Restaurant menus are like delicious maps, guiding your customers through a culinary journey. While chefs are mastering the delicate art of food wizardry, we’ve been busy putting together menu templates to beautifully present your food. Pair one of these designer-made menu templates with your five-star love on a plate to make a stunning first impression on diners. Plus, when you use one of PicMonkey’s multi-page menu templates or our multi-page tools, you can create beautiful, customization-friendly restaurant menus in minutes!
Read on for all the deets about using PicMonkey's multi-page menu templates and tools, a look at menu templates for all sorts of menu types (a la carte, static, du jour, cycle, prix fixe, etc.), as well as some nifty restaurant menu design tips!
Using multi-page menu templates in PicMonkey
1. Open a multi-page menu template in PicMonkey (any template with a number in its bottom left corner is a multi-page design!).
2. Click Add both pages to add the template to your canvas.
3. Swap out text with your own. Customize your design with images, graphics, colors, and fonts.
4. Need more pages? In the bottom right corner, click Pages to add another page to your design (you can have up to 30 pages). Or, duplicate a current page in order to preserve your overall look.
5. Download as a PDF* for easy printing, or as a video/GIF file to display on your restaurant’s website! Your design will also auto-save in Hub (cloud storage) so you can return to it at any time.
*Pro and Business subscribers can download multi-page designs as PDFs. If you have a Basic subscription, your design will download as a ZIP folder with individual page files.
Creating multiple pages from a single menu template
Really vibing with one of our single-page menu templates but need multiple pages? No worries. A few extra clicks are all that stand between you and a multi-page menu!
1. Open a single-page menu template in PicMonkey.
2. Swap out text with your own and customize your design with images, graphics, colors, and fonts.
4. In the bottom right corner, click Pages to add a page to your design.
5. When finished, download for use. Remember — your design will also auto-save in Hub so you can return to it at any time.
If you’d rather start from scratch, use one of our blank canvases to create exactly the kind of look you want to achieve. We talk through this in another article, Brochure Design: Make a Tri-fold or a Digital Brochure. After all, menus are essentially culinary brochures, aren’t they?
What follows are a few of our customizable menu templates, organized by popular menu type. Note that these templates are meant to be malleable — they can fit plenty of different menus!
Menu templates for a la carte menus
Since a la carte menus are all about individual eats, this menu helps create distinct itemization. Bold font coloring contrasts nicely with a soft background. Short text blurbs still allow you to add tantalizing details about each offering. Consider this template a go-to for minimalistic design.
Another great option for a la carte menus, given the premade sections. Just add your own delectable dishes! This is also the perfect template for showing off your logo. The template is minimalistic by design, but offers a refined look for your menu.
Menu templates for static menus
If you have a large menu that doesn’t change too much, you can use this template (along with our multi-page tools) to not only organize your dishes, but also show off breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus.
Here’s another design that, when coupled with multi-page tools, is great for a large static menu. And if that same menu craves an elegant look, then this does just that. Floral graphics add dimension to the design, and the soft colors lend themselves well to a health-conscious menu cuz we all know leafy greens = healthy.
Menu templates for du jour menus
Despite being designed as a cocktail menu, this template translates nicely to being used as a du jour menu. If you have a du jour menu as an accompaniment to a static menu, keep this design handy. Given its simple list, you can easily customize each day and use it in-house or display digitally on your website.
Similar story here — cocktail templates work very well for du jour menus given their small-scale design. Unlike the one above, this template is a bit “louder” in its coloring and font types. You can alter both to match your restaurant’s voice.
Menu templates for cycle menus
Operating solely on a cycle menu? Use this template to organize your day-to-day offerings. Or, if you have a modest static menu with a cycle component, you can feature it as a changeable section on your standard menu.
Not only can this template function as a cycle menu or highlight a cycle component, it’s also a strong design choice if you have a very unique or recognizable logo and want to include it on your menu.
Menu templates for prix fixe menus
One of the nice things about this template is that you can advertise drinks and food. If you offer wine pairings with your fixed menu, why not put them side-by-side?
Use this template to give customers a sneak peek at what’s in store come mealtime. Your fixed menu goes on the right, and a mouth-watering picture of something from your menu takes the spotlight on the left.
This multi-page design is a beautiful way to show off beautiful food before it ever hits the plate. Pair with an enticing prix fixe menu on the second page.
Menu templates for drink menus
Add a bit of modern elegance to your cocktail menu with this template. Simple design allows your finely crafted drinks to be the stars of your menu. Cheers!
This multi-page menu template can be printed, folded, and distributed as a marketing tool or used in-house. It’ll also work beautifully as a digital menu on your restaurant’s website. Weave together your story and menu offerings with this unique design.
Menu templates for marketing & delivery
These multi-page menu templates lend themselves well to hand-out-ability. Use one as marketing collateral, include it with delivery orders so that customers don't have to search the next time they want a taste of your food, and feature it on your restaurant's website as a digital menu!
Restaurant menu design tips
Designing a restaurant menu for the first time? We’re sure your food is incredible with a capital YUM! Here are a few design tips to give your customers a great experience before they even taste your food.
1. Use sections to add organization to your menu
Studies have been conducted on how diners read restaurant menus (if you’re interested in some further reading). There’s not a general consensus on any one way that menus are read, but the easier yours is to navigate, the better. Hence the need to organize your menu in a friendly way.
You probably noticed that most of our templates (particularly those for larger menus) are organized by type of food, type of dish, etc. Structure your menu any which way you want, just make sure that your choices are divvied up in a logical manner that’ll make sense to diners and help them quickly figure out what they can’t wait to taste.
2. Consider how white space creates a cleaner reading experience
White space also helps improve a menu’s readability. We have a lot of white space in play with our templates. The Elegant Lunch Menu template is an especially strong example of using white space to create strong readability and showcase what really matters on a menu — your food!
3. Avoid using dollar signs with your prices
Cornell University published a study way back in 2009 that spoke to not using dollar signs with prices on a menu. The reason’s pretty straightforward — simply seeing $ by a dish’s price has a psychological effect on a diner. There’s a slight negative connotation with seeing a dollar sign. We’re reminded that we are about to pay for something and, suddenly, that something seems a whole lot more expensive!
4. Utilize friendly font pairings for visual cohesion and easy readability
Font pairings are a big deal. Not only can they affect readability, but they’re also representative of your brand and will add some calligraphic flavor to your menu.
For a quick crash course on font pairings, start with our article, How to Use Font Pairings Like a Pro. This’ll show you what fonts are available in PicMonkey, as well as how to use them. Then, jump over to 30 Font Pairings for All Your Designs. Here you’ll find tons of font pairing inspiration. You can always stick with the fonts on our menu templates, but you might also find a pairing that fits better with your brand! Our Pro-level subscription lets you upload your own fonts to make branding all your marketing assets a breeze.
5. Showcase images only when appropriate
While it’s recommended to avoid populating your menu with too many images, you can always show off a couple of marquee dishes so long as they don’t clutter up the menu. If you choose to highlight a dish or present a photo on your menu, use our powerful photo editing tools to make it look chef’s kiss perfect!