6 proven menu writing tips from culinary pro

Home » Resources

Maximise your most powerful sales tool.

With over 35 years of experience working in some of the world’s finest restaurants and hotels, Kitchen CUT Founder and Michelin Star Chef, John Wood, knows a thing or two about what sets a good menu apart.

Here, he gives his top tips on applying psychology to your menu and subtly guiding customer decisions to boost customer satisfaction and increase sales. With a few expert insights, you can take your menu to the next level, create a memorable customer experience and grow your profits.

#1. Make a strong first impression.

Your menu is your most powerful marketing tool; the one thing every customer will willingly pick up and read. It influences how your customers choose, how much they will spend and how they perceive your company’s brand.

Studies in menu psychology show that customers’ eyes follow predictable patterns when they pick up a menu, typically looking first at the top-right corner or the centre, known in the hospitality trade as the ‘sweet spots.’ These locations on your menu can become your ‘prime real estate’, perfect for placing popular, signature or high-earning dishes to reap the most reward.

When designing your menu, you want to avoid decision fatigue from your guests, to make choices easy and clear. Keep the layout simple and uncluttered to let your dishes speak for themselves and help your customers choose confidently.

Boxing high-earning and signature dishes is a great way to draw attention to them, but as a rule, stick to one boxed item per area of your menu to avoid cluttering. Keeping to around 4-5 boxed items per menu ensures this method remains impactful.
Try to limit the number of categories across your menu and focus on a curated selection of quality dishes. Not only will this ease the pressure on your kitchen staff, but it will also enable your business to focus on fewer, more high-quality ingredients and enhance the customer’s perceived value of each dish.

#2. Use descriptive language and create emotional connection.

Language drives appetite and good descriptions will drive sales. A simple “grilled salmon” can be transformed into “Wild-caught salmon, pan-seared in lemon butter and served with seasonal greens.”

But balance is key. It’s also important to avoid using too many descriptive words that could confuse your guests. Keep things simple and clear, so your customers know what to expect.

The use of sensory words such as ‘crispy, tender, slow-roasted and flame-grilled’ increases sensory engagement with your food, helping customers to imagine themselves eating each dish.

Descriptions associated with origin, such as ‘locally sourced and farm-fresh’, create emotion and appeal to those customers looking to support local producers and eat more consciously for the environment.

Using your menu to tell the story of your food, whether it’s your relationships with local farmers or your chef’s history with certain ingredients, paints a picture for your guests. Telling these meaningful stories ensures your customers feel part of something special, strengthening their loyalty and connection to your business, through authenticity and honesty.

#3. Apply smart pricing psychology.

As life becomes more expensive for consumers, ‘price-shopping’ has become more common when dining out. To help avoid these column comparisons and ensure dining out remains an experience rather than a transaction, try moving the price of each dish to the end of the description, using the same or even slightly smaller typeface.

Removing the currency sign will further help the customer focus on the product, not the price.

Customers respond to subtle pricing cues more than absolute numbers. Techniques can include:

• Dropping currency symbols – “14” instead of “£14” can reduce the focus on cost.
• Charm pricing – we all know that £9.95 feels cheaper than £10.
• Integrating prices into descriptions – emphasize the quality over the price of each dish.

#4. The importance of design.

The design of your menu is almost as important as its contents. Think carefully about using readable fonts that are large enough to read in dim light, balanced spacing, and subtle colours, highlighting certain dishes to draw attention without appearing pushy.

White space can help your menu to feel elegant and make it easier to navigate.
Remember, your menu reflects your business as a whole, and customers often associate a dirty menu with a dirty kitchen. A clean, sharp menu speaks volumes about your chefs, food and service.

#5. Use anchoring to frame value.

Anchoring subtly guides spending. A £48 tomahawk steak next to a £32 ribeye makes the ribeye seem like a better deal, unconsciously influencing your customers to believe they are making a more economical choice.

#6. Menu engineering – a basic outline.

Menu engineering is one of the key capabilities of Kitchen CUT software, enabling hospitality businesses to optimise their offerings and maximise sales whilst ensuring the best possible customer experience.

Menu engineering can help your business identify:

• Stars. Stars are extremely popular dishes and have a high contribution margin. Ideally Stars should be the dishes you are most proud of, including your chef’s signature.
• Plow Horse. Plow Horses are high in popularity but low in contribution margin. Plow horse menu items sell well, but don’t significantly increase revenue.
• Puzzles. Puzzles are generally low in popularity and high in contribution margin. Puzzle dishes are difficult to sell but have a high profit margin.
• Dogs. Dogs are low in popularity and low in contribution margin. They are difficult to sell and produce little profit when they do sell. Menu engineering can help businesses to accurately identify and delete these dishes.

Using menu psychology, the types of dishes listed above can be strategically placed across your menu to encourage the purchase of targeted items and maximise profits. It is extremely important to cost each ingredient correctly, taking into consideration the complexity of each dish and the labour involved in preparation and service, to ensure accurate menu sales predictions.

Not only will menu engineering technology enable your business to identify and analyse dishes that don’t perform, but it will also help to drastically cut food waste, allowing your chefs to focus their efforts dishes that sell and generate the most income.

Final thoughts

From a customer perspective, the best menus feel intuitive, authentic, and thoughtfully curated. Behind the scenes, menu psychology, menu design, and great storytelling guide diners toward better meal satisfaction and higher-value choices.

A well-crafted menu doesn’t just sell food; it creates an unforgettable experience that wows customers and builds important loyalty.

Menu Engineering