When creating custom menus for your restaurant, it’s first important to decide how you’d like to separate them. Most restaurants have multiple custom menus for their food, wine list, specialty cocktails, etc. We’ve compiled some tips here for the best practices for setting up some of these menu types.
Note: It is highly recommended that you create separate menus for food, wine, etc. instead of combining them into a single menu. This will allow you to customize your menus and displays with more flexibility and will be easier to use.
FOOD MENUS
Once you’ve named and created your menu, you can add general information about the entire menu in the Description section. This is a good place to put things like an icon legend (if your menu tags certain things like vegan options, gluten-free, etc.), legal and allergy information, or an introduction to your menu.
After that, it’s time to create your first section. Under the Settings for the Menu, you’ll see another box for editing your custom sections. Each menu starts with a single section by default, but you can add as many sections as you like my by clicking the “+ Add Custom Section” buttons at the top and bottom of the section list:
You’ll want to create a custom section to correspond with each subsection of your menu (Appetizers, Salads, Entrees, etc.). The Section Description is a good place to put information pertaining to items in that specific category, but that doesn’t need to be listed in the description for the entire menu. Some examples would be salad dressings, pizza toppings, legal disclaimers about eating undercooked food, etc.
After you’ve created a section, you can now add individual menu items to a section by first choosing the type of item you want to add:
Once you’ve created an item, you can add information about the item in the box that appears:
As you add the Item Name and Description, you can see the item changing in real time at the top of the box. You can also add Calorie information here, as well as add an image to appear with the item for Digital Boards.
Now we just need to add the price. If the item only has one pricing option, all you need to do is type the price in the Price box and then click “Done Editing Item,” which will create the item.
You’ve created your first item! Now, let’s create another one, but this time let’s create an item that has a couple of sizes available, and a couple of add-ons available. We’ll start the same way as before:
This time, we’re going to list the size of the salad as a “Custom Container,” which allows us to give individual Calorie amounts and Prices to multiple versions of the same item. This is also a good way to list modifications and add-ons to items.
Now that we have a couple of items to play with, let’s talk about re-arranging Containers, Items, and even entire Sections within your menu. To move a container or item, select the arrow icon to the right of the trash icon next to any container/item, and simply drag it to wherever you’d like it in your list.
Tip: Even though you can arrange Items and Containers after you create them, the newest item/container you create will always generate at the top of the current section, so you can save yourself some time by starting at the bottom of a section, and adding items from the bottom up.
Similarly, you can arrange your sections by selecting the same icon on the header of your Section:
With this in mind, you should now be able to populate your custom food menu!