Menu is a very important tool for the operation of any food and beverages service operations. It serves various functions:
- Information devise to customers – Menus displays the complete dishes which are on offering to the customer with its price and a brief explanation about the dishes. This information helps the customers to plan their meals according to their budget, nutritional requirement, palate, likings, etc. We cannot think of any restaurant which is without a menu card. As we would not know what is getting served inside the outlet and we can keep on asking every outlet about what are they serving.
- Effective sales tool – Menus these days are designed in such a way that it compels the customer to order the dish. These days they display the menu with their attractive photographs and guest can see how their dishes looks would when it arrives on to their table. Image is one of the most important sales tools. For example, when you visit to pizza hut of KFC you see the menu is displayed with the images of the dishes which look so tempting and force us to order something or the other. It is said in management that visible things are only saleable.
- Image of an outlet – The dishes on offer, the raw material used in cooking, the incorporation of a rotational menu in the outlet, healthy food, exotic cuisine they are a symbol of any good restaurant. An image of a restaurant depends upon its menu. If a restaurant changes its menu according to season and public awareness and keeps in mind about people health then these restaurants will have a good image in market rather than the restaurant with the same repeated orthodox menu.
- Planning of operation – If the menu is decided then it helps the kitchen staff to plan their work according to by preparing their mise en place. Even the service staff sets the restaurant cover accordingly and set their sideboard by keeping in mind the menu being offered in the restaurant. It also helps in deciding the purchase of equipment for the restaurant, purchase of ingredients, recruitment of service staff, pricing, interior design, and so on. If the menu is not decided then it is very difficult for any management to purchase the equipment for the outlet.