This article contains a long list of examples of menus for restaurants and other food businesses you can study for inspiration on how to design yours. All food menu examples listed here are world-class designs that your diners/guests/customers will appreciate.
You should understand that using the wrong design/template for your food business can affect readability. For example, if your restaurant sells up to 30 different dishes and you give it a wedding menu layout, you’ll be forced to use a tiny font size to describe the dishes, which can be difficult for customers to read accurately.
That said, let’s dive in!
Fine Dining Food Menu Examples
Fine dining restaurants differ from casual dining options in that the food is served in a luxurious setting. In most cases, its cuisine entails creative twists not seen in typical restaurants, and we believe its menu should exude a similar feel.
With that out of the way, let’s examine various fine dining food menu examples.
1. American Fine Dining Menu
Your American fine dining menu can have an off-white theme and brown text. The bulk of the colours can vary, but they can generally appear dark, such as a combination of light red and dark red. With your restaurant’s name written in large fonts at the top, the menu can be divided into two columns and the dishes arranged in rows. One or two pictures can come at the end of the columns.
2. British Fine Dining Menu
An example of a stunning British fine dining menu is one with a simple and clear design. The menu heading is at the centre top, and the layout is divided into groups, each with a heading and description. Under each group are menu items with emboldened titles, brief descriptions, and prices.
3. Chinese Fine Dining Menu
The template designs of Chinese fine dining food menu examples can use various styles and layouts. For example, you can have a light background and dark text for proper contrast. You can also place the title of your menu near the top left corner of the theme. Item titles can be written in English with a Chinese translation in front of it or vice versa.
4. French Fine Dining Menu
This French fine dining menu template displays many items, so it doesn’t use pictures due to a lack of space. However, pictures can accompany each menu item if you sell fewer items. As for this menu example, it has a light grey background and dark font. The titles are a bit, so they’re emboldened and separated from the description. Prices are listed to the far right of the titles but not in ascending or descending order of magnitude.
5. Italian Fine Dining Menu
This Italian fine dining menu separates various dishes according to groups. One reason for this is that it contains a relatively high number of dishes. Each group is further divided into two columns. The items have emboldened titles and short two-line descriptions. As usual, prices are indicated to the right of the title, but they can also come below it, depending on your preference.
6. Japanese Fine Dining Menu
Fine dining menus need to look unique, and the Japanese type is no exception — that’s because they advertise exceptional food. However, that it’s special doesn’t mean you should add extra design elements until the menu appears overwhelming. Examples of menus for restaurants in the Japanese fine dining niche may only present one or two images of flowers and the restaurant’s logo, a heading, and brief descriptions of different dishes. This is an excellent template for Japanese fine dining restaurants.
7. Mexican Fine Dining Menu
This Mexican fine dining menu template has the dishes arranged in a single row and separated by straight lines. The titles are emboldened, descriptions are restricted to a single line, and prices are listed at the far right of the titles. It has a cream-coloured background with brown textual content.
8. Seafood Fine Dining Menu
While this menu template is one of the simplest designs on Menuzen, the speciality of its dishes demands a more detailed description. The menu has a seafood logo, followed by the restaurant’s name. Items are organised in a list but without using any images due to the relatively substantial number of dishes and longer descriptions. The prices can be indicated to the far right of a dish’s title, and foods are divided into similar groups.
9. Thai Fine Dining Menu
Thai fine dining food menu examples can have a light theme with coloured text. The title sits towards the top right-hand corner of the theme, and the menu is broken up into three sections. Each menu item has a heading and description aligned to the left and prices to the right. Menu items are arranged in rows under each group and divided by horizontal lines. The various menu items and descriptions have English and Thai texts.
Food Menu Examples for Food Trucks
Here, we present menu examples for mobile food businesses that are fast becoming a new trend.
10. American Food Truck Menu
Food truck menu templates have some features in common regardless of your business’s location. They don’t have many food items due to the limited space in a food truck, so designers can afford to add plenty of extra decorations to the menu. However, some can have up to 10 different menu items. This menu example shows a light background with red boxes, food pictures, and brief item descriptions, among other interesting features.
11. Dessert Food Truck Menu
This menu example is for a mobile food business that sells a small variety of dishes. It is aesthetic due to the artful combination of colours and some flowery patterns. You can afford these extra design features due to the abundance of space you have to showcase just a few dishes. The menu has a simple design; items are arranged in rows with pictures, prices, and descriptions providing more details.
12. Indian Food Truck Menu
Indian food trucks are a niche business, so there aren’t many suitable menu templates on the internet. Thankfully, Menuzen has encompassing food menu examples you can use for any Indian food truck business. The designs are simple yet elegant and aesthetic. You can lay out the menu in two columns of small boxes. Each box carries the menu item’s name, picture, description, and price.
13. Mexican Food Truck Menu
Your Mexican food truck menu will likely contain just a few items since food trucks don’t carry much food. The example here shows an elegant design with a title, stylish font, and boxes containing various food descriptions. It’s also divided into categories; each food item has an accompanying picture. The theme can be light with coloured text or dark with white text. Other colour combinations are also possible.
14. Thai Food Truck Menu
Menu designs that use boxes can have different layouts. For example, the first few boxes can be arranged into two or more rows, and subsequent boxes can reach from one side to the other. Your titles can be aligned to the left and emboldened, with prices to their far right, food images to the left, and textual descriptions under the titles.
Examples of Menus for Restaurants That Are Region-Specific
In the earlier parts of this post, we examined several fine dining restaurant menu examples that are all specific to certain countries’ cuisine. Now, let’s see those examples of menus for restaurants and other food businesses whose cuisines are tailored to particular regions.
15. Asian Food Menu
Asian food menus are easy to create with Menuzen. An example is this simple but elegant design that contains just a few items. This design is for online display, but you may use it in paper form. The items are arranged according to categories listed toward the top of the menu. Each category has several dishes since Asian restaurants usually have a wide range of dishes.
16. Brazilian BBQ Menu
This simple menu design has a light-dark background and white text for headings and descriptions. The items are grouped and arranged in rows of twos, while each item is described in a box. A food picture appears to the right, titles at the top and prices to the far right of the titles. Descriptions are more detailed here, each item having about two lines of descriptive text
17. Casual Greek Menu
Here’s another one of our beautiful examples of menus for restaurants with a pretty clean layout featuring a light grey background and dark font. The template is divided into drinks and dishes, where the dishes have detailed descriptions, perhaps due to their complex nature. Prices are also arranged in a single column to the right of the menu items. Each dish has an emboldened title and a short description.
18. Modern Australian Menu
This menu template has a simple design with light text on a dark background. All the dishes are arranged in one column to the left, with prices on the far right. The menu is also divided into groups of similar items, with each item having a title and brief description. While this is a great menu example, arranging the items in ascending or descending order of prices is a mistake you should avoid.
19. Modern Indian Menu
Your modern Indian menu template can have a simple design like the one displayed here. The background is pale pink, and the writing is a darker colour. Items are arranged around the menu’s centre and divided into categories like starters, mains, etc. Titles are emboldened, and a brief description follows and then the price. This design has lots of empty space, making it more readable, although that’s not the only readability factor at play.
Menu Examples With Pictures for Events and Festivities
If you run a food business that caters to different events or simply want to offer seasonal food options at your restaurant, the following food menus are for you.
20. Birthday Menu
This menu template example shows a fun theme embellished with several decorative illustrations. The presiding colour here is pink, and the menu has the words “Happy Birthday” written at the top, followed by the celebrant’s name right under: “Mila’s Awesome Party.” The menu is pretty straightforward to navigate, primarily due to the minimal dishes presented. Each dish has a short description and is grouped into either starters, mains, or sweets.
21. Catering Menu
This catering menu example with pictures shows a simple layout that clearly displays the food items attendees can order. The menu is usually short due to fewer items, and you can afford to introduce some fancy designs. There’s no need for individual food prices, so you don’t have to arrange food items and prices in separate columns. The theme colour can be light, dark, or something in-between.
22. Chinese New Year Menu
This menu can be simple yet attractive due to clever combinations of colours, fonts, and pictures. Having flowers in the background of a Chinese menu is commonly seen, especially since the menu is for a celebration. Headings and descriptive texts can have both Chinese and English versions, and the descriptive text is usually relatively short and precise so that the menu can accommodate many items.
23. Wedding Menu
This wedding menu example with pictures is perfect for any kind of wedding. It’s usually a simple menu design without pictures, prices, or even descriptive texts, save for the name of the newlywed couple at the top. Some flowery artwork in the background, light colour combinations, and little textual content can usually provide the perfect visual impression for a wedding menu.
Other Examples of Menus for Restaurants and Food Businesses
Below are examples of food menus we couldn’t place in a particular category. They span several food business types like bars, tea spots, fast food joints, etc.
24. Afternoon Tea Menu
Your afternoon tea menu can have a theme colour similar to tea’s and light-coloured texts describing the various options available. This menu needn’t have many items, and you can use lots of flowers in the design’s background to make it as aesthetic as possible. Your tea spot’s name can be at the top, with your logo just below it. Since this menu typically has fewer items, you can provide a more detailed description of the teas, sandwiches, scones, and cakes available.
25. Bakery Menu
This is one of those examples of menus for restaurants that you can design in different ways. The overall layout can be simple or advanced. The title of your menu can be at the top centre or top left corner, and you may divide the menu into groups of similar items, such as pastries, slices, cakes, etc. Each item could be placed in a box featuring its picture, emboldened title, descriptions and prices.
26. Bubble Tea Menu
This bubble tea menu template features a light brown background, with texts presented in dark brown text. The business’s name and logo are clearly indicated at the top, while the various offerings are categorised into several groups, like fruit tea, milk tea, fusion tea, etc. This menu has a lot of space due to the few tea options, and each menu item’s price is placed underneath the title.
27. Cafe Menu
The cafe menu template is usually a simple design that lists the various dishes instead of using categories. However, you can create a cafe menu divided into groups of similar items, like breakfast and lunch. This cafe menu example with pictures presents a unique design for any kind of cafe. It’s beautiful to look at, and the design leaves enough space for detailed descriptions of the dishes.
28. Cocktail Bar Menu
This cocktail bar menu template has a moderate number of items, but yours can have a longer list. Since cocktail bars may need to display exactly what the customer gets, you may want to use pictures for every menu item displayed. A light pink background coupled with dark text is fine for readability, but the font should be pretty clear. Like other menu examples, you can arrange the dishes in a single row with prices after the titles.
29. Fried Chicken Menu
You can give the theme a light background with dark font and fancy designs. The extent to which you’ll add optional design features depends on the menu’s number of items. Menus that use less artwork are more legible and don’t give customers the feeling of chaos that congested menus create. However, you may consider including images of the chicken dishes in your final menu design.
30. Ice Cream Menu
This menu template has a light pink theme with stylish blue prints. It’s the kind of menu you can see in ice cream shops worldwide. Due to the few items such menus usually contain, there’s lots of space for creative designs without undermining readability. The items are listed down the centre with one-line textual descriptions and emboldened prices written directly below the descriptions. Items are grouped into categories like scoops, sundaes, and toppings for easy navigation.
31. Poke Bowl Menu
This is one of those simple food menu examples with a light background featuring an image of veggies. The menu has a few items arranged in rows of twos and placed in different categories. Menu options are placed in boxes, with prices at the right of the items’ titles. This menu template allows customers to select from typical poke bowl dishes or build their meals from scratch.
32. Simple Menu
This can be a simple but elegant design that’s pleasing to look at without the menu items clouding one’s mind. Your dishes can be described in two lines with a title and prices written in front of the titles, down a separate column. The categories in this menu template include breakfast and luck; feel free to tweak them to match your offerings. You may choose to eliminate the currency symbols but be sure not to arrange the items in order of price magnitude.
33. Smoothie Bar Menu
One of Menuzen’s most beautiful menu templates is the smoothie bar template. Like many other menus on this platform, it’s designed to contain few dishes. The background is eye-catching and uses several colours for the font, as fruits have several colours. The titles of the items and prices are emboldened, and the descriptions are short and precise.
34. Sushi Menu
This is one of those simple and clear examples of menus for restaurants that have boxes and lines to divide the various items. It has a light pink theme, and the title is emboldened, sitting towards the top left corner. The dishes are divided into groups, like nigiri, sushi rolls, etc., each containing several boxes that house the menu items. You can add pictures in the boxes alongside descriptive texts, titles and prices to the far right of the title.
35. Takeaway Pizza Menu
This menu is also straightforward to design using Menuzen. You can give yours a light-coloured background with dark text and even include a logo at the top left-hand corner of the menu. You may organise your items in simple boxes featuring pictures, titles, descriptions, and prices. You may also include a sides section after listing all your pizza offerings.
Conclusion
In this article, we’ve presented or described a list of 35 menu templates you can use for different food businesses worldwide. This isn’t an exhaustive compilation of the free menu templates on Menuzen, but it should offer enough inspiration to design your own world-class layout. All examples of menus for restaurants and other food businesses described here can be extensively modified to suit your brand. However, ensure you use the correct layout for your restaurant, cafe, food truck, etc.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the examples of menus?
Examples of menus are the menu templates you’d find on many websites and menu platforms such as Menuzen. They serve an advertising role for menu platforms and are sources of inspiration for your own menu design. By studying these examples, you’ll get a clearer concept of how your restaurant menu should look.
What are standard menu items?
Standard menu items are those foods that are most common in a restaurant. People typically remember a restaurant for its standard foods, including how they’re prepared. The foods you intend to sell almost every working day are your standard foods — those menu items without which your restaurant/food business wouldn’t operate.
How do you write a menu list?
A lot of thought and calculation goes into thinking out the dishes for your restaurant. You ought to first do a great deal of menu planning, which involves researching your competitors, customers, market segment, etc. and coming up with the hottest dishes in your restaurant’s neighbourhood as well as other special dishes. You must also list the most profitable dishes first because they’ll occupy strategic locations on your menu, as discussed in our guide on how to cost a menu.
How many menu items should a restaurant have?
The recommended range for all restaurants is between 7 and 32 menu items. Below this range is considered insufficient, and you might not have many customers. Similarly, above the range is considered overwhelming for customers, as it may make it challenging for them to choose a meal.