Your Restaurant’s Online Menu: 6 Things to Make Easier

Your Restaurant’s Online Menu: 6 Things to Make Easier

Okay, so imagine someone’s trying to decide where to eat tonight. They’ve heard good things about your restaurant, your food looks great in the photos, and they pull up your website to see what they might order.

Then they open the menu, and it’s a photo of a printed page. The text is tiny, so they zoom in. Now the prices are off the side of the screen, and they’re dragging everything around trying to figure out what comes with the sandwich.

They were interested enough to look you up, and now they’re having to work pretty hard to decide on dinner.

It’s easy to miss this when you’re the one running the business. You know what’s on the menu, and you know where to find it. So when someone asks whether your menu is online, the answer is yes, and you move on to the next thing that needs your attention.

But I think it’s worth taking that one step further and looking at what it’s actually like to use.

In its April 2025 Off-Premises Restaurant Trends report, the National Restaurant Association reported that 37% of adults order delivery weekly. It also identified easy-to-use ordering and payment technology as one of the essentials for repeat off-premises business.

What that means for a restaurant owner is that the experience of choosing and ordering food deserves some attention alongside the food itself. Your online menu is a good place to start, and there are a few things I’d look at first.

1. Let people look at the menu before they start an order

Someone clicking on your menu might still be figuring out whether they want to eat there. They could be checking prices, looking for something their kids will eat, or seeing whether it works for a group.

Let them do that without having to choose a pickup time or start an order first.

I’d put a clearly labeled “Menu” link in your website’s main navigation, which is the list of links people use to get around your site. Then make sure it’s easy to find on a phone, too. You can have an “Order Online” button nearby for people who are ready.

And if you have different menus, be specific about which one they’re opening. Labels like “Lunch,” “Dinner,” and “Sunday Brunch” help someone get to the right information quickly.

The same goes for availability. If that brunch menu is only offered on Sundays until 2 p.m., put that information right there with it. Someone shouldn’t have to call to find out whether they can order the thing they’re looking at.

If you have more than one location, make that clear as well, especially if the menus differ.

2. Make sure it’s actually easy to read on a phone

A printed menu and a phone screen give you very different amounts of space to work with. Something that looks beautiful sitting on the table can be frustrating when it’s squeezed onto a screen.

So my recommendation would be to put the dishes, descriptions, and prices directly on a webpage as actual text.

What I mean by that is text someone can select and enlarge, with a layout that adjusts to their screen. Your designer can still use your fonts, colors, and overall style. You have plenty of room to make it feel like your restaurant!

There’s an accessibility reason for this, too. W3C, the organization behind widely used web accessibility guidance, explains that real text can be enlarged without losing clarity. A picture of text can become blurry, and it gives people fewer ways to adjust how they read it.

The layout matters alongside the text. When someone enlarges it, the words should fit the available space so they can keep reading down the page. Having to slide back and forth to finish every line

makes reading harder. That’s the idea behind what accessibility guidance calls “reflow.”

You can keep a downloadable menu for people who want to print it. I’d give them a readable webpage to browse first, with the download available as an option.

And for clarity, Google can index PDFs. Having one doesn’t automatically mean your menu can’t appear in search. My concern here is whether someone can comfortably use what they’ve opened.

3. Explain the things a new customer wouldn’t already know

A regular might know exactly what your house sandwich comes with. Someone who’s never eaten there is going to need a little more information.

You can absolutely keep the fun names on your menu. Just give people a short description so they know what they’re choosing.

Let’s say a café has a sandwich called the “Garden Party.” That could mean quite a few things! Adding “roasted vegetables, whipped feta, and herb dressing on toasted sourdough” gives someone a much better idea of whether they’d like it.

Think about the little details people ask your team throughout the day. If customers regularly want to know whether fries are included or how many people a family meal feeds, those are good things to explain on the menu.

Show current prices, too, and make any choices that change the price clear. If adding a side costs extra, someone should be able to see that while they’re deciding.

For dietary labels, make sure your team has confirmed what you’re saying is accurate, and give people a way to ask about ingredients or preparation.

You don’t have to guess what’s missing. Ask the person who takes phone orders which questions they answer over and over. That’s a pretty useful starting point.

4. Have a plan for updating all the places your menu lives

This is the part that can get away from you when you’re busy.

You change a price on the printed menu and update the ordering system, but there’s still an older version on your website. Meanwhile, someone’s looking at a menu photo on Google and expecting a dish you stopped serving months ago.

I’d start by writing down every place your business manages a menu:

• Your website, including any downloadable files.

• Your online ordering system.

• Your Google Business Profile.

• Delivery platforms and other listings you control.

Then decide who’s responsible for checking those places when something changes. Even if that person is you, having the list means you’re less likely to forget one.

It also helps to have one place where your team keeps the current, approved menu information. That could be the system you already use or a shared document everyone knows to check.

Google has tools for managing menu items, descriptions, prices, and your menu link. Depending on your setup, you might also be able to choose a preferred menu when Google finds more than one version.

Updating your website won’t necessarily update those other places. Unless you know the systems are connected and syncing correctly, check each one.

If you’re adding seasonal dishes or taking holiday catering orders, this is a good time to go through that list and make sure the information people are finding is current.

5. Make it obvious how to order, book, or ask a question

Once someone finds something they want, the next step should be easy to spot.

For your restaurant, that might be “Order Pickup,” “Reserve a Table,” or “Ask About Catering.” Use wording that tells people what they’ll be able to do when they click.

Then think about what they need to know to follow through. If they’re ordering pickup, make sure the location is clear. If they’re asking about catering, explain how far ahead they need to get in touch and whether you offer pickup, delivery, or setup.

These details can save someone from starting a process that won’t work for what they need.

And please, click your own buttons occasionally! If you send people to an outside ordering or reservation service, check that they land at the right restaurant and location. Go through enough of the process to see whether the hours, menu, and options line up with your website.

If you take orders by phone, that’s useful information to put right on the menu page. Make the number easy to tap so someone can call from their phone.

You can build this around the way you already run your business. The goal is for a customer to understand what to do next.

6. Let someone else try it without helping them

You’re probably not going to notice every confusing part of your own website. You already know where everything is, so you can get through it pretty easily.

Ask someone who hasn’t used it before to find a meal they’d order, figure out what it costs and what’s included, and show you how they’d order it or plan a visit.

Then let them try.

It’s tempting to jump in with, “Oh, you have to click that other button,” but give them a minute. The point where you want to explain something is probably a point worth looking at.

Maybe they opened the wrong menu. Maybe they couldn’t tell whether a side was included. Maybe the ordering button was so far down the page that they never saw it.

Now you have something specific to fix.

Keep paying attention to the questions that come in by phone and message, too. If the same thing keeps coming up, see whether you can make the answer easier to find.

If you track menu views or clicks on your ordering button, those numbers can add context. A click tells you someone took that step; you’ll need completed-order information to see whether they actually bought something.

Give your menu a look from the customer’s side

There’s a lot that goes into running a restaurant, and I know your online menu is probably one item on a very long list.

But it’s also something people use to decide whether to spend money with you. They’re checking whether the food sounds good, whether it fits their budget, and whether everyone coming with them can find something they’d enjoy.

Helping them answer those things is part of taking care of them before they ever walk through the door.

That’s a big part of how I think about website design. I want the site to feel like your business and help people do the things they came there to do. For a restaurant, a clear, useful menu is a pretty important part of that.

So if you have a few minutes this week, pull yours up on your phone and look through it as if you’ve never eaten there before. You might find something you can make easier right away! And if your restaurant’s website needs some help, I’d love to hear about it.