If you are designing a menu, you will soon realise that the process is not as easy as you think. There are a lot of considerations for you to make when it comes to the design. From the layout of the items to the font you use, it can take a long time to make a menu that you like and that reflects your business. In particular, one thing that a lot of cafes and restaurants think about is whether they should include images of food on their menu. This is something that divides a lot of people. So, let’s take a look at considerations you should make to get your answer to this question.
Choose Quality Images
First of all, before you consider taking any photos of the food you are going to be serving, think about what equipment you have. In particular, do you have professional equipment that is going to enable you to take amazing photos? If the answer is no then you should avoid putting images on your menu. But, if you have a good camera, light and some experience with photography, you may benefit from having food images.
As you can gather, the important factor in a lot of cases is not that whether you have images or not. It is ensuring that if you do, they are quality and going to have the intended effect. For instance, you want images that scream out your food is amazing. With the wrong photos, customers are going to be put off the dish you are serving. Thus, quality is more important than quantity. You also want to ensure that you invest in expert menu printing services in London.
Words May be Enough
A menu should not be about overloading the customer with a lot of information. Often, simple designs are best. So, it might be the case that your menu simply does not need photos. For example, if you are serving food that is common and everyone loves, there is going to be no value in putting images on the menu. In addition. If the name of the dish is self-explanatory, there is going to be no use in having photos.
Of course, if you reverse the situation, images can be beneficial for dishes that might need a bit more explanation. Most people are visual learners and providing a high-quality image of the dish is going to educate them on what they are ordering. Moreover, if your dishes have themed names and it is not immediately obvious what they are, photos are going to offer a helping hand.
Know Your Customers
Before you put photos on your menu, think about the clientele you have or want to attract to your café or restaurant. Think about if they would want to see images of photos on the menu. For example, you will find that a lot of casual diners have images of food on the menus at tables. Thus, it does appear that more casual settings have photos. So, if you are trying to go up market, you might want to avoid images. This is not to say that most expensive and formal restaurants do not have images. But, it is less common to see. Therefore, take some time to research your customers and think about what they would want the menu to look like.
You Can Create a High Standard
Another thing to realise about including images on your menu is that if the food does not look like the photo, your customers might be disappointed. This means that your chefs are under a lot of pressure to make sure the food has the same layout and look of the images. This can be too high a standard to reach when the place is busy. In addition, you have to remember that food can look different at certain times of the year. So, this is going to reflect badly on your dishes when the images do not match what customers are receiving.
To Summarise
So, should food photos be included on your menu? The answer is going to be yours and depend on what you want to present to customers. If you do decide you want photos, ensure that you put a lot of thought into the images and that they are quality. You may find that having words is enough to portray the dishes well. Think about your customers and what they are going to be expecting when they sit down. Be aware that images can create a high standard. You need to make sure that you can live up to this expectation.