Menu design ideas that make an impression.

When it comes to dining out, a restaurant’s menu sets the tone for the overall dining experience. More than merely a list of dishes, a restaurant menu card is an invitation that kickstarts a customer’s culinary journey. You don’t need to be a designer to create the perfect menu card for your new restaurant, food truck or cloud kitchen. Adobe Express has templates to spark creativity, or you can make your dream menu from scratch. Use these modern menu design ideas to make an impression.

Design a layout that guides and engages.

A well-crafted menu card balances creativity and functionality. It should mirror your restaurant’s brand with well-placed details such as restaurant logo, photos, icons and a list of food items, of course. Introduce your customers to your brand with your logo at the top of the menu, followed by a classic menu hierarchy of starters, soups and salads, main courses and desserts in a logical flow. A few thoughtfully arranged images of your dishes can add visual interest and help customers find their favourites quickly. If you’re short on space, combine text and images effortlessly by overlaying text on your images, or remove distracting backgrounds from images with the background remover.

Here are some examples to get you started.

• Use images of mouthwatering biriyani and raita along with an ornate gold and maroon colour scheme.

• For an authentic South Indian menu, a background of banana leaves with an image of idlis and dosas surrounded by bowls of coconut chutney is sure to be a crowd-puller.

• Bring your customers’ cravings for pav bhaji to life with a neon-lit Mumbai skyline or city lights motif with an image of your dish in the foreground.

• Make your Irani chai the hero of your menu with a black, brown and white colour scheme complimenting a steaming cup of chai and a scattering of biscuits and bun maska illustrations.

Create visually distinctive menus for easy ordering.

A cluttered menu can be overwhelming. Keep your menu succinct and designed for easy ordering with colours, patterns and other visually distinctive elements. For example, for lunch menu ideas, separate your dishes from the rest of the menu with a thali-themed background so it’s easy to navigate and structured for quick decisions. If your restaurant serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, consider creating individual menus for each meal to avoid overcrowding.

Here are other ways to make your menu more visually distinctive.

• Separate your signature dishes by colour, e.g. warm backgrounds and font colours for curries, greens for vegetarian and vibrant reds or oranges for samosas and vada pavs.

• Highlight specials or signature dishes with borders or frames to make them stand out without overpowering the menu.

• Simplify ordering for the little ones with the Adobe Express kids’ menu templates.

• Feature kachori, pastries, chais and other last indulgences with a modern background or vintage-style typography.

How to make the most of these menu ideas.

Include icons to mark food preferences.

For many diners, food choices aren't just about preference; they’re about health, lifestyle or deeply held beliefs. Whether someone is gluten-free, vegan, vegetarian or has specific food allergies, communicating these options on menu cards and for online orders makes all the difference. Adobe Express makes it easy to find the right icons for restaurants, cafes and cloud kitchens – simply tap Elements and search for a particular icon using terms like “gluten-free” or “vegetarian”. You can also use the text option to create stickers or speech bubbles that match your menu style.

Enhance convenience with QR codes.

The adoption of digital menus has surged in recent years. If you want to create a modern, interactive menu, generate a QR code in Adobe Express and include it on your website. You can make your whole menu digital by placing a poster at the entrance to your restaurant, on your tables or on the outside of your food truck. When you have an online menu linked to a QR code, it’s easy to promote your bestselling dishes, add chef recommendations, regional origins or even fun videos of how you make your most popular dishes. You can also update prices, add new dishes, feature celebrity or influencer endorsements, and offer discounts and loyalty programs to retain your customers.

Tips to inspire your new menu.

• Find the right-sized menu for your restaurant. There’s no right or wrong size for menu card design ideas, but a good rule of thumb is less is more. Oversized menus can be cumbersome, so design yours to fit comfortably on your tables. Including all ordering details on a single portrait page is preferable so as not to overwhelm your customers. If you need more space, a foldable arrangement works well, or digital menus with QR codes are popular for flexibility.

• Use high-quality images for impact. Along with your creative menu design ideas, image quality is paramount on a menu card, particularly if you include photos of your meals. Use the Adobe Express image enhancer to improve essential details such as contrast, brightness and saturation. Use the photo effects editor to isolate images of dishes from distracting backgrounds.

• Add the right typography. When working on your restaurant menu ideas, blend readability with aesthetics by choosing the correct font. Adobe Express has many font choices to suit any menu style, such as hand-written fonts for a personal touch and modern fonts to keep things sleek and sophisticated.

• Choose appetising colours. The right colour theme sets the tone for your menu and makes it easy for patrons to read. Dark text on a light background or vice versa helps diners focus on essential details. You can match your menu colours with your logo or tap into colour psychology for colour ideas. Warm colours such as red, orange and yellow are known to spark energy, excitement and appetite. While cool colours such as blue and green are associated with calmness and tranquillity. For example, reflect the warmth and energy of pav bhaji with fiery reds and spicy oranges. For a traditional Rajasthani thali, yellow or royal blue work well along with intricate border designs or illustrations of folk art. Whichever direction you choose, it’s easy to experiment and edit different colour combinations with Adobe Express.

• Adobe Express is free to use. Adobe Express provides a free plan that you can start using immediately. Get access to many of the amazing features of the paid plans from Adobe Express for free, including professionally designed templates, Adobe fonts and royalty-free media. See our plans and pricing. Adobe Express is packed full of resources like our amazing blog where we share helpful tips, tutorials, ready-to-use templates and graphic design inspiration for social media, marketing and content creators.