The restaurant industry is notoriously competitive. Successful restaurateurs constantly have to reinvent their menu options to attract new customers and keep old regulars from eating elsewhere.
With everything else you’re juggling, brainstorming successful new menu items can seem like an insurmountable task. Fortunately, we’ve got you covered. This guide will walk you through the process of building a better menu.
From the main course list to the side dishes, you can use these restaurant menu ideas to build the perfect menu for your restaurant.
Restaurant owners everywhere know that it’s the food that ultimately makes or breaks a restaurant. Low prices, ambiance, and limited-time promotions can bring customers in the door. But that’s not all it takes to keep them around.
Customers are constantly on the lookout for the next best thing. If you want to build a strong group of repeat customers and benefit from crucial word-of-mouth marketing, you need a better menu than the competition.
Whether you’re a new restaurateur or a grizzled industry veteran, you can use these restaurant menu ideas to attract new customers and keep your regulars coming back for more.
Menu engineering is as much an art as it is a science. While building out your new menu, it’s important to keep track of everything from your restaurant’s theme to which fresh veggies are in-season.
Here are the factors you should consider when brainstorming new restaurant menu ideas for your business.
The first step toward generating new restaurant menu ideas is to pin down your restaurant’s branding and theme.
Are you New York fine dining or California casual? For example, a fast food restaurant might consider adding a grilled cheese sandwich to its children’s menu while an upscale French bistro should focus more on elegant dishes with high-quality ingredients, such as coq au vin.
This will also give you a better idea of the pricing strategy you want to pursue with your new dishes.
Now that you’ve narrowed down your possible menu choices, we’re going to shrink the pool of possible menu options even further with menu templates.
At first, you might recoil at the idea of using a template to guide your menu creation process. After all, isn’t the point of dreaming up new restaurant menu ideas to stand apart from the competition?
The answer is yes, but looking at what the competition is doing is actually one of the best ways to come up with successful restaurant menu ideas so you can put an original twist on an industry standard.
For example, if you run a BBQ restaurant, you could add bacon to a classic side dish like boiled green beans and sprinkle parmesan on a mainstay like mac ‘n’ cheese.
Similarly, it’s important to keep an eye on the culinary trends sweeping your corner of the restaurant industry. Just imagine all the business you could get if you were the first restaurant to offer a gluten-free menu in your town or the first to have an array of sustainable menu choices.
Staying on top of culinary trends means keeping your ear to the ground. Use these helpful tips to stay abreast of the latest restaurant menu ideas:
Network with other restaurant owners in your area
Read restaurant industry magazines like Restaurant Insider and Restaurant
Involve yourself in online communities and social media groups centered around the type of food your restaurant offers
We’ll explore more of that last point in the next section.
Over the past decade, social media has solidified itself as one of the most important tools in any restaurant owner’s toolbox. It offers you a direct line to your customers. Almost as important, it gives you a real-time look into emerging food trends.
You can generate new restaurant menu ideas by looking at trending hashtags on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram. Browse TikTok for viral cooking or takeout unboxing videos and read Facebook posts from rival restaurants to reverse engineer the elements that go into a stellar dining experience.
Using seasonal ingredients offers several tantalizing advantages. They’re
Fresh and crispy
Often cheaper than out-of-season veggies
A great way to test out new restaurant menu ideas without making a long-term commitment
Cost and risk are two of the biggest deterrents to a total menu overhaul for many restaurateurs, particularly those operating on a limited budget. If you're afraid to commit to a new menu item for the long haul, a seasonal ingredient base is a great way to dip your toes in the water.
Not only will you save money on the key ingredient, but you can also promote it as a limited time offer. For example, you could offer a flavorful strawberry ice cream dessert for the summer or a mixed veggie side salad appetizer for the winter.
If your customers keep coming back for more, simply transfer your creation from your seasonal menu to your regular menu. Yes, you’ll have to raise prices during the off-season months, but you’ll have a good idea of what your customers are willing to pay in exchange for their new favorite dish.
Similar to a seasonal menu, brunch menus give you the ability to experiment with new food menu items without committing too much time or energy. You can also use a special brunch menu to bring in customers during an otherwise slow period.
It’s a common misconception that brunch is only for French and Italian restaurants. If you serve Mexican food, you can feature tacos and margaritas on your brunch menu. Similarly, if you sell classic American fare like cheeseburgers and french fries, consider offering up creative but low-stakes entrées, such as buttermilk pancakes with a twist like special house jam or turkey bacon.
If a brunch menu item proves consistently popular, consider moving it to the main menu. You can also remove underperforming menu items with little negative impact. After all, you’re only offering brunch for a few hours a day.
Building out a new restaurant menu doesn’t have to be difficult. Get started by pinning down your restaurant’s theme and brand identity. Then look to the competition for ideas by scouring menu templates and social media websites.
Expand your reach by doing some serious market research on culinary trends. Read trade magazines to learn from the competition. Now you’re ready to explore your creative side with some fun, but ultimately low-stakes temporary menu items.
Updating your menu with new menu items doesn’t have to be hard or expensive. KioskBuddy is an all-in-one self-serve kiosk solution that lets you easily input, edit, and update menu options across your entire restaurant.
You can use this added flexibility to tinker with your restaurant menu ideas until you land on the perfect dish.
Get started with KioskBuddy today and enjoy a 30-day free trial!