{"id":4630,"date":"2018-10-17T11:06:54","date_gmt":"2018-10-17T05:36:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techjockey.com\/blog\/?p=4630"},"modified":"2025-12-31T15:20:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T09:50:53","slug":"restaurant-menu-engineering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.techjockey.com\/blog\/restaurant-menu-engineering","title":{"rendered":"How Menu Engineering Leads to Profit Boost for Restaurants"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Menu engineering is a real phenomenon, that has taken the restaurant industry by storm. In our analytics driven world, the application of psychology and consumer behaviour in menu design has proven to be the key factor for a restaurant\u2019s long-term success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 style=\"font-size:24px;\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"what_is_menu_engineering\"><\/span>What is Menu Engineering?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Simply put, menu engineering is the study of a menu\u2019s profitability and popularity and how these factors influence item placement on a menu. It has become an integral part of a restaurant\u2019s development plan, as an engineered menu highlights your restaurant\u2019s food items, using a variety of design techniques.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 style=\"font-size:24px;\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"why_menu_engineering_matters\"><\/span>Why Menu Engineering Matters?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Did you know that the average guest spends 109 seconds on a menu! That\u2019s less than two minutes of scanning through the document and making the decision. With a small amount of time to persuade and convince, it is imperative for you to set a menu that looks appealing to the palette of customers and yields profits for your establishment. There are a few things you can do to design your menu smartly:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><h3 style=\"font-size:20px;\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"make_menu_reading_easier_again\"><\/span>Make Menu Reading Easier Again<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>An overtly crowded menu is very difficult to manoeuvre for customers. To that end, avoid using a crowded template for your menu and instead, go for a design with an easy-to-read font. While designing the menu, include clearly visible headings and dish titles to ensure customer clarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><h3 style=\"font-size:20px;\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"more_choices_more_problems\"><\/span>More Choices = More Problems<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>A common phenomenon (especially if you\u2019re ordering online), too many choices lead to limiting &amp; confusing experience for customers. We live in the world of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) and YOLO (You Only Live Once), so too many choices can be quite the anxiety creator. Instead of having dozens of choices, limit your options in each category to an acceptable number. Keep a limited number of options which plays to your chef\u2019s culinary strength or your restaurant\u2019s theme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><h3 style=\"font-size:20px;\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"bigger_isnt_always_better\"><\/span>Bigger Isn\u2019t Always Better<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>There\u2019s no feeling worse than having to handle a clunky big menu card. As a restaurateur, you should always choose a menu with a reasonable size. Physically oversized menus are uncomfortable for guests to manoeuvre and can cause them frustration. Smaller menus are also easier to place on a table, without being too seemingly distracting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><h3 style=\"font-size:20px;\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"show_what_you_love\"><\/span>Show What You Love<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Is there a signature item on your menu? Or, a dish that you want customers to try? Well, highlight such items on your menu card so that those are clearly visible to your customers. You can leverage your menu\u2019s colour scheme by highlighting items with the contrasting colour used in your menu. A small example of this can be found in the image below.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"652\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.techjockey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/blog1200-2.jpg\" alt=\"menu engineering\" class=\"wp-image-4647\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.techjockey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/blog1200-2.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.techjockey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/blog1200-2-300x163.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.techjockey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/blog1200-2-768x417.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.techjockey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/blog1200-2-1024x556.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><h3 style=\"font-size:20px;\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"smaller_portions_when_less_is_more_\"><\/span>Smaller Portions: When Less is More <span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>A simple trick, called \u2018bracketing\u2019, involves including two portion options for one dish on a menu, without stating the exact size. The larger of the two portions, would be priced higher like RS 500 Rs, while the smaller portion would be priced at Rs 250. In this case, the customer isn\u2019t aware of the exact size of the small portion, and yet, will associate it as the best value price, since it simply costs less. In reality, the smaller portion would be the one you wanted to sell more all along. This tactic makes the food item seem more attractive because customers feel that they are choosing a dish with higher value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong style=\"font-size:24px;\">How Petpooja <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.techjockey.com\/category\/restaurant-pos-software\" title=\"Restaurant POS\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"448\">Restaurant POS<\/a> Can Help You Engineer A Menu?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you\u2019re looking to use our tips from above and design a menu that sustains both customer happiness and bottom line, go for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techjockey.com\/detail\/petpooja-pos\">Petpooja POS software<\/a>. Its menu management module comes with both pre-designed &amp; customisable templates, which you can use to engineer a fantastic menu for your dining business. You can also highlight specific items, use a contrasting colour pallet, create combos and variations of different items, provide different menus for dine-in, takeaway and delivery, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Besides a menu designing module, you also get a comprehensive <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techjockey.com\/category\/restaurant-management-software\">restaurant POS solution<\/a> which assists in managing your restaurant\u2019s billing, inventory, order token, kitchen, CRM, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techjockey.com\/category\/membership-management-software\">membership management<\/a> and more. With Petpooja, you get a solution that\u2019s designed for maximum efficiency and minimum intervention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong style=\"font-size:24px;\">Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Just to reiterate, menu engineering is key to increasing revenue and customer happiness. Similarly, you need to improve food delivery to serve dine-in guests and those who order food online equally. Find out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techjockey.com\/blog\/how-restaurant-pos-billing-software-improves-food-delivery\">how POS software helps with food delivery management<\/a> and menu engineering.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Menu engineering is a real phenomenon, that has taken the restaurant industry by storm. In our analytics driven world, the application of psychology and consumer behaviour in menu design has proven to be the key factor for a restaurant\u2019s long-term success. What is Menu Engineering? Simply put, menu engineering is the study of a menu\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":34265,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1579],"tags":[2336,3232,2488,717,1460,1836,1454,3234],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.2 (Yoast SEO v22.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How Menu Engineering Leads to Profit Boost for Restaurants<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Menu engineering is key to attracting more guests at your restaurant. Learn how you can create a visually-attractive menu that appeals to the taste palette\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.techjockey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4630\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Menu Engineering Leads to Profit Boost for Restaurants\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Menu engineering is key to attracting more guests at your restaurant. 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