A menu is the only piece of print in a restaurant that every single customer touches. It also takes more abuse than anything else you own.
Dine-in menus
Laminated card
Print on heavy stock and encapsulate in plastic. Fully wipeable, survives spills, and lasts until the prices change. The most common choice for casual and family restaurants.
Synthetic waterproof stock
Printed on a plastic-based sheet rather than paper. It cannot absorb liquid, will not tear, and wipes clean, but stays thinner and more flexible than laminate. It looks less plasticky, which suits mid to upper tier rooms.
Uncoated heavy card
No protection at all, and deliberately so. Higher end restaurants often print menus on beautiful uncoated stock and simply reprint frequently. If your menu changes seasonally anyway, protection is wasted money.
Takeout menus
A different job entirely. These go into delivery bags and onto refrigerators, so they need to be light, cheap enough to give away in volume, and fold small. Standard approach is 8.5 x 11 or 11 x 17 on text weight stock, folded to a compact size.
Print your phone number and address at a size that can be read from across a kitchen, because that is the entire function of a menu stuck to a fridge.
The reprint problem, and how to avoid it
Costs move and prices follow. Reprinting a full laminated menu every time one item changes is expensive and slow.
- Design a fixed base menu with a separate insert panel for anything volatile: specials, market price items, seasonal dishes.
- Print inserts in short digital runs so a change costs very little.
- Use a menu cover with a slip pocket, so a single printed sheet is swapped rather than a whole menu.
- Keep beverage lists separate from food. Drink prices tend to change on a different schedule.
- Avoid printing prices into a design element that cannot be edited independently.
Other formats worth having
- Table tents for specials, desserts and drink promotions.
- Counter cards at the register for upsells.
- Pocket menus for handing out at events and local businesses.
- A2 or A1 posters for window specials.
- QR code stickers for a digital menu, which should supplement a printed menu rather than replace it.
On QR codes: keep the printed menu. A meaningful share of customers, particularly older diners, will not scan a code, and a table where everyone stares at a phone changes the room. Use the code for the full drinks list or allergen information where a long document is genuinely useful.
Design points that matter
- Set body text at 11pt minimum. Restaurant lighting is dim and your customers are not all thirty.
- Drop the dollar signs and the leader dots. Both encourage price comparison.
- Put high margin dishes in the top right area of a page, where the eye lands first.
- Keep each section to a readable length. A very long list causes decision paralysis, not delight.
- Include allergen notes. It saves your staff repeated conversations.
We print menus for restaurants across Queens. See marketing materials for formats and stocks.
Need this printed? We are on Hillside Avenue in Jamaica, Queens.