How to Write a Restaurant Menu People Can Read on a Phone

A guest reading your menu on a phone sees a few dishes at a time. They can't glance across a page the way they can with paper, so the order, length, and wording of each line matter more than they would in print.

Put the dish first and keep the name short

Long names wrap onto three lines on a small screen. Put the part guests are looking for at the start, and move the details into the description.

• Harder to scan: Our Famous House-Smoked 12-Hour Texas Beef Brisket Platter
• Easier to scan: Smoked Brisket Platter. Smoked for 12 hours, Texas style.

Write one or two lines for each description

Say what's in the dish and what makes it different. Guests want to know whether they'll like it, so concrete words beat praise. "Crispy pork belly, pickled onion, salsa verde" tells them more than "our delicious signature creation".

Don't describe what's already obvious. A burger doesn't need to say that it comes on a bun, unless the bun is the point.

Keep the sections few and in eating order

Follow the order of a meal: starters, mains, sides, desserts, drinks. If a section has more than a dozen dishes, split it, for example into Tacos and Burritos instead of one long Mains list. Clear names also beat clever ones: guests don't know what "From the Hearth" means until they scroll through it.

Use photos where they help

Photos can do a lot, but only if they're good. A few guidelines:

• Start with your best sellers and the dishes that are hard to picture from the name alone.
• Use natural light and the actual plate as you serve it.
• Leave out a photo if it's dark or blurry. No photo is better than a bad one.
• Use the same kind of shot throughout, so the page doesn't look patched together.

Write prices simply

Show the price for each dish, including the prices of add-ons and sizes. If a dish has several sizes, list them clearly ("Small $8 / Large $12"). If you use "market price", make it easy for guests to find out what it is today, or update it on the menu each day.

Put allergens on the dish itself

Guests with allergies shouldn't have to ask about every line. List the major allergens in each dish, and confirm them with the kitchen whenever a recipe or a supplier changes. A note such as "Please tell your server about any allergies" is still worth adding. If you're in California, also read our guide to the SB 68 allergen law.

Think about your guests' languages

If many of your guests speak Spanish or another language, it helps to keep the original dish name and add a short description in the second language: "Pozole rojo: pork and hominy stew with red chile". Have someone who speaks the language read it, because machine translations can get food terms badly wrong.

Read it the way a guest would

Before you publish, open the menu on your phone and go through this list:

1. Can you find a drink in under ten seconds?
2. Can you read it with one hand, at arm's length, in dim light?
3. Does any dish name run longer than two lines?
4. Does any description repeat what the name already says?
5. Are all prices and allergens correct today?

Once it's published, watch what guests do. In Pankarta, you can see which dishes they tap most on the Pro plan. That helps you decide which photos and descriptions are worth improving first.