Creating menu descriptions is a crucial component in the success of any restaurant business. Thoughtfully written restaurant menu descriptions have the potential to not only attract customers but also effectively convey the taste and appearance of a dish, ultimately leading to increased sales.
In this article, we will show you how to write a menu using menu adjectives, and we will provide you with examples. So let’s dive into it!
Key Takeaways
- Menu Writing Purpose: Use descriptive, sensory language and storytelling to influence customer behavior and boost sales.
- Ingredient Origin & Dietary Information: Highlight the origin of ingredients and include dietary details to emphasize quality and cater to specific needs.
- Tailor to Target Audience: Customize your menu to match the tastes and preferences of your primary customers.
- Use High-Quality Photos: Include original photos of dishes to enhance the appeal of your online and physical menus.
- Avoid Mistakes: Be mindful of common menu writing errors, such as misleading descriptions or inconsistent pricing.
- Optimize for Accessibility: Create QR codes, mobile-friendly, and website menus for easy access and promotion.
What is menu writing?
According to the National Restaurant Association, menu writing is a process of writing menu descriptions of food items that are appetizing, informative, and accurate. Menu writing directly influences restaurant sales and is part of a restaurant marketing plan.
However, not all restaurant owners go in depth when it comes to carefully designing their menu descriptions, which can negatively impact restaurant profits and the overall growth of the business.
Why menu descriptions are important?
Businesses must create informative, engaging, and descriptive menu descriptions to stand out from their competitors.
Menu descriptions significantly influence customers’ buying decisions. But what exactly do they affect?
First, they enhance customer satisfaction and make decision-making easier. A detailed description that includes preparation methods and ingredients helps guests make informed choices that align with their preferences.
Second, as a result, menu descriptions can boost sales and increase the average check size. They can encourage customers to try new, innovative, or higher-priced dishes with unique ingredients, leading to increased restaurant’s sales.
Finally, accurate descriptions help customers order what they truly want, what helps to reduce food waste.
Several key factors influence customer buying decisions including:
- Organic ingredients: Highlighting that a dish is made with organic ingredients shows that you care about health and the environment.
- Locally sourced ingredients: Using ingredients from local farms emphasizes your support for local farmers and communities.
- Authentic ingredients: Incorporating proper names and ingredients specific to the geographic origin of dishes gives customers a more authentic experience.
- Cultural representation: Including menu items that reflect your culture allows customers to feel immersed in a unique and special dining experience.
- Storytelling: Sharing the story behind your dishes, such as the cooking method or the cuisine’s geographical origin, makes each dish feel unique and meaningful.
- Descriptive language: Using exciting, descriptive words makes the food sound appetizing and helps trigger cravings in your customers.
How to write a powerful menu description?
Below is a list of 13 menu writing tips that will help you to create amazing descriptions to match the visual design of your menu.
If you need help designing your menu, check out our guide on how to make a restaurant menu.
1. Highlight the origin of your ingredients
When you begin to write menu descriptions, include information about the origin of each meal or the location of the ingredients to suggest quality and freshness.
Thanks to this simple technique, you appeal to customers who value locally sourced and sustainable products.
In addition, you can consult your suppliers for detailed information about the ingredients you buy from them.
Yes, most customers will pay more for a dish if it is prepared from local ingredients or produced sustainably, which is a great way to increase profits. Here are some of the numbers you can expect to see:
- According to a survey by Nielsen, 46% of consumers are willing to pay more for products and services that are locally sourced, reflecting growing support for restaurant sustainability initiatives.
- A survey by the National Restaurant Association found that 60% of consumers are willing to pay more for food produced sustainably or organically, which often includes local sourcing.
- According to Riviera Produce, customers are more likely to return to your restaurant when your menu is in tune with nature, shifting just the way seasons do.
On the other hand, be careful when using unfamiliar ingredients in your menu, as it may scare your customers.
If you need to use untypical ingredients, provide a brief description to avoid frightening customers who may not be familiar with the ingredient.
2. Label your menu items
Meeting certain needs and beliefs can increase restaurant revenue. That’s why it is a good idea to include information about dietary restrictions, customs, and religious practices.
The growing number of customers is interested, for example, in vegetarian and vegan diets. It is also a good idea to include at least one dish in your menu, e.g., for customers who must avoid certain products for health reasons and need to be on a gluten-free or lactose-free diet.
You can also consider adding dishes to your restaurant’s menu that are religious-specific. Remember to research first and assess the potential number of interested customers before implementing such a change.
To highlight the dishes, they need to be clearly labeled. In UpMenu, you can use ready-made labels for your entire menu. You can also create your own labels and use them on your menu template.
3. Stimulate the senses with rich menu descriptions
It is essential to give each menu item an appealing name, provide a list of ingredients, and add persuasive food descriptions to entice customers to order them.
Let your customers imagine each dish’s flavors, textures, and aromas. Naming each dish is important, as it helps sell it.
The simple name of the dish with a short description
- Grilled Salmon – A fillet of salmon, grilled and served with a side of vegetables.
The descriptive name of the dish with a sensory-rich description
- Flame-Grilled Wild Salmon with Zesty Lemon Butter – Succulent wild-caught salmon, flame-grilled for a smoky, charred finish. Paired with crisp seasonal vegetables and drizzled with a zesty lemon butter sauce, delivering a bright citrus burst with every bite.
However, don’t forget about your loyal customers. If they have visited your restaurant before, they probably know what they are looking for, so it is important to name a product clearly, meaning that a customer shouldn’t need to read the whole description to understand a dish.
- A study by Dr. Wansink of Cornell University found that using descriptive words for menu labels increased sales by as much as 27%.
- According to a study presented by Posist, appetizing food descriptions can provoke 45% of people to buy specific food items.
- McDonald Paper shared that sales increased by 25% when the owner learned how to write to describe food. If you neglect to focus on your menu, you’re cutting down your potential sales and restaurant revenue.
If you don’t know which adjectives to use while menu writing, you can:
- Check a list of popular adjectives like a list of Food Adjectives
- Use a tools to generate a list of adjectives like
Incorporating words that evoke the senses can excite diners and create their expectation of what they will get. Follow these three steps while menu writing.
- Start with describing textures and flavor, for example,
- Crispy
- Velvety
- Juicy
- Succulent
- Zesty
- Savory
- Spicy
- Flaky
- Buttery
- Silky
- Melt-in-your-mouth
- Use additional words that could describe the cooking process of the dish, for example,
- Slow-cooked
- Char-grilled
- Wood-fired
- Roasted
- Braised
- Smoked
- Flash-fried
- Sous-vide
- Griddled
- Baked
- Use adjectives describing how a customer will feel after eating your dish, for example:
- Satisfied
- Nourished
- Fulfilled
- Content
- Gratified
- Energized
- Refreshed
- Relaxed
- Satiated
- Rejuvenated
- Comforted
4. Evoke nostalgia and share stories through your menu items
By creating backstories that evoke emotions and memories and by tying them to the history or culture of your restaurant, you can create a sense of nostalgia.
Discuss with your chef which dishes you offer have an interesting history of creation and which recipe has a captivating story. You can use this story to create menu descriptions. If you don’t have such a story, use your imagination and make it up 🙂
Keep the number of dishes on your menu, the description of which will be based on history. Create a maximum of three such menu descriptions.
5. Ensure your menu descriptions are short and descriptive
Don’t create too long menu descriptions.
As we already mentioned, menu descriptions that use descriptive adjectives can increase sales by up to 27%, but if they are too long, there is a risk that your customers won’t read them.
Again, the key is to keep balance.
6. Use high-quality, appetizing photos to attract customers
Regarding the paper menu, restaurants usually don’t put photos of the dishes. There are several reasons for that:
- Including photos in a paper menu can make the menu too large
- Photos may lead to customer dissatisfaction if the dish served in a restaurant is not the same as in the photo
- Too many photos distract customers’ attention from menu descriptions
However, we strongly recommend adding menu item photos to your online restaurant menu.
In UpMenu, you can choose one of the available templates for menus, add photos of the dishes, and menu descriptions.
In addition, we prepared a helpful guide about food photography tips to help you take appetizing photos of your dishes.
Remember that, in addition to showcasing the dishes offered, images serve another important purpose — they contribute to restaurant SEO.
For this reason, pay close attention to the names you assign to the photos you post on your restaurant website.
7. Consider creating funny menu descriptions
To add a sense of humor and personality while creating a menu for a restaurant, consider adding witty and creative descriptions that add a lighthearted and fun tone to your offerings.
Funny menu writing may result in attracting many customers. However, it doesn’t necessarily align with your restaurant branding or the overall tone of your communication.
Depending on your communication style, decide if it is a good option for your restaurant to have funny menu descriptions or not. Always remember about your brand consistency.
8. Never forget about your target audience
Another aspect is to tailor your menu to suit the preferences and tastes of your restaurant target audience.
Depending on who your target customers are, your restaurant website, the menu items you offer, and their menu writing should be different.
It would help if you used other words to describe your dishes for, for example, students and others for families with children.
9. Keep your menu descriptions updated and fresh
Remember to review your menu descriptions regularly. Check your sales reports and pay attention to any tendency that you notice. For example, some dishes become your best sellers because of their photos and menu descriptions.
If you implement any ingredient changes or introduce a seasonal offer, update your menu.
Unfortunately, each change would require you to print your menu again for a paper menu. That’s why we recommend creating an online ordering menu for your restaurant, which you can update quickly via an online ordering system.
Try to balance keeping the menu fresh and exciting while ensuring consistency and stability for customers.
10. Make sure your multi-language menu is easy to understand
If your customers speak different languages, you can make it easier for them to order by creating separate menus in each language or using graphics to help them find the right section.
One way to do this is by using different font colors or italicizing the text to distinguish between the languages. This can save customers time and make their dining experience more enjoyable.
If you offer a multi-language paper menu, don’t forget to create a multi-language restaurant website. Thanks to that, you will increase the number of potential customers.
11. Write your own enticing menu descriptions
It may sound ridiculous but believe us, it’s an important thing. Prepare your own menu descriptions. Don’t copy them. It’s not fair, and if this gets out, customers will lose trust in you.
12. Don’t make menu writing mistakes
Another critical aspect is not making menu writing mistakes. We recommend avoiding the following most common menu descriptions mistakes:
- Misspellings, typos, and errors
- Don’t use too many adjectives – menu descriptions need to be easy to read
- Avoid using words that may have negative connotations such as ”burnt” or “greasy”, and instead use “charred” or “velvety smooth”.
- Keep your menu concise and short
- Remove currency signs from your menu if possible. Use the information about the quantity instead.
- Place prices near the name or description of the dish to prevent price shopping, especially if the items have significant price differences.
- Avoid mixing different amounts, such as $3.55 and $9.49. Instead, try to make all prices whole dollar amounts or end them in .99 or .50.
- Use a smaller font size for the price to avoid making it a focal point of the menu.
If you want to know more about increasing profits with a well-developed menu, check our article on menu engineering.
13. Create an online menu
1. Start with your restaurant website menu
While menu writing, don’t forget about your restaurant’s online presence. Adding menu item descriptions to your online restaurant menu is essential.
All tips we described above are also related to your online restaurant menu.
In UpMenu, when you create a website menu, it is already mobile-optimized. Thanks to this, your customers can browse your restaurant website on any device.
2. Don’t forget about your QR code menu
If you want to speed up the ordering process in your restaurant, consider implementing tableside ordering.
Use a QR code menu builder to create a digital restaurant menu in just a few minutes.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
How to write a menu description?
To write a good menu description, follow these steps:
- Start with an introduction: Briefly describe the cuisine or theme, highlighting cultural influences, special ingredients, or unique cooking techniques.
- Use descriptive language: Use creative adjectives to make dishes sound appealing, emphasizing ingredients, textures, and flavors. For example, “succulent grilled chicken breast with a zesty aioli on an artisan bun.”
- Mention dietary options: Clearly label vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, or other special dietary options.
- Proofread: Check for spelling and grammar errors to keep descriptions clear and polished.
What are the 7 parts of a menu?
Here are the seven parts of a menu:
- Appetizers (Starters)
- Main Courses (Entrees)
- Side Dishes
- Desserts
- Beverages
- Specials
- Kids’ Menu
What are the principles of menu writing?
The principles of menu writing help to create a menu that not only attracts customers but also enhances their dining experience. Here are key principles to keep in mind:
- Clarity and Simplicity: Keep descriptions easy to read.
- Descriptive Language: Use rich, sensory words.
- Highlight Ingredient Origins: Mention locally sourced or organic ingredients.
- Label Menu Items: Clearly indicate dietary options.
- Brand Consistency: Match the descriptions with your restaurant’s branding.
- Storytelling: Add a sense of nostalgia or background stories.
- Short and Descriptive: Ensure descriptions are concise yet detailed.
- Humor: Consider adding fun descriptions if it suits your brand.
- Use High-Quality Photos: Include appetizing images.
- Target Audience: Tailor descriptions to the preferences of your customers.
- Keep Descriptions Fresh: Regularly update your menu.
- Multi-Language Options: Make the menu accessible by offering translations.
- Create Your Own Descriptions: Ensure your menu reflects your restaurant’s uniqueness.
- Avoid Mistakes: Steer clear of complex descriptions.
- Online Menu: Have a mobile-friendly menu available online.
