What a restaurant menu template should do
A menu has three jobs: make choosing easy, make your best dishes look like the obvious choice, and make the price feel fair. Most templates only do the first. The layout rules below come from menu engineering studies and from watching what guests actually order.
1. Put your stars where eyes land first
On a one-page menu, eyes go to the top right, then the top left, then the middle. On a two-page menu, the top of the right-hand page wins. Put your highest-margin dishes there, not your cheapest. Keep each section to 5 to 7 items: longer lists make people default to what they know.
2. Drop the currency symbols and the price column
A neat column of prices down the right invites guests to shop by price. Put the price at the end of the description, in the same size as the text, without a currency symbol: "Slow-cooked beef ragù with pappardelle 16.50". Guests focus on the dish, and tests show spending goes up a few percent with no complaints.
3. Write descriptions that taste like something
Use the formula origin or method + key ingredients + one sensory word. "Chicken curry" becomes "Slow-cooked Keralan chicken curry with coconut, curry leaves and a little heat". Two lines maximum. Name the farm, the bakery or the grandmother if it's true. Don't name every ingredient; leave room to want it.
4. Use one anchor dish
One noticeably expensive item (the sharing steak, the whole fish) makes everything near it look reasonable. You don't need to sell many of it.
5. Make allergens and diets easy, not loud
Small V, VG and GF tags after the dish name, and a one-line allergen note under each item or a clear "ask us" line. In the UK you must give allergen information for all 14 allergens; in the US, state rules vary but a clear note protects you and speeds up service.
6. Match the design to the room
A fine-dining menu is sparse, serif and cream. A street-food menu is bold, condensed and colourful. A café board is one column with big prices. The design signals the price range before anyone reads a word, so pick the one that matches the bill you expect.
7. Print it properly
A4 or US Letter, 160 to 200gsm uncoated paper, matt lamination if it will live on tables. Export as PDF with fonts embedded. Reprint when prices change rather than crossing them out; a corrected price is the first thing a guest notices.
8. Put the same menu on your website as text
A PDF menu on your website is invisible to Google and to AI assistants like ChatGPT and Gemini when someone asks "best pasta near me". Publish the menu as real text on a page, ideally with schema.org/Menu markup, so search engines can show your dishes and prices. Keep the PDF for printing.
The checklist
- Best-margin dishes top right (or top of the right page)
- 5 to 7 items per section
- Prices inline, no currency symbol, no column
- Every dish: method + ingredients + one sensory word, two lines max
- One anchor dish
- V, VG, GF tags and allergen notes
- Design matches your price range
- Web version as text with menu schema
Six ready-made menu designs
I built the Restaurant Menu Maker around these rules. You type or paste your dishes in your browser, pick Trattoria, Bistro, Modern, Café, Fine dining or Street food, and print or save a PDF in A4 or Letter. One click exports the web menu with the schema already in it. The guide inside has 30 description examples you can copy.
Questions people ask
What size should a restaurant menu be?
A4 (210 × 297 mm) in the UK and Europe, US Letter (8.5 × 11 in) in the US. One page per service is ideal; use a second page before shrinking the type below 10pt.
Should I put prices on my menu?
Yes, by law in most places and because hiding them loses trust. Put them inline after the description without a currency symbol, rather than in a column.
How many items should a menu have?
Between 20 and 35 dishes across all sections for most restaurants. Fewer dishes mean faster kitchens, less waste and easier choices.
Can I make a restaurant menu without Canva or a designer?
Yes. A browser-based maker like the Restaurant Menu Maker lets you type your dishes, choose a design and print or export a PDF with no design skills.
Does Google read PDF menus?
Poorly. Put your menu on a web page as text, with schema.org Menu markup, so Google and AI search can show your dishes.