Menu graphic design

[Kent Wang]

Let's jump straight into an example.

This is one of the worst designs I've seen (from Wink in Austin):

All center alignment is a terrible idea as the eye has difficulty vertically scanning the names or prices of each dish. All lower case is so amateur. Apps aren't seperated from entrees. This whole menu is done in only one typeface.

They have a pretty cool logo and a decently designed website so they must've done the menu layout themselves; no way would a professional come up with such a sloppy design.

A good practice that I like is to bold the primary part of the dish like: "seared sweetbreads on fingerlings with elf mushrooms, baby carrots, and dijon crème".

[chuck]

Anyone know of any web based resources, besides right here, for menu design guidance?

[Kent Wang]

This is one of the best laid out menus I have seen in a while. From Union in Seattle.

Dish names aligned to the left with prices aligned to the right for easy scanning. Attractive use of logo on both the header and footer.

Good practice of seperating full description of dish into short name (e.g. "Garden greens") followed by extended description (e.g. "With hazelnuts, fine herbs, champagne vinegar"). My only quibble is that I wish the font for the short name was differentiated more from the extended description, or maybe if a different color was used.

[rooftop1000]

But the first thing I noticed was that the top one had $$ signs and the second one didnt.

Now I really dont have many friends that would say they have decided on the number "nine point five" meaning a salad that was $9.50 but....

tracey

[Kent Wang]

I prefer leaving the currency symbol on to clearly denote that the number is the price and not the item number or anything like that. I started a thread on this subject a few months back: Menus dropping the currency symbol.

[MGC]

One of my absolute pet peeves with menus is when they are printed with a low-contrast ink, such as dark grey lettering on light grey paper. It's worse when printed in a small font. I try to remember to take my reading glasses with me when going to a new restaurant, because without them, a menu printed in low contrast with small font in a dim room is next to impossible to read.

[freshherbs]

to me it is a matter of personality. like any other graphic design and layout, the final product is supposed to communicate something about the contents. my guess is that the first menu is supposed to communicate the chef's open-mindedness and inventiveness. the fact that not everyone will be able to "get" the menu is probably part of the experience (the same way that not everyone "gets" the food at wd~50)

the second menu communicates (to me) a more powerful, traditional approach. straightforward stuff with big flavors.

i understand your point that, on some level, people just need to be able to read the menu in order to be different. but i am hard-pressed to say that one layout is "better" than the other and more than rock and roll is "better" than jazz

[djsexyb]

here's what we do for customers at my personal chef service...the menu changes with what the customer wants but the overall is the same...

comments are strongly encouraged....thanks

[Kent Wang]

Very handsome. I think there's not much room for improvement. The only thing I can think of is that the script-like typeface that is used for the wine names may be difficult to read for some of your customers. I very much agree with MGC, many people forget to consider that a sizable portion of your demographic may be dependent on reading glasses and steps should be taken to improve readability. You can also accomplish this by bumping up the font size; you've got plenty of room, might as well fill it.

[Kent Wang]

All of the above menus are fairly modern and casual as evidenced in the use of sans serif fonts. Let's take a look at some more elegant, traditional designs that reflect the vision and atmosphere of the respective restaurants. Both employ serif fonts.

Driskill Grill (Austin). PDF. I like the star used as a section separator, very evocative of Victorian-era, old Texas sensibilities.

Chambar (Vancouver). PDF. The ornate, floral border design matches the Belgian image of the restaurant.

[djsexyb]

Very handsome. I think there's not much room for improvement. The only thing I can think of is that the script-like typeface that is used for the wine names may be difficult to read for some of your customers. I very much agree with MGC, many people forget to consider that a sizable portion of your demographic may be dependent on reading glasses and steps should be taken to improve readability. You can also accomplish this by bumping up the font size; you've got plenty of room, might as well fill it.

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yea this was one of the aspects we looked into on future menus, i finally got my graphic designer to get around to it. she (my wife) can be steadfast in her desgin. lol

[rancho_gordo]

Since you asked:

From a graphic design standpoint, it looks like three sections that don't go together. The top script looks loke Mistral, which is pretty overused as it comes with Word and every fancy office party invite uses it). The script with the wines names doesn't match the Mistral. Two different scripts on a page like this isn't always a good idea.

Personally, I'd make the word CRU bigger and justified so it fills out the box (and suggests the GRAND that proceeds it).

I like that your name and number seem to be the same font as the wine descriptions.

[dianem]

One of my absolute pet peeves with menus is when they are printed with a low-contrast ink, such as dark grey lettering on light grey paper.  It's worse when printed in a small font.  I try to remember to take my reading glasses with me when going to a new restaurant, because without them, a menu printed in low contrast with small font in a dim room is next to impossible to read.

Or black on red... what are they thinking? I have sometimes had to resort to the light from my cellphone screen to illuminate a menu. Now I carry a tiny flashlight on my keychain, and that works nicely also.

[BigboyDan]

The Wink menu pictured above is an example of a so called "fractured menu", a type of menu deconstruction, and is done on purpose. High-end restaurants want diners to forego traditional terms like appetizers, entrees, desserts, etc. This moving around of items and catagories on the the menu itself is to move the diner away from learned patterns of ordering, and is delibetely intended to raise sales. If you label a dish an appetiser you will most likely not have it ordered after an entree... but restaurants wants you to. New terms of menu item description, if there are any at all on the menu, could be "From the Sea", "Farm", Intermezzo, "For the Whole Table", etc.

The deliberate use of lower case letters results in not having one dish seemingly more important, or less important, than another.

There is a long article in the July/August 2006 issue of Food Arts describing "fractured menus" and their perceived impact. A good read...

[Kent Wang]

Perhaps one of the most pretentious menu designs, from Stories Fine Dining Establishment at The Hyatt Lost Pines Resort near Austin. Highlights include prices spelled out in words ("Forty-Two") and the headings "Chapter One" and "Chapter Two".

PDF menu. Fearless Critic review of Hyatt Lost Pines.

[pfunk_49]

I agree that the first menu is a little amatuer, but disagree about the second menu. I don't want guests "scanning" prices. Guests (IMO) are more likely to scan for a lower price, nobody really goes looking for the highest priced item on the menu (also not the one you necessarily want them to order).

Admittedly, I didn't look at the pdf's or links, so I didn't get everything I could out of this thread.

It is a real pet peave of mine (I've got a lot of them) when a great or even very good restaurant has one or two totally slack things about it, like a poor menu or website.... or mispellings on either. Recently found a mispelling on Blackbird's menu website, which I think overall is weak (website, not restaurant). Let's see, how many words did I just mispell?

BTW: the Grand Cru menu is nice, that's usually how I lay out menus for tastings. I think maybe the space between the boldface menu item and the description could go away, just a thought.

[paulraphael]

Since you asked:

From a graphic design standpoint, it looks like three sections that don't go together. The top script looks loke Mistral, which is pretty overused as it comes with Word and every fancy office party invite uses it). The script with the wines names doesn't match the Mistral. Two different scripts on a page like this isn't always a good idea.

Personally, I'd make the word CRU bigger and justified so it fills out the box (and suggests the GRAND that proceeds it).

I like that your name and number seem to be the same font as the wine descriptions.

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Agreed. This is my least favorite design of all the samples in this thread (the example in the o.p. isn't particluarly inspired, but I don't find it hard to read, and it doesn't offend).

The grand cru menu causes me a bit of pain from a typographic standpoint. The colors and the gradients are also bring back some bad memories of the 1980s. My general rule with both script typefaces and gradients: don't, unless 1) you really know what you're doing; or 2) you're trying to be funny.

In general I'm more proud of my food than my graphic design, but design pays the bills at my house.

[pastrygirl]

Michael - I realize that with a name like 'grand cru' you are probably focusing on wines, but to me the menu makes it look like it is all about the wine and the food is an afterthought or secondary. Usually the food is listed first in the bolder font and the wine is underneath. I also would not put the words 'palate cleanser' on a menu. If you need to title the course, call it an intermezzo or refreshment or something clever and list melon and champagne as the description. Also, among people 45 or so and younger, particularly in places with a large Asian population, 'oriental' is no longer the preferred term for things that come from or are inspired by Asia. It is not the Orient, it is Asia, the people are Asian, what used to be Chinatown is the International District (at least in Seattle where the part of town in question truly is International with Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, and more). It would be more descriptive and not offensive to speak of the flavor of the vinaigrette - 'oriental' is not a flavor per se. Sesame vinaigrette, yuzu-shiso vinaigrette, wasabi vinaigrette, ume-sansho vinaigrette, whatever.

Edited December 26, 2008 by pastrygirl (log)

[alanamoana]

Let's see, how many words did I just mispell?

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since you asked:

pet "peeve"

and "misspell"