What are the most common menu design mistakes in F&B operations? (2024)

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The more dishes, the more ingredients, the more techniques, the more hand movements, the more choices, the more deviations, the more additions the bigger the waste the bigger the food storage the more bins and … the more compromise on quality, speed, profit … Remember people expect specialists and experts to be running professional F&B units and not worse than home. Always listen to and be guided by someone who is an expert, someone who has wisdom and knowledge in this area.

Most restaurant menus are too long. When you have a menu that has too many items, your servers cannot know about and have personal experience with each item. Your kitchen will have more issues prepping and maintaining the ability to control waste. Managers or owners will either spend too much time managing the inventory or end up cutting corners just to get their jobs done. For most establishments, a menu of 20-30 items is more than enough. The way to offer more variety throughout the year is to change your menu on a semi-regular basis. Seasonal menu changes allow you to maintain a shorter menu and still have the items you need on your menu when you need them.

When you sit in a restaurant and see the majority people using their phones as lights or grabbing their cheaters you know the print is too small. A menu that looks good in a well lit office often fails in a dimly lit room. If people are using their phones to light their menu they won't spend as much time looking at it and maximizing their purchases.

A common menu design error is a poor layout and readability, frustrating customers and affecting their perception. A cluttered, disorganized layout can obscure vital information and appear unprofessional. Poor readability, especially in dim or noisy settings, discourages menu exploration. Tips for improvement include clear, consistent fonts, colors, and headings, logical grouping, avoiding excessive text or images, and using white space and contrast for balance and focus.

Lack of menu engineering is a major pitfall in designing an effective menu. Menu engineering analyzes each menu item based on its popularity and profitability to optimise your offerings. When customers glance at a menu, their eyes gravitate towards the top third center. Capitalize on this by featuring high-margin items there. A balanced layout with smart menu flow encourages diners to consider all options.Perform periodic menu analysis to add new stars and cull underperforming dogs. Track sales velocities and margins to inform engineering decisions. A well-engineered menu promotes signature dishes and high-profit items, resulting in higher average guest checks. Don't leave this crucial process to chance.

A simple mistake is to let your Chefs create menus without even the slightest of feedback from their Food and Beverage Manager or equivalent.It is not a slap on the face to the Chef, but creating a menu will be a team effort if it is to be successful.I could not prepare the food and it is unlikely whether or not a Chef could create a menu that a full range of the hotel customers would want to eat.Preparing a menu should be a team effort, if it can not be then your Chef has an attitude problem.

Customers may order a dish based on the menu description, only to receive something quite different, leading to disappointment and potentially allergic reactions if the ingredients aren't accurately listed. Such experiences can result in customer dissatisfaction, negative reviews, and a loss of trust. Misleading information may also lead to pricing disputes and can damage a restaurant's credibility. Furthermore, inaccurate menus can lead to operational inefficiencies as staff grapple with incorrect order information. In the long run, this can affect customer loyalty. Therefore, maintaining transparency of menu information is not only essential for customer satisfaction but also for the success and integrity of the restaurant business.

- Labelling items in price order- Not highlighting high margin dishes- Not adding up sell opportunities and add ons- Having too many of 1 category- Misplacement of hero dishes

AI is increasingly useful to analyse masses of customer feedback from reviews and feedback forms. Otherwise it can be a bit overwhelming and key trends hard to identify.

J'ai eu la chance d'avoir 2 carrières autour de ce sujet, infographiste pour differnts types de restaurant du populaire à l'étoilé. Par la suite j'ai travaillé dans la restauration comme serveur et jusqu'à directeur.Cette expérience m'a permis de constater que le menu engineering doit être utilisé en prenant en compte plusieurs paramètres:- La clientèle cible.Le prix à la fin de l'intitulé est adapté plus à un restaurant gastronomique ou étoilé qu'un restaurant populaire avec un TM de moins de 30€.La transparence de prix est primordiale dans les restaurants de quartier par exemple.

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Something that is often overlooked is menu planning in regards to execution. How many steps are in each dish before and after initial prep? How many pans will it take to pick up each dish for service? How many stations does one dish have to touch to be executed? What could be done in prep ahead of time to make pick faster and more efficient without effecting quality? Too many steps for too many dishes can bring any kitchen down on a busy shift.

Spelling Errors!A restaurant's menu is one of the few pieces of marketing collateral that is 99% guaranteed to be read by your guests! So when a menu is dirty, dog-eared or full of mistakes, it can be frustrating for the customer. When our guests read through a menu and notice that there are typos and spelling errors throughout, they feel that the ownership/management doesn't care! For example, common mistakes may include:"Ceasar" instead of "Caesar""Belgium" Waffle instead of "Belgian" Waffle (After all, we don't call them England Muffins! We call them English Muffins!)

Simple pricing errors like using 'flat prices' eg $9 or $12, instead of adding the extra .50c or .80c to make $9.50 or $12.80. 1000 items sold in a week with the additional cents will pay for someone's wages!