Restaurant menu design: layout, fonts and colours

A well designed restaurant menu helps guests find what they want and decide quickly. Put the sections in the order people eat, keep each section short, use two typefaces at most, choose colours with enough contrast to read in a dim room, write prices the same way everywhere, and add photos only where they help a guest choose. The same rules hold on paper and on a phone. A QR code menu adds one thing paper cannot: you can change it tonight without reprinting. This guide covers each decision, the rules that touch menu design in the UK and the USA, and the real colours of three live doXmenu menus, measured on 17 October 2026.

Start with the structure, not the decoration

Design begins with the list. Before choosing a font, decide what goes on the menu and in which order:

• Sections in the order of the meal: starters, mains, sides, desserts, then drinks. A café might run breakfast, sandwiches, cakes, coffee. Guests look for the section first and the dish second.
• Short sections. A long list is harder to choose from and harder to cook from. If a section needs a scroll of three screens, split it, or cut it.
• One name, one line. Short dish names fit one line on a phone and one line in a printed column, so the eye runs straight down the list.
• Descriptions that sell, briefly. One or two lines: the main ingredient, how it is cooked, one detail. Our guide to menu descriptions that sell has a formula and before and after examples.

Layout: a printed page and a phone are read differently

A printed menu is seen all at once: the guest opens it and scans two pages. Columns, boxes and a highlighted dish in the top corner all work, because everything is in view. A phone shows one narrow column and scrolls, so the layout has to work as a list:

• a bar of sections at the top, so a guest can jump straight to desserts;
• one dish per row or card, name and price on the same line or right under each other;
• nothing that depends on side-by-side columns, which collapse on a small screen;
• the dish you want to sell near the top of its section, where every scrolling guest passes it.

The good news is that one structure can serve both. Write the menu once as sections and dishes, then let the printed page and the phone each lay it out their own way.

Fonts: two typefaces, and readable sizes

Most menus need two typefaces: one with character for dish names and section titles, and a plain one for descriptions and prices. Keep script and very thin fonts for names, never for descriptions, and on a phone keep descriptions at a size guests can read without zooming. Test it the honest way: hold the phone at arm’s length in the darkest corner of the room.

In doXmenu you pick one of 16 font styles, each a pair of two typefaces, one for names and one for descriptions, and the dashboard previews it on your own menu before you save.

Colours: contrast first, mood second

The colour rule that matters most is contrast between the text and what it sits on. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.2, W3C) ask for a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text. It is the same test for print: low contrast that looks elegant on a designer’s screen turns unreadable under warm restaurant light.

Here are the real colours of three live doXmenu menus, read from each menu’s settings on 17 October 2026, with the contrast of the text against the card it sits on:

Two very different moods, a dark gold evening look and a light, calm daytime one, and both clear 4.5:1 with room to spare. That is the pattern to copy: pick the mood with the background, then check every text colour against it. Open the menus on your phone to see them as guests do.

doXmenu has 70 ready-made palettes in ten families (fine dining, café, Italian, grill, Asian, Mediterranean, bar, fresh, street food, hotel), all contrast-checked, or you set your own colours from your logo.

Prices: clear, consistent, and what the law asks

Write every price the same way: the same number of decimals, the currency once and in the same place, aligned so the eye finds it. Avoid dotted leader lines that drag the eye from the dish to the price; put the price right after the description instead.

Three rules touch menu design directly:

• UK, prices: the Price Marking (Food and Drink Services) Order 2003 requires prices to be shown at or near the entrance to the eating area so customers see them before going in (all items if 30 or fewer, otherwise 30 including five soft drinks), prices to include VAT, and any extra charge, such as a service or cover charge, or a minimum charge, to be stated.
• England, calories: since 6 April 2022, businesses with 250 or more employees must show the calories (kcal) of non-prepacked food and drink sold for immediate consumption next to the item’s name or price, on printed and online menus, with the statement “adults need around 2000 kcal a day”.
• USA, calories: since 7 May 2018, restaurant chains with 20 or more locations must show calories for standard items on menus and menu boards, with the statement that 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice, but calorie needs vary.

If one of these applies to you, plan the space for it in the design from the start, not as an afterthought squeezed under the dish name. In doXmenu, optional nutrition per portion (calories, protein, fat and carbs) shows on the dish page.

Photos: fewer, better, all alike

One good photo of a dish helps a guest who cannot picture it; ten mismatched photos make a menu look like a catalogue. Use your own photos, not stock, shoot them in the same light and from the same angle, and give priority to the dishes guests ask about. On a phone, a photo can open full screen when the guest taps the dish, so the list stays light and the photo still gets its moment.

Allergens and languages are part of the design

Allergen marks and a language switch are not extras to fit in at the end. Decide early where allergens sit next to each dish and how a guest changes language. In a QR code menu, allergen icons sit next to the price, and a guest changes language with one tap instead of asking for a second menu (doXmenu has 24 menu languages). For the UK rules, see our guide to the 14 allergens and an allergen matrix; for translations, the menu translation guide.

One design, on the table and on the phone

A QR code menu adds to your printed menu; it does not have to replace it. Keep the printed menu, and the price list at the entrance where the law asks for it, and put a QR code on every table for the version that changes daily, speaks the guest’s language and shows every allergen. With doXmenu the design is yours: your logo, colours, fonts and layout, previewed live. Table stands for the code, with free design, are in the shop, and every feature is in every plan on the pricing page. For the bigger picture of your brand, read the restaurant branding guide.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

Read on 17 October 2026: The Price Marking (Food and Drink Services) Order 2003 (in force since 2 March 2004; articles 4, 5 and 7), the Department of Health and Social Care’s calorie labelling guidance (published 17 September 2021), the FDA’s menu labeling requirements (content current as of 13 December 2023) and W3C’s WCAG 2.2, contrast (minimum). The menu colours were read from the three menus’ live settings on 17 October 2026.