Sometimes a little creativity is necessary to make your restaurant menu interesting and memorable and to help it stand out from the rest. Your guests have been to the same types of restaurants before and seen lots of similar menus, so when they encounter something unique and original it will be a delight.
If your customers are already smiling and entertained by your creativity when they look at your creative menu, they will probably be in a great mood by the time they get to taste your delicious food. There are many ways that you can make your menu more interesting, from using a unique and beautiful Menu Design to placing it within an elegant menu cover.
Looking for some inspiration? Here are some amazing examples of creative restaurant menus from a range of themed dining establishments around the world.
The Heart Attack Grill
This is a hilariously strange burger joint in Las Vegas that makes no claim to be healthy – it actually celebrates how fattening and unhealthy (yet delicious) its foods are. It has a hospital theme, in which “nurses” take orders from the customers (or “patients”) and patients wear a hospital gown while eating.
The menu is very fun to read, as it has a cheesy cartoon style and it offers Single, Double and Tripe Bypass burgers and Flatliner Fries cooked in lard along with beer and tequila. It describes the milkshakes as having the “World’s Highest Butterfat Content” and it offers a “Vegan Menu” which only consists of cigarettes. It’s a bold marketing strategy, but the over-the-top humour of the menu really makes it work. Just don’t eat there too often if you value the health of your arteries – the food really is as unhealthy as the menu says it is.
The Barrymore Pub
Check out the design of the menu for the Barrymore Pub, an elegant and old fashioned pub with a classic “Sherlock Holmes” inspired atmosphere. The menu is actually designed to look like a newspaper. When you open up the newspaper, you will be able to see all of the available dishes laid out like columns. When customers are looking at the menus, it simply looks like they are all seated in the pub reading the newspaper!
The branding theme continues throughout the pub, with matchbooks, artwork and other details creating a unified theme. This quaint pub is a beautiful place to have a quiet drink while pondering the mysteries of life.
The Calico Cat Café
When you enter the Calico Cat Café in Tokyo, the first menu you will be given will have nothing to do with food – it will be the menu for the cat selection. But don’t worry – the cats are not for eating but rather for cuddling with. At this café, these felines are there to provide you with companionship while you are enjoying your meal.
You will even be provided with a complementary bag of cat food so that your furry friend can dine with you. This odd restaurant is popular in the busy city of Tokyo, as it is not practical for many residents to own a cat so they can enjoy the opportunity to cuddle with one for a while without the commitment of caring for it full time.
Burger & Lobster
Sometimes the most creative Menu Design is the simplest. Burger & Lobster Restaurant in Mayfair has the smallest menu in London with only two choices – Burger or Lobster. This is a great example of the principle of doing very little but doing it right. Since the restaurant focuses on only two dishes, you can rest assured that the burger or the lobster are both going to be absolutely fantastic. The burgers are huge and juicy and the lobsters come fresh from the tanks located within the restaurant. You can even ask for a tour to visit the viewing gallery and see your lobster swim around before you eat it.
These are just a few examples of menus that are out of the ordinary and will be memorable for their customers in one way or another. Of course, your menu will be different depending on the style of your restaurant – so think about how you can show what you have to offer in a fun and creative way. When you have an interesting and unique menu people will remember their experience dining at your restaurant and they will be more likely to tell their friends about it.