Table of Contents
- Elements of a Good Breakfast Menu
- Vintage Breakfast Menu Template
- Breakfast Menu Template
- Breakfast Party Menu Template
- Simple Breakfast Menu Template
- Free Sample Breakfast Menu Template
- Minimalist Breakfast Menu Sample
- Breakfast Menu Booklet Sample
- Card-Style Breakfast Menu Sample
- Bar and Grill Breakfast Menu Example
- Classic Breakfast Menu Example
- Cardboard Breakfast Menu Sample
- Restaurant Breakfast Menu Sample
- How to Make a Great Breakfast Menu (4 Steps)
- Tips for a Great Breakfast Menu
- Types of Breakfast Menu
- Breakfast Menu Template Sizes
- Breakfast Menu FAQs
- Where should I place my high-profit breakfast meals on my menu?
- Should I put a currency sign on the prices of my menu?
Breakfast Menu
Claiming that breakfast is the most important meal of the day is debatable, as some have been saying that this was just a buzz made by breakfast cereal companies to boost their sales. If you also ever happen to be able to ask ten dietitians regarding the truth of this line, five will tell you that it is true while the other five will tell you that it isn’t. But despite these controversies and discrepancies, what remains for certain is that breakfast meals are definitely one of the most delicious kinds of food.
Restaurants, in dedicating a separate list for these morning goodies, often come up with a separate menu for their breakfast meals. Designing this menu is not that different from coming up with other types of menus with a little bit of tweaking here and there. If you’re ever planning to come up with a breakfast menu for your restaurant or tasked to make one, then this article, with its wide selection of menu templates and samples you can use, will be your helpful guide.
Elements of a Good Breakfast Menu
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1. Menu Items:
What is a breakfast menu without the selection of breakfast food? The names of the food you list down in your menu let the customers know what your restaurant offers for breakfast. In most cases, the food is grouped into broad categories so the customers can easily pinpoint their location in the menu.
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2. Food Description:
Some food is typically well-known that they do not need a description, but if you think that the food is not typically heard of, then insert a short description of the item, specifically their key ingredients.
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3. Price:
This is the cost of the food items in your menu. Most customers order food according to what they can afford and not what they like, so putting in the prices in your menu is an element you don’t want to miss out.
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4. Pictures:
A menu without pictures is just a boring price list of your restaurant. Customers come in hungry at your place and you might want to take advantage of that fact by teasing their appetite more with pictures. However, this does not really mean that you have to put a lot of pictures in your menu, just put enough that you can still list down all your food items while maintaining a good budget on white space.
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5. Menu Layout/Design:
This is the graphical aspect of your menu that should reflect on the vibe of your restaurant. Since this is for a breakfast menu, choose a design that strikes a balance between your restaurant theme and breakfast theme.
Vintage Breakfast Menu Template
Breakfast Menu Template
Breakfast Party Menu Template
Simple Breakfast Menu Template
Free Sample Breakfast Menu Template
Minimalist Breakfast Menu Sample
Breakfast Menu Booklet Sample
Card-Style Breakfast Menu Sample
Bar and Grill Breakfast Menu Example
Classic Breakfast Menu Example
Cardboard Breakfast Menu Sample
Restaurant Breakfast Menu Sample
How to Make a Great Breakfast Menu (4 Steps)
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Step 1: Conceptualizing the basics of your breakfast menu.
The food items in your breakfast menu should be a balance between some common dishes and fresh food trends. It must have the right cost for the customers while still enabling you to earn a profit for your business. List down all food that you offer as your menu items and group them according to a certain subgroup of food.
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Step 2: Coming up with the cost.
It takes a lot of math to come up with a cost estimate for each of your food. You have to take into consideration the expenses you incurred in buying the ingredients, the wage of your workers, and how large the portions should be. To ensure profit, vary your prices and have some expensive and inexpensive items. Consult financial experts to determine what price you should go along with.
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Step 3: Writing the menu descriptions.
The menu descriptions of your food items should be more than an informative read for your customers. It must be enticing enough to make the customer want to order the food. Always include the main ingredients of your food and add the flair in naming if necessary, however, keep it understandable and concise.
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Step 4: Laying out your menu.
Remember that the layout is the reflection of your restaurant, and since this is a breakfast menu you are making, you should also take into consideration the design elements that relate to morning and breakfast. Put everything you came up within the preceding steps and tie it all in according to your decided theme. The typography also plays a great deal in your menu, so make sure that your food items and prices are readable. When it comes to pictures, use it sparingly, meaning two to five pictures of your best meals will do in your menu.
Tips for a Great Breakfast Menu
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Set a special menu for special occasions:
Holidays and special occasions are good opportunities to offer a special breakfast menu for promotional purposes. You can also create your own event to set a stir and drive people in during days when the sales are the week. Have a solid marketing plan ready to make the most out of this situation.
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Assign food items to be the “house favorites”:
Choose two to three items that you think are the specialty for your restaurant and promote these to be your house favorites. Select those that are not too expensive that the customers will think it’s a premium meal but not too cheap that it will not help your restaurant gain more profit. Decorate these items with stars or other graphic elements that will make them stand out.
Types of Breakfast Menu
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1. Static Menu:
Static Menu is the most accepted and the most common type of menu. In this type, the breakfast food items are categorized into groups and subgroups and are usually laminated. These menus can come in in a single page, a spread, or multiple pages. Fast food restaurants typically have a static menu.
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2. Du Jour Menu:
This type of menu is one that changes every day. They don’t feature that main breakfast meals of the restaurant but they feature the breakfast special for the day. Most Du Jour menus are written on chalkboards displayed outside the restaurant. Based on a French word, Du jour literally means “of the day.”
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3. A’la Carte Menu:
This is a type of menu used for breakfast food items that are ordered separately. Each of the items in the menu has their own prices and are not grouped in meals. The advantage of this type of menu is that it makes up for a flexible order for the customer. A’la carte is another French word that means “by the menu.”
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4. Table d’hote Menu:
Unlike in A’la Carte menus where items are sold separately, table d’hote menus sell food items grouped in courses or meals. Customers have less flexibility as they will not be able to select a food item individually. Like the mentioned types, Table d’hote also has a French origin, which means “table of the host.”
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5. Cycle Menu:
These are used by restaurants that rotate their menu items according to the day or the season. While Du jour menus only have a few select breakfast food items that are considered specials for the day, cycle menus change both have the specials and the main meals and can be changed daily, weekly, or by the season. Cafeterias, cruise ships, resort hotels, and hospitals almost always make use of cycle menus.
Breakfast Menu Template Sizes
The size for a breakfast menu depends on the breakfast food items that a restaurant offers. However, there exists a number of standard sizes, and they are the following:
- 4.25 in. x 11 in.
- 5.5 in. x 15 in.
- 8.5 in. x 11 in.
- 8.5 in. x 14 in.
- 11 in. x 17 in.
- 11 in. x 25.5 in.
Breakfast Menu FAQs
Where should I place my high-profit breakfast meals on my menu?
Since this is a valued food item we are talking about, it is only important that you lay it out in a spot where the customer first reads it. Tradition will tell you to put it on the upper right-hand corner since it is what most restaurants do. However, recent research results are challenging that belief as they suggest that customers are more likely to read at the upper left-hand corner first because they are reading it like a book. Experiment with what works well with your layout and choose what you think fits in your restaurant.
Should I put a currency sign on the prices of my menu?
Numbers that are indicated beside an item on your menu are already understood to be the price, so it is unnecessary for you to indicate the symbol for your currency. Another disadvantage in putting the price sign is that the customers would get to see it every time, making up for a highly distracting layout and a bad impression of your restaurant that it only exists for business and not for food.
Designing a breakfast menu is a challenging activity, but fun. For something that heavily relies on visual experience, you need to exert extra effort in the design, as the attention to the littlest of details can produce the biggest results. Its main purpose is to inform customers what they can eat at your restaurant, but it can also cleverly function as an effective promotional flyer. And although breakfast may arguably not be the most important meal of the day, it does not hurt to help the customers choose a big wealthy meal to start their day.
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