Restaurants are in the business of selling food, but there’s a lot more that goes into making a successful restaurant than just having delicious dishes. One aspect that often gets overlooked is menu design.
A well-designed menu can have a huge impact on sales and customer satisfaction. In fact, studies have shown that using certain techniques in menu design can increase sales by up to 10%. So how does a Marina restaurant use design to sell their food?
The golden triangle
Your eyes do not scan the page evenly. They hit the middle first, then the top right, then the top left. Restaurants put their highest profit items in these zones. Salads and appetizers go to the corners. The star dishes sit where your eyes naturally land. You pay more attention to what you see first.
Removing the dollar sign
Money signs remind people they are spending. When you see the symbol, your brain pauses. You think about cost instead of taste. Menus that sell well drop the dollar sign completely. They just write the number. It feels softer. It feels less like a transaction.
The power of boxes
A box around a dish makes it stand out. It frames the item like art on a wall. Restaurants use this trick for meals with high profit margins. Your eye stops at the border. You read what is inside first. You are more likely to pick that dish without knowing why.
Describing with purpose
Short words work. Long, fancy descriptions feel heavy. Menus that work use words like crispy, spicy, creamy, or warm. These words hit the senses. You do not read the dish. You imagine the taste. You can almost feel the texture. That is when you stop thinking and start ordering.
Limited choices sell better
Too many options freeze the brain. When people feel overwhelmed, they pick something safe or leave. Menus with fewer items sell more because the decision feels easy. Restaurants drop weak sellers to push attention toward the dishes that matter most to their profit.
Pricing without the penny
Ending prices with .95 or .00 is common. But the decimal itself creates noise in the brain. Some menus drop the cents entirely. A flat 16 instead of 15.95. It reads cleaner. It feels simpler. The mind moves past the number faster and settles on the dish.
