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(Disclosure: I barely know anything about the restaurant business.) If you can't fit your entire menu on one tri-folded sheet of letter-sized paper [with reada
by logfromblammo 7y ago
(Disclosure: I barely know anything about the restaurant business.)
If you can't fit your entire menu on one tri-folded sheet of letter-sized paper [with readable print size], it's time to do a statistical analysis on your orders, and cut all the dishes that don't get ordered enough to recoup the costs of offering them. Move them to the infrequent specials menu, if you really can't stand to never make them again.
If I recall correctly, one of the major reasons single-location restaurants fail is menu bloat. Diners take longer to decide what they want. It's harder to identify the dishes that are least profitable. Prep is more complicated. The order management system might require additional button presses to navigate between pages.
And put the restaurant equivalent of keyboard shortcuts on the menu. As a customer, I like being able to order by number, particularly by single-digit numbers (or single letters). "Give me a number one, a number four, and a number eight, hold the mayo."
- whatshisface 7y agoI can think of a few restaurants that I quit going to after they trimmed my favorite items off their menus.
- newen 7y agoTaco Bell dropping dat XXL burrito ;_;
- likpok 7y agoOne key business insight is realizing that some customers cost more than they bring in. That may or may not apply to those restaurants, but a restaurant can't be everything to everybody. They might do better by not trying. Consider this applied to tech companies: you need to make very different decisions if you want to start a free social media site versus a webapp aimed at businesses.
- Fr0styMatt88 7y agoI've seen a ton of Kitchen Nightmares videos and menu bloat seems to be a pretty common criticism, to the point where now if I go to a restaurant I'll get a bit worried that the food is going to be bad if the menu is big.
- marak830 7y agoCorrect, it's one of the largest warning signs I've learnt to look out for when fixing a restaurant.
- sh87 7y agoI've been to a few chinese restaurants in the Bay Area that have nailed this. Especially the ones near commercial and office areas. Menu has tons of images with a number on every image. A list next to those images running from top to bottom with a comprehensive list of names and ingredients with a number for each dish. Ordering for new and regular customers is a breeze, fast and I believe low error rate as well.