Improving Your Restaurant

New Restaurant? Designing A Good Lunch Menu

13 July 2023

Julia Payne

Some restaurants choose to skip lunch and only open for dinner services. Unfortunately, this is a popular time of day for people to eat out, and not serving lunch can mean you are losing a considerable amount of business. Thinking carefully and executing a well-constructed lunch menu can do wonders for your business.

Keep It Simple

Most restaurants that have problems with their lunch menu do so because they overdo it. Your lunch menu should not be as extensive as your dinner menu. The most successful lunch menu will focus on a few of the most popular items and typically serve them in smaller portions for a lower price. What you serve will depend on the type of restaurant you are. For example, if you serve Chinese food, some type of grab-and-go food will likely be popular. This might include a small amount of several different menu items with a side and drink. The same order could easily be boxed up for delivery or pick-up.

Provide Variety

Although you need to keep your menu small, you still need variety. Before you decide what will be on the menu, check your competitors. If your location is near other restaurants, you should serve different items from them. This will increase the chance of people choosing your restaurant over the next. If your competitors offer a similar type of cuisine, you will have to offer foods they do not. For example, if there is a nearby Italian restaurant and you also serve Italian food, something different might be offering foods that would normally be served as appetizers at dinner. To make the experience more unique, you could allow customers to mix-and-max a set amount of appetizer foods to have as their lunch. Meatballs, fried ravioli, or fried calamari are among a few options that would work well.

Include Baked Goods

For many people, there is never a wrong time of day for sweets, so having baked goods could elevate your menu. One of the best aspects of serving baked items is they are rarely cooked on demand, so you can serve people quickly. The items you include will be dependent on the type of restaurant you have and what is appropriate for that particular cuisine. Restaurants that serve many types of food will have more options. Generally, cakes and pies are popular and you can get many portions from a single one. Cupcakes, danishes, cookies, and donuts are other popular ideas that will likely attract people at lunch. If you don't bake, consider working with an area baker. Ordering several baked goods upfront to serve at your restaurant can be attractive to a baker who wants a more reliable income.

Creating an effective lunch menu requires careful planning, both in terms of what you serve and how extensive the menu will be. Having a restaurant that is available for the "lunch rush" will give you a competitive edge with neighboring restaurants. Keep these tips in mind when creating a lunch menu.

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