Restaurant menu boards

Buying the right style restaurant menu board can be extremely important for the look and feel of your dining establishment.  There are many different sizes, styles and designs for restaurant boards. This can be used in conjunction with regular hand held menus as a great way to highlight special food items.

Make sure you choose a board which allows you to change the menu items, unless you want a permanent board.  If you are constantly changing your menu items, you may want to consider a glass menu board mounted on an easel.  These boards use special markers which can be easily wiped.  The special markers give the writing on the board a “lit” look resembling bright neon.

Magnetic boards are extremely flexible as you can choose many different styles for letters and number combinations.  These come in various sizes, and work well if you have a small coffee café cart, hot dog stand, etc. 

Keeping the board menu fresh and up to date is a great way to encourage customer retention.  Electronic restaurant menu boards are costly; however they are becoming more and more popular.  Electric food signs are currently being used by various fast food chains, to help increase order accuracy.  You can buy custom made sign boards, if you need to have it integrated into your existing façade.  Keep in mind that this will cost more money compared to using stock designs.  Electric signs will also cost more money to install, if you do not have any current provisions for electrical access near your sign location.

When you are mounting your restaurant sign board, be sure to mount it high enough so that customers in the back of the line can easily see it.  This can help increase your turnover during busy times such as lunch time rush.  Using larger signage may be desirable as well, along with adding pictures of food to your menu board.

Most people are visual, and appreciate having pictures on the restaurant menu boards.  If you do not know what style of board you want to install, you may want to visit some of the current restaurants in your area to see what kind of sign is popular.  Chain restaurants usually will use the sign style menu board across all their locations for a consistent look.  If you are trying to mimic a chain restaurant feel, you may want to use a “chain restaurant” style food menu board.  If your restaurant is smaller, you may want to use something simple so that you can give your casual restaurant a friendly atmosphere.  Keep in mind that you may need approval from your town, if you plan on mounting your food menu board outdoors.