What is Menu
The menu is a list of food and beverage offerings of a food establishment. These are edible items prepared in the kitchen catering to customers’ demands. The menu details how a dish is prepared or cooked, the ingredients used, and the price it is sold.
The Importance of Menu Planning
A menu is at the heart of every food service operation. It decides:
1. The capability of operations
The menu will dictate the activities of an establishment and the staffing required to act on such. Purchasing, costing, recruitment, and service are all dependent on the menu.
2. Who your guests are
Businesses offer different types of meals and menus, depending on the capabilities of your clientele. How a menu is designed will become a marketing tool to attract guests.
3. The type of restaurant you run
The food and beverage items that form a menu determine if the establishment will operate as a formal, casual, or fast-casual restaurant. How food service will be done also relies on how the menu is crafted.
Through the menu, customers are kept informed of what dishes are available in the restaurant and the price per dish. The menu also allows restaurant operators to promote certain dishes in high visibility positions.
Click on the topics below to start
Topic 1: Major Considerations in Planning Menus
Menu planning is essential for every food business or restaurant as the menu becomes a core identity of your restaurant and is used to communicate with customers about the food you offer. Learn what are the key menu planning considerations when drawing up your menu.
Topic 2: A Balanced and Accurate Menu
Did you know that most restaurants would only have 40 items on their menu? Creating a menu can be overwhelming with so many choices to include. Learn what you can do to ensure balance and accuracy in your menu with our 6 rules to consider for a balanced menu and 11 guidelines on menu accuracy.
Topic 3: Menu Engineering
As a menu highly reflects the concept of the restaurant, it's important to consider 7 factors like food cost or your guests to engineer your physical menu. Find out the dos and don’ts when creating your actual menu.
Topic 4: Evaluating Your Dishes
Learn why you should evaluate your dishes, what to evaluate, and how to evaluate them. By doing so, one can successfully be able to check the dish quality and how to improve them in order to keep up with food quality standards and satisfy more customers.
