the exception, not the rule. This allows a company to grow and change instead of settling into a stagnant rut. There is no one “right” answer. You’re wasting your time if you’re not making money, so naturally a manageable menu is one that gives you enough money to pay your bills. Design one menu with everything organized and consolidated in a logical manner that emphasizes the selections with the highest profit margin. This often leads to a bloated menu with more variety but a kitchen that is needlessly complex with lots of recipes and too many inventory items. It also doesn’t mean that people are going to think whatever you’re cooking is as good as you do. While menu engineering is most often mentioned in the context of traditional paper restaurant menus, the concepts are equally applicable to menus posted online, drink menus, specials written on table tents, and items written on menu boards. Haphazard placement of profitable items decreases their value. The following elements of a restaurant menu design have a dual function. We currently have 60 entrees and 24 soup/salad/apps. We help executive teams bridge the gap between what’s happening inside and outside the business so they can find, size, and seize the greatest opportunities for their organizations. It should highlight those dishes that have the highest gross margin, taking guests on a tour of the items and elements that make a restaurant stand out from its competitors. They should be items that you want to feature and do better than the competition. He likes to push people’s buttons. A small menu is easier to control costs on, easier to prepare and order for, and easier to provide consistency with. If you have 10 different saute items, and only 4 burners, you’re going to keep a lot of people waiting for their food. How much does every person who walks through your door cost you in overhead to serve? The team should study the menu regularly and take verbal tests to see if they are ready to sell popular, profitable items. Stick to foods your customers are familiar with. Monitor price fluctuations and slowly adjust the menu to account for inflation of a meal’s ingredients. The menu combines your concept, your décor, your location and your food offerings into one piece. Cut less successful items out of the menu and prune selections so that only the most popular and profitable listings remain. This is where you want to list your house specialties and signature items. For instance, a menu full of processed, hormone-raised foods will not do nearly as well as one that has healthy options and environmentally conscious ingredients, and even this trend is becoming dated. While old menu strategies tried to include something for everyone, new menu best practices follow a … © All rights reserved. Whatever idea you have about introducing some new, awesome cuisine to a market that hasn’t seen it yet, forget it unless you have tons of marketing cash to educate the public with. Pingback: Keeping it simple: How to create a restaurant concept that can succeed | O'Dell Restaurant Consulting's Blog, Pingback: Good news for restaurants serving breakfast! Your food doesn’t have to be “the best”, but it does have to be worth what you’re charging. Used correctly by smart restaurateurs, the restaurant menu guides diners to choose the items you want them to order. Every manager and chef is limited by their own ability to find qualified help. This is a great way to keep your margins and account for rising food costs without upsetting your customers. Use these colors to design your logo, signage, marketing, and to decorated the inside and outside of your restaurant. Have a separate drink menu. Not properly analyzing menu sales or underutilizing powerful back office tools and software to get a better understanding of the sales mix is a common mistake by many operators, both big and small. This piece, your menu, is also one of your most effective sales vehicles. First things first. Have new servers and hosts  sit down with a chef or a manager and taste the most popular dishes, sauces and any unique drinks when they are hired. If you have 4 or 5 great menu items that stand out from your others, people may remember them if … I know you think your idea is different, and the food you want to bring to the area is soooo good that people just HAVE to love it, but you’re most likely just projecting your tastes on the general public. Poor Categorization Of Food Items Limited storage space means limited menu. For instance, if a cup of soup costs a little bit more than a house salad and visitors commonly order both, average the two and charge the same price for each option. Tag Archives: too many menu items Post navigation Is it a good idea to shrink our Italian restaurant’s menu by 15-30%? Often, the format is a reduced-price fixed menu from which diners can choose. However, there is a more accurate way to evaluate menu items to increase a restaurant’s profits while keeping customers thrilled with the selection. Once you’ve made it about your customers and figured out what they want, create a signature item in each menu category. If you are a waiter or server then you should know some basic points to present menu properly. Consider trimming down your offerings to create more concise food lists. Menus should be easily available online and should be formatted for mobile devices. Having a separate drink menu is more practical and does a better job of showcasing your options than an oversized, crowded menu does. But it really depends on the type of restaurant you are dining in to answer. People NOT being served quickly, means that tables aren’t turning, and you aren’t serving as many people during your rush that you can. A menu that is too cluttered and even confusing will do little to whet the appetites of your guests. Diners are more impressed by fantastic fresh food done right than a menu that looks like a telephone book facilitated by a … Waiting too long to adjust prices (or adjusting them too quickly) to account for food cost fluctuations can lower profit margins. Too Many Menu Items? But while lengthy menus might work for some restaurants, customers can also be overwhelmed by too many choices. ( Log Out /  The most popular and profitable items should rise to the top of a menu and should be obviously apparent to guests. Menu Psychology: Selling Your High Profit Items; How to Calculate Restaurant Menu Prices Based on Ideal Food Cost Percentage. Those are the things people in that area buy. Limit your offerings to what your staff is qualified to prepare. ( Log Out /  I hope this article gives you a couple things to think about before creating your menu. Restaurants should order menus that are durable, whether they are made from paper with a special matte finish or are laminated. If you want to judge what's optimal by looking at the most popular restaurants (by sales), and seeing how big their menus are...I'd say that the optimal number is very high, at least 50, because the successful restaurants are your typical chain restaurants. I appreciate what is said here. I will, for the sake of clarity, give you my belief using a mid-scale to upscale restaurant … For the "Factory," it’s a matter of finding what YOU like. Typical numbers might be 1 server, per shift, for every 12 tables and 4 back of house staff for every 50 customers across the same time period. But remember to keep things simple and uncomplicated, and make it easy for guests to see standout items. Not only you will avoid that your clients order menu items that are less than exceptional, but fewer dishes mean that they will be easier to remember (making them; thus, memorable) the next time that your clients come over for lunch or dinner. Common tests include memorization of the seating plan of a restaurant (usually the tables are numbered) and a menu test. If there are too many dishes on a menu, guests will have a hard time choosing and will be less likely to return. Often, these high-earning items fall into a similar category, like seafood or steak, making them easy to organize. They may even stress the customer. It’s best to minimize the prices for menu item variations, as customers often miss these and are surprised when the bill is higher than they expected. Allowing staff to sell the menu before they have been adequately trained and tested leads to costly mistakes. Aaron Allen » Insights » 20 Most Common Restaurant Menu Design Mistakes. A menu is a sales and marketing tool and is a reflection of the chef and your operation. Many restaurants fail to conduct a competitive and profitability analysis at least twice per year, even though the price of food fluctuates greatly each year. If brisket is the most popular item, for instance, offer a brisket salad or a brisket sandwich. On a two-page menu, most people will first look just above center on the right page.Next, people look at the first and last items on the list. 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