Chinese Menu Designs

Why is a menu important?

You can use different promotional tools to acquaint your guests with the dishes that your restaurant serves. But, dare we say, the menu is the most effective of them all. Wonder why? It’s because to enter a world full of gastronomical treats, you must first pass through the heavenly gates of the menu. As soon as you take the first step inside the gates, you will be greeted with a wide array of titillating and mouthwatering dishes of different origins that you can’t help but order them all. You know when the menu has successfully promoted your restaurant’s offers when a customer can’t resist the urge to try them all out. Well, if it happens, it’s a win-win situation for you and your customer, right?

A menu is more than just a gateway. It has other functionalities that people commonly slip through without even knowing their importance. Read on to know more about the other reasons why the menu is important.

• 1. It sets the theme

  Chinese-themed restaurants, eateries, or any food establishments are mainly composed of designs that concentrate mostly on something red. Clearly, this is because Chinese motifs had always revolved around the color red. To complement the concept of a Chinese theme, the menu needs to have graphical elements that will embody the design. For example, the obvious choice would be including images of various lanterns and intricate patterns and styles in the design. You can choose to lump them all in and concentrate on various spots of the layout, can group them according to a certain category, spread them all over the layout, or do something else entirely. It’s up to you how you can come up with creatives ways of creating your menu’s design.

  The design of the menu can help turn the tide for your Chinese restaurant. An inviting list of mouthwatering food may compel people to dine at your restaurant or it might also do the opposite and discourage them. The menu is your introduction to your restaurant’s offers; it should captivate anyone the moment they take a glance at it. So, in order to avoid putting them in a situation that might make them change their decision, make sure that your menu is well-organized, has an attractive design, and of course, it sets the theme of the restaurant. Even without looking at the list of food, an eye-catching design will make your customers consider looking at the menu.

• 2. It is informative

  Aside from the design, your menu is a source of information about the various dishes that your Chinese restaurant offers. For some people, they might have decided to eat at your restaurant because of the location’s inviting interior design or compelling advertisements. It could also be that it is the nearest restaurant to where they are staying at. Whatever the reason is, as long as they are new to Chinese cuisine, they will surely look first at the menu the moment they are seated at their table.

  All the other information that was not included in the ads contained and presented int he menu. As people go through the menu, they will get curious about the new choices that were not shown to them beforehand. And as every good menu card, it should show what food the customers can expect from the restaurant. There are also ways to entertain your guests as they go through every item on your menu. You can allocate a certain section of your menu’s layout for a brief history and few fun facts about your restaurant. It will let them know your restaurant’s origin and how you have built it from the ground up.

  Aside from the entertaining information, the menu’s main responsibility is to provide useful details about the dishes that will help the customers make an informed decision. Put in details such as the ingredients, the number of people that each dish can serve, and most importantly, the price. You may also like restaurant menu designs.

• 3. It offers a good variety

  You know a great menu when you see that it offers a good variety of dishes. We all have different tastes, and as such, a menu should be able to show the customers that the restaurant can offer a good number of alternative choices. Also, people will be interested in trying out certain dishes that are new to their eyes. This will create a great opportunity for you to promote your restaurant’s specialties and best-sellers, especially these offers are originally conceptualized by you. Introducing customers to newly invented or conceptualized food will help boost your reputation and distinguish you from the rest. You may also like chalkboard restaurant menu templates.

• 4. It helps promote your restaurant

  Aside from compelling the guests to order everything in the menu, the design of the menu also helps in promoting your restaurant. In this technological age, it is a norm for people to take pictures of anything that’s aesthetically pleasing and post these photos on their social media sites. And if the design of your menu passes their judgy eyes, then it will surely be posted on their social media feeds and timelines. Eventually, the online post will gain attention and word will be spread about a restaurant with an impressive (design-wise) menu.

  There are also other ways for word about your restaurant to be spread through traditional methods. For those who are not technology savvy, it is easier for them to talk about your restaurant’s menu by word of mouth. But, this is still a bit unlikely to happen because people will mostly talk about the food rather than the menu. If you are going to be optimistic about it, no matter how slim the chances are, at least there is still a possibility. You need all the chances you can get to promote your restaurant.

Tips on creating a design for the menu

The design is as important as the information in a menu. The design of a menu indicates how the owner intends to carry out the business and what image it wants to project to the customers. There are a lot of things to consider when creating a design for the menu, and we have listed them out for you. Read below to know about them.

• 1. Create a design that is recognizable and relevant to your eatery

  You can choose any design you want or anything that you might find attractive. But randomly choosing a design that doesn’t even have an ounce of relevance to your eatery can be confusing to your prospective customers. The purpose of a menu’s design is to project an image that people can associate with your business an image that will lead them into recalling about your eatery. For example, if your eatery mainly serves chicken, then it would only be logical to include an image of any meal with chicken as the primary ingredient to be found in the menu’s design. Or,

  if your restaurant’s color scheme is red, then it is expected that your menu’s design will also have a red motif or even just hints of it. It will be easier for the customers to remember your eatery if the color scheme that you used for the menu is the same for the exterior or interior design of your eatery. The consistency of the design with everything else in your eatery is the key to create a theme or style that people can use to connect to your eatery.

• 2. Capture tempting photos of your food

  Although an attractive design will please customers, it would still help to put something tempting that people will have no second thoughts ordering a certain food item on the menu. What we are talking about here are the photos that you use for the design. Having pictures of some of the food items will help people decide which food to order. If they see that your Cuban sandwich looks immaculate or your barbecue ribs are cooked to perfection, then they will order each of those without a doubt. You may also like sample restaurant menus.

  The pictures will dictate the choice of your customers, so make sure that the food items will be captured in the most flattering way possible. Flaunt every ingredient that the food has and leave no detail unnoticed. Treat the food as your model. It’s already exquisite, and the only thing that’s left is for you to completely show all its glory. Take pictures of it from every angle possible so you will have an array of shots to choose from at the end of the shoot. Create a style that will help highlight the food. Although flat lay style creates an aesthetically pleasing visual, close-up shots are still the best in terms of food photography and it is the most effective in capturing your customer’s interest in a certain food item. Explore every option that you can to showcase the beauty of your food!

• 3. Sort out the list of food items

  The design of your menu isn’t all about the graphical elements as it is also about how information is organized. Having an organized list of food items helps your customers choose which food to order. As what is commonly seen in most menus in restaurants, the food items are grouped into different categories, like the appetizers, main course, dessert, and many other categories. With this, the customers will be able to identify which food belongs to a certain category and it will be easier for them to create a full-course meal out of the choices of each category. Aside from the categories, giving prominence to the best-sellers will help rake in more profits as people will be tempted into ordering them. Also, they can guide customers toward ordering delectable nibbles that may otherwise go unrecognized if they are only listed as side dishes.

• 4. Graphical elements should be clean and unfussy

  Disorganized elements will only annoy customers and distract them from actually ordering a food item. The text for the title and description of each food item should be simple, no matter if the concept that you have chosen for the menu requires stylish elements. Well, there are font styles that are not annoyingly stylish that could be used to complement the design. But you should avoid the font styles that are indeed stylish but will only be difficult for the customers to read.

  You may misinterpret us saying that you should opt for a minimalistic approach for a menu. You can do so if you want to, but of course, that will depend on the theme that you are going for with your restaurant. What we are talking about here is having an organized and clean design, meaning the graphical elements should be arranged in an orderly manner. If you are going for a 1950s diner theme for your restaurant, then it is expected that your menu will also follow that style, but they should be styled in an organized manner. You can put in as many graphical elements in the design as long as they are arranged well and they will not create a messy look. You would want people to look at the menu’s design and see nods that signify approval and admiration.

Overall

• These are only tips that will help you create a pleasing and impressive menu that will satiate your customer’s eyes. Well, not everyone is judgmental, but there definitely will be some who will criticize every minute detail of your restaurant. We all want to avoid that, don’t we? That’s why we have provided these tips. The tips might be lacking in some aspects and they might not be everything that you need to know about creating a design for your menu, but they will definitely be useful for you to save your restaurant from all the judgments, especially from the online haters and bashers. After all, everyone in social media today is too critical on something that doesn’t even need to be criticized and make a big deal out of when it shouldn’t even be an issue only if remained untouched.
• Aside from avoiding “criticisms” (when most of it are from online trolls), it will also improve your restaurant’s reputation. If your design is well-appreciated by the real critics or even by the majority of the customers, your restaurant will surely slowly pick up recognition from other people as well. Word of mouth is a highly effective method of spreading information, and once people get a grasp of such news, their curiosity will eventually lead them into trying out the food that you serve in your restaurant. Also, an impressive design will earn you praise from people who are meticulous about artistic styles. Your creative side will be recognized and appreciated. The chalkboard menu’s design can dictate the success of your restaurant only if it is wholeheartedly made with care for the business that you have built with love and passion.

If you found this article useful, make sure to bookmark this page so you can use it for future references. We wish you all the best luck in your business’ success. Good luck! You may also like watercolor menu designs.