Make the main restaurant menu a normal web page, with readable dish names, descriptions and clear sections for the meals you serve. Keep a PDF download if customers need one, and give someone in the business a workable way to update both versions.
A customer looking at lunch on their phone needs to know what is available, when it is served and how to ask a question or reserve a table. If the menu opens as a photograph of a printed sheet, that simple visit can turn into zooming, dragging and trying to read small type.
Use live text for the main menu
Ask your designer for dish names and descriptions that are actual text on the page. On a narrow screen, descriptions can wrap beneath the dish name. Section headings such as breakfast, lunch and desserts should remain easy to find as the customer scrolls.
The W3C guidance on images of text explains that genuine text can be resized and its colours adjusted more flexibly than text embedded in an image. For a menu, this means the words can remain clear when a visitor enlarges them.
A downloadable PDF can still be useful for someone printing a menu or sharing a document. It needs its own readable layout and accessibility work; exporting a design to PDF does not establish either. Label the download clearly and keep the main menu readable without opening it.
Food photographs can sit alongside the menu where they show the dishes accurately. Keep the dish name and explanation as text, so a slow or missing image does not remove the information a customer came to read.
Make it clear which meal and date the menu covers
Separate menus when the service genuinely changes: breakfast and evening dining, for example, or eating in and collection. Customers should be able to tell whether they are reading the menu for their intended visit before choosing dishes.
Put serving days and times beside the relevant menu. Where kitchen service ends before the venue closes, explain that distinction in the same place. An opening-hours page elsewhere on the website may not answer whether food will still be available.
For an event or seasonal menu, state its applicable dates and what the customer needs to do next. Remove its prominent navigation link when it has finished, or clearly label a retained page as a past menu.
If dishes change too frequently to publish a current selection, label the page as a sample menu and explain how to check the day’s offering. Agree with the designer how a sample will be replaced by a confirmed menu when one is available.
Have the kitchen approve the food information
Supply accurate dish names and descriptions from the people responsible for the food. Ask them to approve the finished wording, including dietary labels, before publication. A designer should not infer ingredients or whether a dish is suitable for a particular dietary requirement from its name or photograph.
The Food Standards Agency’s best-practice guidance for non-prepacked food recommends making written allergen information easy to obtain and supporting it with a conversation. Agree where the approved information will appear, how customers will find it and who will update it when ingredients change.
Keep any key to symbols beside the information it explains, and provide a clear way to speak to the business about allergen requirements. If the website also accepts food orders, include the ordering journey in that review.
Make the update task part of the website brief
Decide who authorises a menu change, who enters it and who checks the public result. In a small café those jobs may belong to one person. If the kitchen approves the content and someone else edits the website, give them a single approved version to work from.
Ask to see a representative change during the website handover: edit a description, move a dish between sections and remove an item. The demonstration should use the editing access your team will actually receive. You can then see whether the job is manageable between services or whether you need an agreed update arrangement.
For each change, follow the same short sequence:
- Approve the new wording and identify every menu version affected.
- Update the web page and any download that customers can still reach.
- Open the public page separately and check the changed content, including its phone layout.
- Check other places where the business maintains the same menu information.
Keep the main menu page at a stable address when practical. Then a website navigation link or printed QR code pointing to that page can continue to lead customers to the current information as individual dishes change. A QR code pointing directly to a dated PDF needs separate attention when that file is replaced.
Check the menu customers find through Google
Your website may be only one of the places displaying a menu. Google’s Business Profile menu guidance describes menu items, uploaded menu photos or PDFs and a link to the menu on your own website. What is available can depend on how the profile’s menu is supplied.
After updating the website, check the public profile as a customer would. Does its menu link open the current page? Are any menu items or uploads maintained by the business still showing an old selection? If Google offers several menu sources, review the preferred source too.
Customer-uploaded photographs can also contain old menus. Google provides a route to flag an obsolete or inaccurate customer menu photo; that does not mean the business can remove it directly or guarantee its removal.
Give the designer one approved menu pack
Send editable text for each menu, the serving arrangements and the exact labels your team has approved. Include any separate drinks, children’s, group or event menu only where the business actually offers it. Tell the designer which version is current and which material is still awaiting approval.
Include the original logo and any permitted food photographs, plus the source document for a download you want to retain. If you only have a photograph of an old printed menu, allow time for transcription and a careful check of every item before it becomes the new page.
The broader website content preparation guide explains how to organise source files, missing facts and approvals for the rest of the project. For the menu itself, name the person who can confirm a disputed description.
Review the finished menu on a phone
Open the public page from its normal navigation link and from any menu link used elsewhere. Read it as someone deciding where to eat, with no knowledge of the editing screen.
- Can you find the right meal and its serving arrangements without opening several documents?
- When text is enlarged, do dish names and descriptions remain readable without dragging each line sideways?
- Can you tell whether the menu is current, seasonal or a sample?
- Are dietary-symbol explanations and the route to approved allergen information easy to find?
- Does an optional PDF open the intended version, with a usable route back to the website?
- Can you reach the appropriate booking, ordering or contact action after reading the menu?
The W3C explanation of reflow describes why enlarged text should wrap within the available reading area. Ask your designer to check this as part of the page, alongside keyboard navigation and any download. A quick phone review is a useful acceptance task; a full accessibility review covers more than these checks.
Repeat the relevant checks after a real content update. A very long dish name or a newly added section can expose a layout problem that was absent from the original sample.
Fit the menu into the rest of the visit
Once the menu works, check the next step. The customer may need the location, a clear table-booking route or a clear explanation of collection arrangements. Keep those actions relevant to the service being viewed.
For the wider project, the guide to restaurant and café websites in Formby brings the menu together with visit planning and bookings. If you run a restaurant or café in Formby, Freshfield or L37, get in touch about your website with your current menu page and what your team needs to be able to change.
