Is downsizing the menu an ideal way to cut costs post-pandemic?

Stepping into the hospitality industry isn’t that easy, there are a lot of key elements you need to focus upon to turn your start-up into a successful venture. And a menu is one such thing that expresses the eatery’s personality, focuses on overall operations, promotes profitability, and keeps the brand fresh in the customer’s mind. However, when it comes to the menu the “Less is more” theory is thriving nowadays. With time, restaurant menus are shrinking, especially during and post-pandemic. The reason behind downsizing the menu is to increase efficiency and cut down on costs. With COVID-19 having a massive impact on the restaurant industry, maintaining restaurant costs has become more essential than ever.

However, the shift towards smaller menus isn’t just a matter of protecting the bottom line. Diners and consumers are driving the trend toward limited menus by opting for dishes they already know and love, rather than a restaurant’s more obscure offerings. Thus, it is advisable to keep the menu short from the point of view of controlling operating costs and enhancing customer experience. A limited menu with fewer options eases the process of decision-making for the customers. An expanded menu creates confusion in customers’ minds as to what to order and can adversely impact the restaurant.

Are you still confused about why you should downsize your menu? Here is a list of reasons you need to check out.

  • Enhances The Overall Quality – A restaurant serving a plethora of dishes cannot specialize in every dish, which ultimately hampers the quality of the dish. A limited menu ensures the chef focuses on making few, but well-executed and high-quality dishes. Downsizing the menu can help better execution in the kitchen and higher accuracy.
  • Streamlines The Order-Taking Process – Well, a short menu from an ordering viewpoint is better than an extended menu, as a huge menu can lead to decision fatigue. Whereas a shorter menu will help in streamlining and enhancing the ordering process and services for employees.
  • Make Menu Optimization Easy – With fewer dishes on your menu, it makes it easy for you to customize it. Not only does one get the option to even serve people looking for vegetarian or gluten-free options, but also one can seasonally or periodically optimize the menu with different variations.
  • Controls Food Wastage – Food in the bin is equal to money in the bin for a restaurant. With fewer dishes on your menu, it becomes easy for you to manage your inventory and will further help in avoiding over-ordering in the future. This ultimately helps in controlling food wastage and making optimum use of the resources.
  • A cost-effective option – Well, no doubt a short menu is a cost-effective option, as there are fewer items which reduce the inventory requirement and staff for its preparation. All this helps in cutting down on costs and focusing on what is more important.

Menus might seem to be a basic thing but can be a game-changer for every restaurant. Thus, we suggest you be wise while finalizing your menu, be it in design terms or menu items.

ERC can help you with every area of menu development. Be it the design and branding segment or finalizing what to serve. Our experts can help you in finalizing what suits you the best for your eatery. Thus, for more details, visit us at https://erestaurantconsulting.ca/, or ring up to us at 1-647-209-4153 and set your menu game right!