Horses for courses, the saying goes, but let’s try and keep the nags off the menu. Today we’re talking about the best way to express your restaurant’s personality on your menu. Fonts, colours, textures and printing stock trends change frequently, but the way your menu ‘talks’ to your diners should stay the same as long as your restaurant does.

Most restaurants stick with formal tones. This is the safest, particularly for venues that know the customer is always right, and should be addressed with a prescribed level of respect, and a measure of cold distance that reflects the relationship.

Casual menus might tend to show less respect to your customer, but they can also express warm familiarity. Using copy on a menu that reflects the way you would talk to a friend, shows your customer that you are on the same level as them.

Within these two frameworks, there are other forms of text to paint your restaurant’s personality:

• Intelligent – There is an assumption that the diner is food-wise enough to understand gourmet ingredients and preparation methods. “Grade 11 kobe sirloin, kewpie slaw, English mustard”
• Descriptive – Text fills in the blanks where the diner may not understand, possibly involving explanations of cooking methods and ingredient origin. “Premium grade wagyu beef sirloin, chargrilled to your liking, served with coleslaw and hot English mustard”
• Evocative – Instead of describing a dish in no uncertain terms, a picture is painted using adjectives, similies and metaphors. “An inch-thick slab of the world’s juiciest wagyu sirloin, served with old-school coleslaw and hell-raising mustard”
• Direct – No nonsense, straightforward text. The diner gets what is written, but possibly more as well. “Char-grilled wagyu sirloin, coleslaw, mustard”
• Complex – Pretty much every single item on the plate is listed. “Char-grilled 400g wagyu sirloin, fried shallots, red cabbage kewpie mayo coleslaw, hot English mustard, garlic flowers”
• Sarcastic – A snide tone is used to direct to or from dishes. Often used when restaurants have to offer something, but don’t really want to. “No-risk steak – chargrilled wagyu of the best grade it’s possible to buy, with coleslaw like your mother makes – because you’re too scared we’re going to mess it up, and too unadventurous to try something new.”
• Comedic – usually uses emotive text in tandem, and lightens the feel. “Fat steak – A slab of bovine kobe that is so loaded with drippy delicious fat that you might have a coronary right here at our divine table. Coleslaw served alongside as a salady afterthought”
• Flowery – Taking a combination of evocative and descriptive text to an extreme. “Lacy grained grade 11 Kobe beef sirloin, grilled to perfection on our smoky barbecue. Served with creamy traditional coleslaw and the old classic condiment of hot English mustard.”

Some examples (click for larger images):

Formal, intelligent, direct. This Fat Duck menu is written for those who understand the basics of molecular gastronomy. Items within dishes are listed without complication, and the diner is expected to gather how the dish goes together, or be happy to have a surprise. One menu item doesn’t fit – can you see it? “Sound of the sea” is evocative. If I took that menu home as a souvenir, I’d have to write the ingredients on there…

This menu from the Elbow Room in Vancouver is casual, complex and evocative, with elements of humour and sarcasm. They ‘speak’ to their customer on the menu as they would in person, and describe not just the ingredients, but the method of cooking and the reason they should buy it by highlighting qualities and using lush adjectives.

Below is sarcasm at it’s purest. Don’t you want to give this bar a medal for putting what we all think so plainly?

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Daily Mail posted this beauty, found at the Duchess of Cambridge’s social debut. It demonstrates perfectly the danger in using flowery language.  How a piece of dead animal can “nestle” in something, I have no idea.

So what’s your personality? Do you want your diner to see you as an easygoing, hipster restaurant? Do you want them marvelled by your superior and sagacious attitude to ingredients? Would you like them to realise that it’s best to be mildly surprised, or to leave the decision making up to you? Do you just want them to come in, eat, be satisfied, then leave? At Lunad, we can help you figure out how to say these things, in the nicest possible way, of course. Contact us now.