Restaurant menu writing

Have you thought about your restaurant menu writing?

You run a busy restaurant with a million and one things to do, but…

  • Has someone been tasked specifically with your restaurant menu writing?
  • Is your menu doing its job properly and enticing your customers?
  • Is it nudging people to order the items that make you the most profit?

Or has it been put together without even thinking about placement?

Did you know that by merely improving the descriptions and rearranging the menu, you could make more profit from your food?

Is your restaurant menu optimised?

In other words, are you making the most of your menu so it makes you maximum profit? 

The clever plan with your restaurant menu writing

Chefs devise their dishes and then the menus are usually written by someone from their front of house team or even the in-house comms team. Why not get your menu written by a copywriter and food specialist? If you want to read more about this, here’s a blog I’ve written on restaurant menu engineering.

Are you missing a trick or two?

I’m always so surprised that restaurants don’t always state the obvious when describing the ingredients, especially if they are high quality. I was working with a trained chef who had just taken over a panini sandwich bar. He was describing the ingredients very basically: ‘chicken’ should have been ‘breast chicken’; ‘herbs’ should have been ‘fresh coriander’ and ‘Swiss cheese’ reads better as ‘Swiss Gruyere’.  Similarly, I was up North recently and had some good food at a tapas bar. The mozzarella was actually buffalo mozzarella, but on the menu, it was plain ‘ole mozzarella, which could have been that cheap, mass-produced stuff. And the butter was made locally, but on the menu, it just read ‘butter’. These are huge benefits to your customer and might persuade them to order the item. If you are aiming for a high-quality menu, you must get this right. So why not mention it?   

How to design restaurant menus

 Someone who understands and appreciates food and is good with words should write the menus. I’ve also studied the psychology behind menu choices and I can tell you:

  • how many options is too many
  • where to place your most profitable items
  • how to display the price
  • where the ‘hot spots’ are on a menu
  • where few people look

Give me your menu and I bet I’ll improve it and you should start making more profit.

What do I need from you?

We can have a (free) chat to see what you need and whether I can help. I’ll talk about your menu and your USPs.

Then I might ask you to send me your menu and I’ll make some suggestions and give you a quote. 

If we go ahead, I’ll need your rough profit margins and your selling prices. (Nothing commercially sensitive although everything will be in confidence.)

My life with food

I’ve been a restaurant reviewer since 2010 and have visited over 500 five-star hotel restaurants for the likes of the Telegraph, Tatler and Travel de la Creme. A former professional cook, running my own coffee shop, and before that setting up a delicatessen, I now write about food whenever I can and eat out at least twice a week.

I’ve become a bit obsessed with menus. 

Let me sort out yours.

How to make more profit from your menu

 Send me an email and we can arrange to have a chat.

food@manchestercopywriting.co.uk