to-go menus – BlockbusterPrint.com Blog

Takeout Menu Printing – Why it Matters More Now than Ever Before

With the COVID-19 pandemic changing the world as we knew it, restaurants have had to face multiple challenges. One of the biggest and most significant challenges restaurants faced during the pandemic was the closure of dining rooms. Due to this reason, most restaurants weren’t able to rely on dine-in service to keep their revenue streams flowing. Instead, they relied on takeout orders, online orders, and deliveries. In response to this change, many restaurants have had to redesign or modify their menus to cater to the new format of service. That’s why takeout menu printing has become more essential now than ever before.

Food Promotion & Picture Branding

When it comes to a restaurant’s takeout menu, printing can play a vital role in promoting your business and brand. Well-designed and printed takeout menus create a strong first impression with your customers and give an idea of what they can expect when they order food from your restaurant. Takeout menu printing can help make customers remember your restaurant, even after they’ve already received their food. Make sure that your takeout menus include all the information they need to order, including the restaurant’s phone number, website, address, and social media handles.

Restaurant Food Presentation Matters

The way you present your menu can make all the difference when it comes to encouraging customers to order from your restaurant. Updating your takeout menu with fresh designs, images, and updated pricing is an excellent way to appeal to your customers’ taste buds. They need to see what your restaurant has to offer, and an excellent, professionally printed menu can help draw their attention. Customers are more likely to continue ordering food from your restaurant if they can see what your restaurant has to offer visually.

To Go Menus Are An Cost-Effective Marketing Tool

Marketing tools that are cost-effective are crucial for small businesses, and takeout menus can serve as just that. By including your restaurant’s branding, promotions, and specials on your takeout menus, you can encourage repeat ordering from your regular customers and attract new ones. While other marketing mediums may be expensive, a well-designed and printed takeout menu can help accomplish a lot for your business at a relatively small cost.

Easy to Read and Use

Many customers may not visit your restaurant website or download your online menu. Instead, they may rely entirely on your takeout menus. That is why making them legible, easy to read, and use is key. It ensures that your customers know exactly what they are ordering, and there won’t be any confusion upon receiving their order.

Professional Look and Feel

Finally, one of the most significant benefits of takeout menu printing is the ability to present your restaurant in a professional way. Many customers equate the quality of a restaurant’s printed materials, such as takeout menus, with the quality of their food. In other words, a professional-looking takeout menu can communicate to customers that your restaurant is serious about providing high-quality cuisine. This will help ensure that customers continue to order from you time and time again.

Conclusion:

The pandemic seems to be an ongoing issue for most restaurants. While the future remains uncertain, one thing is for sure – takeout menu printing is more critical now than ever. It’s not only a vital marketing tool for your restaurant, but it’s also a chance to present your business in a professional and visually appealing way to your customers. By designing a well-crafted takeout menu, you can put your best foot forward, provide valuable information, and attract customers local and beyond. So go ahead and design/pick a layout, add your color scheme, logos and your restaurant specials, subsequent pricing and enjoy the profits. Contact BlockbusterPrint.com to help you make it work seamlessly.

Fine Dining Takeout Menu Printing Tips

If you have a French restaurant, a formal Japanese restaurant, or any other elegant restaurant where diners can dress up and have a delicious meal, you might already have an equally stunning dine-in menu. But did you know that despite being a formal sit down restaurant which may come off as intimidating to casual diners, you can attract more clients with to-go menus? Someone who just wants a sophisticated salad or a slice of authentic tiramisu can easily order from one of your takeout menus. This can be for delivery or takeout and it is specifically designed for those who do not have the time for a formal sit-down five-course meal, for example. Through takeout menus, you can reach out to an untapped audience who may feel like they’re clumsy in formal restaurants – but would still want to taste Michelin-rated dishes.

Fine Dining Takeout Menu Tips

The goal of printing takeout menus for fine dining restaurants is to make your food establishment more appealing to a wider audience. It also increases sales, especially if you offer slices of luscious cakes or single servings of your famous dishes. To get started, here are some tips on how you can print takeout menus for fine dining restaurants:

Look for a reliable online printing company. Takeout menus come in different folding styles and these are the sizes that you can choose from: 4.25” x 11”, 8.5” x 11”, 8.5” x 14”, 9” x 12”, and 11” x 17”. If you want diners to experience the sophistication of a full French meal, you can offer appetizers, main dishes, and desserts on your takeout menu. Choose a suitable size and folding style that fits the number of dishes that you want to include in the menu.
You can still use your formal restaurant logo and mimic the style of your formal dine-in menu, but modify the design in such a way that it appeals to a wider audience. Instead of sleek and elegant, you can go minimalist with your takeout menu design. Choose a font style that is still sophisticated but still easy to read. Combine text and graphics or photos strategically. Also use proper placement so that you can highlight the dishes which are easy to make, but highly profitable.
Takeout menus for fine dining restaurants should be easy to read, elegantly designed, yet appealing to the masses. With a well-designed and well-thought-out takeout menu, you can tempt diners into ordering something from your restaurant. This increases your sales and the number of customers that you have, while enhancing your brand at the same time.

Effective To Go Menus Make Your Food Business Succeed

No matter what type of food you specialize in, it is important to have to go menus that customers can refer to if they want to order takeout. If you’re a purely dine-in establishment, you are not really taking advantage of your business’ full earning potential. A lot of people don’t have the time or patience for a sit-down dinner, so they enjoy the quickness and convenience of ordering takeout.

Combine a To Go Menu with these Things to Set Your Business Up for Success

The first thing that you need to do is look for a to go menu printing company. Make sure that they specialize in offset printing, and that they offer different folding options, sizes, and a thick paper stock. When you combine the to go menu with the following, you can set your food business up for success:

An effective menu

When you print pizza menus, for example, how many options are there? Studies show that seven is the ideal number where customers don’t feel overwhelmed with too many choices, while not thinking that they have limited choices, either.

An easy ordering process

How easy is it for a customer to order takeout in your food establishment? If you don’t have a dedicated takeout menu counter, make sure that there’s an assigned space in it inside your diner. It could be one side of the counter, or just a simple sign pointing to where your takeout menu is.

Good customer service

How friendly is your wait staff? Do they encourage hesitant customers to actually come into the restaurant and order food? Since their goal is to order takeout, the transaction should be quick and effortless – so make sure that you do offer good customer service.

Good food quality

Of course, you will not have any repeat customers if your food does not taste good. Although customers are paying for convenience, food is still your main product so it has to give them their money’s worth.

Sturdy packaging

You don’t want customers worrying about how they will carry the takeout boxes from your restaurant to their homes – so make sure that your food packaging is sturdy and attractive.

Getting orders right – the first time!

You have one chance to make a good first impression, so get the customer’s order right the first time. Train your staff to listen carefully to what the customer has to say, and to check the content of the box before packing it for takeout.

Food safety

This is a given for everyone in the food business: your products must be safe for consumption. Pay attention to quality, hygiene during food preparation, and make sure that the ingredients are from trusted sources.

By taking these things into account, you can have a successful venture into the takeout food business.

How To Go Menus are Modernizing the Way We Order Food

Fastfood restaurants, pizza parlors, diners, and even some fine dining establishments have latched on to the trend of having to go menus. Customers want everything to be fast and convenient these days. So if you do not offer takeout services in your food business, you are not necessarily getting this part of the market that is not fully tapped yet.

To Go Menu Printing Basics

Let’s say that you own a diner and you do allow customers to order takeout food – but you do not have a dedicated takeout menu yet. How can you make sure that when you print a to go menu, it will be something that will boost your sales and make hungry customers remember your brand? Here are a few tips:

Look for an offset printing company.

If you need to print pizza menus, takeout menus, business cards, or postcards, you can go for digital or offset printers. The problem with desktop digital printers is that they are not as fast or as high-quality as offset printers, so it is better to go with the latter.

Decide on the size of the menu.

Next, think about the size of your takeout menu. Some options are 8.5” x 11”, 8.5” x 14”, or 11” x 17”. There are different folding options available or you can have one jumbo menu that can also be a conversation starter in your diner. Depending on the design of the menu, it can be full-color or black-and-white with hand-drawn illustrations.

Make sure that the to go menu is concise, yet visually appealing.

No matter which size, paper type, or folding option you choose, it is important to spend time designing the menu. It must be visually appealing so use color wisely. There should also be a good balance between text and pictures, if you have any. The menu should not look too crowded that a customer feels overwhelmed with too many options. At the same time, it should not look too bare – so much so that a customer feels limited with very little choices.

Leave copies of your takeout menu in easily seen places in your dining establishment.

Don’t order just one or two copies of your takeout menu – the minimum order is usually 100 pieces from most printing companies. What will you do with such a number of menus? Leave them in strategic, easily seen places inside and just right outside your dining establishment. You can also have the delivery person include a takeout menu when they deliver food. This way, customers will have a copy of your menu and it will be easy for them to call and have food delivered, or order food from your diner and have it packed to go.

There’s no doubt that to go menus have modernized the way that customers order and consume food – so it’s best to take advantage of this trend while you can.

Where to Distribute Your To Go Menus

To go menus make for a great advertising material. If you don’t have dishes that customers can order to go yet, you are not tapping the maximum earning potential of your food business. People these days are always up and about and they want almost everything to be instantaneous. As such, they’d want to have delicious dishes that they can order quickly, to go.

Now, if you would like to print to go menus, you must look for a reliable printing service provider. You can actually take your pick from digital or offset printing. There are many digital printing services which make use of desktop printers, while there is a lesser number of offset printing presses available. Quality-wise, however, offset printing is far superior. If you want to print carry out menus, it’s better to go for offset printing – the investment will be well worth it in the end.

Next, how and where should you distribute these to-go menus? Here’s a quick list:

Place a to-go menu right outside your restaurant.

People get intimidated or shy at the thought of entering a restaurant without actually ordering anything. But what if they want to order something to go in the future? To make it easier for people to check out your food products and the prices, leave a basket with copies of your to-go menu right outside the restaurant. This way, they won’t have to ask the staff for a copy – and they won’t get one if they are not interested to buy. This is a win-win situation for the business owner and the customer.

Have your own staff distribute them to their personal and professional network.

Your waiters, dishwashers, chef, and all the other staff in your food business would have their own network of contacts. Families, friends, acquaintances from school, neighbors – the contacts of your employees will multiply and before you know it, your business’ popularity will soar simply through word of mouth and print advertising. Having your own staff distribute menus to the people they know is a very effective way of promoting your dining establishment.

Distribute to go menus to your suppliers, business partners, and other people you interact with.

When running a restaurant, you will deal with suppliers and other business owners on a regular basis. When doing a transaction, make sure to include a copy of your to-go menu to help spread the word about your business.

Include a copy of your menu on every to go food package.

Finally, you can broaden the reach of your to-go menu advertising by including one in every food package, doggie bag, pizza box, etc. Knowing where and how to distribute your to-go menu will help boost the sales of your food business.

Elements of a Great Design for To Go Menus

To go menus do not just add to the overall dining experience of a customer, but restaurant owners can also use them as an advertising tool. If you have a pizzeria, for example, you can print to go menus and distribute them to customers or suppliers. The more widespread the distribution is, the more well-known your food products would be. However, you do need to take into account that the menu should be cleverly designed. If the layout of your menu is a graphic designer’s nightmare, it will appear equally confusing and not visually appealing to your customers. Here, we will take a look at the design elements of an effective to go menu:

The ‘sweet spot’ on the menu.

Designers or layout artists of traditional menus think that the ‘sweet spot’ on a menu is the upper right hand corner – so this is where they place their bestsellers or the most profitable items. But new studies suggest that customers actually scan menus like they would a book – starting from the top left corner. As such, if you want your bestselling dishes to be the first one that a customer reads, place it on this exact spot.

The sectioning of the menu.

Next, make the menu easy to read by dividing it into logical sections. If you’re a fine dining restaurant and you would like to print carry out menus, divide it into sections so that the appetizers, main dishes, and desserts can be easily seen.

The prices on the menu.

People go to restaurants to eat and when you put the dollar sign before the price, they will feel the impact of the food that they’re ordering on their wallets. To avoid this, most menus are designed without the currency sign. You can also use a pricing strategy with cents – instead of 10.00, put a 9.95 tag price next to a dish so that customers will feel that they are not paying the full price for the item.

If you want to highlight a food item, you can change the font, use color or boxes. Match the look of your menu with the décor or the logo of your dining establishment. By following these tips, you can give your profit a boost with the help of a well-designed takeout menu.

Takeout Menu Printing: What You Need to Know

If you are in the food business, one of the many tasks that you need to undertake is takeout menu printing. There are a lot of hungry patrons who are always on the go and do not have time for a sit-down lunch or dinner – so they would always opt to buy food to go. If this is the case and you don’t have print to-go menus, then you are definitely missing out on the chance to earn more profit.

Quick Facts about To-Go Menus

The good news is that there are many companies like BlockbusterPrint.com which specializes in creating print to go menus and other printed products that you can use to advertise your business. If you have no idea about how you can have to go menus printed, here are a few quick facts about it:

To go menus must look visually appealing.

Imagine a couple walking into your restaurant who are so hungry. They’re in a hurry to have food served on their table, so they select the first thing that they see on the menu. If your menu is not that visually appealing, they can easily walk out and find another dining establishment. Why? Because you did not offer them anything enticing to look at in the first place. Most restaurant patrons rely on pictures when ordering food, so your go to menu must visually appeal to their taste buds.

The highlighted dishes should give customers an idea about the type of food you’re serving.

If you are offering all-day breakfast, the photo of a waffle with butter slathered in gooey syrup should be highlighted on the menu. If you are running a fine dining restaurant, a sophisticated plate with a mouth-watering, colorful dish can be featured. If you’re offering fusion dishes, an array of tempting dishes can take front and center on the menu. The same thing holds true for your takeout menu, which must offer delicious dishes and the convenience of ordering them to go.

There are different sizes and folding types available.

Companies like BlockbusterPrint.com offers menu printing services and for their line of takeout menus, there are four sizes and ten folding options to choose from. To make your to go menu visually arresting, full color HD printing is available.

When it comes to the food business, your menu plays a huge part in presenting your products to your customers, so make sure that it’s printed and presented the best way possible.

Takeout Menu Printing: Which Dishes Should I Highlight?

If you’re planning to scrimp on takeout menu printing, you might want to think twice. In the restaurant business, dine in and to-go menus play a huge part in selling the food that you’re offering to your restaurant or diner patrons. Hungry diners will rely on your menu when deciding which dishes to order, so you should know which items to highlight. That’s what we will learn more about here.

Before that, however, let us take a quick look at the role that menus play when it comes to selling food items in restaurants:

A menu can help boost sales in your restaurant. If you have new dishes to offer to your customers, you can update your menu and highlight what’s new. This way, you can retain the loyalty of your existing customers and attract new ones.
A menu can increase the frequency of orders, especially if it is printed in such a way that is visually appealing.
To go menus will give customers who are in a hurry or who don’t want to dine in a chance to sample your dishes in a convenient manner.

Tips for Choosing which Dishes to Highlight in Takeout Menu Printing

Next, what are the things that you need to remember when it comes to choosing the dishes to highlight in your print to go menus? Here are the top tips:

Choose professional-looking photos of your most popular dishes.

Visual appeal should be your primary consideration when having menus printed out – whether it’s for inside the restaurant or to go ordering. When you print to-go menus, make sure that the dishes pictured are a feast – both for the eyes and the taste buds.

Highlight the dishes which are quick to make.

People order items to go because they don’t have the time for a sit-down dinner. This is precisely why you should only highlight and include dishes which are quick to make in your takeout menu. Just imagine how frustrated a hungry diner would get if it takes you thirty minutes or so to prepare a popular dish!

Edit your to go menu in such a way that only the quick-to-make and profitable dishes are featured.

Lastly, edit your takeout menu by choosing only the dishes which are quick and easy to make, and are profitable. For example, egg rolls which are prepared beforehand takes only a few minutes to deep-fry, so it’s a popular order in Chinese takeout. The ingredients aren’t that expensive, either – so they end up being really lucrative for the restaurant owner.

By following these tips, you can have a takeout menu that will boost the sales in your food establishment.