A Guide to Menu Development
Menu development is one of the most important and exciting elements of opening a new restaurant. Your passion for opening a restaurant likely centers around the type of food you want to serve or the dining experience you want to create. Even though you’ve spent time thinking about your menu and created a sample version for your business plan, menu planning can quickly become overwhelming. To create a successful menu, you need to involve front and back-of-house staff members, analyze costs, select vendors, and create a beautiful design.
I’ve been in the restaurant business for over 35 years and own three successful Colorado Springs restaurants. I understand the unique challenges of launching a restaurant, from training staff to creating a beautiful concept. New restaurants often create ambitious menus without making sure they are sustainable over time. I’ve created this guide to menu development to help you avoid those pitfalls.
What is Menu Development?
Your menu development strategy should combine elements of menu planning and menu engineering. Menu planning refers to selecting dishes that align with your brand and customer expectations. During menu planning, you can evaluate the nutritional components of your dishes, consider dietary restrictions that you want to accommodate, and ensure that you are filling a unique space in your local market. Your sales and front-of-house team should be involved in the menu planning stage.
Menu engineering refers to how you will execute specific dishes. Does your culinary team have the necessary training and equipment? Menu engineering will also cover sourcing ingredients. Have you considered the seasonality of ingredients? What vendors will you use? Will you have an adequate profit margin? You will likely need to revisit menu planning based on what you discover during menu engineering.
How Many Items Should be on a Restaurant Menu?
Psychology suggests that you shouldn’t include more than seven items in any section of your menu. Include more than that, and your customers could feel overwhelmed and default to dishes that feel familiar rather than trying something new.
Beyond customer psychology, think honestly about your kitchen staff. How many dishes can they truly master? You want to create a consistent guest experience, and a needlessly complicated menu works against that goal. Play to your staff's strengths and aim for quality rather than quantity with your menu items.
7 Factors to Consider When Planning a Menu
We’ve already raised some key considerations for menu planning, but here are some other important factors that influence menu development:
1. Current Menu Performance
This mainly applies to existing restaurants that are revising a menu, but even new restaurants can benefit from reviewing their previous ideas. Look at the sample menu from your business plan and identify logistical concerns. If you’ve had the opportunity to serve your food at an event or soft launch, evaluate what went well and what could be improved. For existing restaurants, look at items that aren’t selling well or have poor profit margins.
2. Your Target Market
Learn about your ideal customer base and what they look for in a restaurant experience. What types of restaurants do well in your service area? Is the demographic adventurous or conservative in their tastes? This is also a good time to scope out the competition. If someone serves a similar type of food in the area, how will you make your offerings unique?
3. Recipe Research
Encourage your culinary team to sift through industry cookbooks, check out online forums, and connect with other chefs for recipe inspiration. At this point, you should have a pretty good idea about your market and niche, so leverage your culinary team’s expertise to help with dish selection.
4. Seasonality
Look for recipes that can be adapted based on seasonal ingredients while offering a consistent experience. Switching up your soups, salads, and sides is a great way to use seasonally available ingredients and allow your culinary team to exercise their creativity.
5. Getting Outside Help
Restaurant consultants are experts in menu development and can identify issues that may have otherwise gone unnoticed. If you don’t know where to start or just want an extra set of eyes on your menu before you launch, look for a restaurant consultant in your area.
6. Customer Opinions
Consider doing a soft launch or friends and family event before officially releasing your new menu. This will allow you to work out the kinks ahead of time in a low-stakes environment. Your guests may even have some suggestions to improve specific items.
7. Graphic Design
If you have someone on your staff who’s gifted in graphic design, recruit them to help with menu design. It may be worthwhile to hire a professional, however. Creating a beautiful menu can reinforce your brand identity and draw your guest’s attention to specific items you want to feature. Think of your menu as an internal marketing tool and invest in it accordingly.
Hire a Menu Development Consultant with DMD Restaurant Consulting
If you’re feeling overwhelmed about developing your restaurant menu or would like some extra support, contact DMD Restaurant Consulting. As a passionate hospitality professional, I am here to ensure the success of your restaurant. I specialize in all aspects of restaurant consulting, from concept design to operations, but I particularly love helping new restaurants develop unique and cost-effective menus. Schedule a free consultation today!
