Eating out or ordering food online is trending and is not restricted to a special occasion these days. The frequent food ordering habits increases demand for healthier recipes and push food business owners to be more responsible when offering food options.

Be it cafeterias, small eateries, bakeries, or fine-dining restaurants, customizable dining is the demand of the hour. This blog focuses on the relevance of customized menus for your food business and how providing healthy eating options can boost your revenue.

What’s in a Menu?

After all, it is the menu that attracts customers to your restaurant. While your restaurant might have the most mouth-watering delicacies, there may be more to attract a customer. Sometimes, the smaller yet customizable menu draws customers to restaurants. Your restaurant’s menu options can have a direct impact on your sales. A viable restaurant management software can help you create and manage your restaurant’s menu.

A restaurant featuring a custom menu is more likely to see returning customers. Most restaurants today have expanded their reach and increased sales by adopting online ordering systems.

Customers find it easier to identify restaurants that can cater to their customized food habits and preferences. Such online ordering apps can help you manage everything from food delivery to curbside orders, improve customer management, and easily set up a versatile POS that can manage your overall business operations via a single app.

The digitalization of restaurant menus has also increased transparency and promoted frequent interactions between customers and restaurants. Customers can make more informed choices when selecting their food.

The Importance of Custom Menu

From ingredients used in a particular recipe to the cooking method and understanding its nutritional value and preparation time, customers seek complete information on what your restaurant offers. Offering a custom menu provides a more personalized experience to your customers as they can choose from a variety of options to match their tastes.

A personalized menu allows customers to add the ingredients they want to their favorite menu. For instance, if you pick a pizzeria that enables customizing the menu, you may have options for different pizza bases, varied toppings, multiple cheese options, etc.

Not only will the restaurant be better positioned to cater to the needs of existing customers, but it will also attract customers seeking customizable options. Aside from culinary preferences, customers may seek a custom menu for exclusive reasons. For instance, people allergic to certain food items may want to omit some ingredients. Such options on your menu may expand your customer reach as well.

While customizing ingredients is one aspect, your restaurant may also enable ordering tailored portion sizes to suit customers’ needs.

A customizable menu accommodates much-varied food preferences, including custom meals and healthier food options.  Here’s how a custom menu can be beneficial.

- Caters to picky eaters

You can't forget the picky eaters if you plan to reach a more extensive customer base. With a more inclusive menu that allows meal customization, you can cater to a range of palates, including those that may be the toughest to please.

- Attracts customers with dietary restrictions

Customers may have different choices when it comes to eating healthy outside. From avoiding gluten to eating only vegan meals, people today are more health-conscious and expect restaurants to offer customizable menu options. Moreover, food allergies and intolerances may also limit customer choices.

If you run a restaurant that focuses on taste and presentation while simultaneously optimizing nutrition for customers, it would be sensible to include a diverse menu with customizable options that can cater to dietary restrictions.

How OrderEm Can Help Your Restaurant Offer Healthier Eating Options to Customers

If your restaurant is aligned to deliver healthy eating choices to customers, the OrderEm app can help you design an appropriate menu. As an online ordering solutions provider, OrderEm can help your restaurant build a custom app that can include the needs of your target customers.

Share Nutritional Information and Weight Details

If your customers are watching their weight or want to know the portion size of their ordered meals, OrdemEm has a perfect solution that can be featured on your custom menu software.

For instance, the menu settings, as shown in the above screenshot of the OrderEm online ordering interface, provide options for displaying nutritional information and weight details.

Display Choice on Item Features

With OrderEm’s digital food menu software, you can display all the healthy options your restaurant offers customers. For instance, as in the above screenshot, you can find options to choose from multiple item qualities labeled as ‘ spicy,’ ‘raw,’ ‘gluten-free,’ ‘vegetarian,’ famous, and more.

In addition, your digital menu can present a specific quality of a dish. For instance,  you can indicate how spicy each dish is and offer options where customers can choose from ‘mild,’ ‘medium,’ or ‘hot preferences. It will eliminate the uncertainty of ordering a menu that turns out to be unexpectedly bland or spicy.

Edit Item Recipe

Transparent processes can be a hit with customers seeking healthy food options at your restaurant. By adding a recipe to the menu, describing it, and supplementing it with a video on your food app, you can tell your customers how to plate it up for them.

You can include the name and quantity of ingredients used in different recipes that you offer on the menu. It will help your customers make a comprehensive selection. For instance, if your restaurant provides a vegan ice cream menu, you can specify the milk source in your recipe description to minimize speculation and make a more transparent choice.

Display Available Product Quantity

Customers look for flexible quantities on restaurant menus. OrderEm lets you offer minimum and maximum quantity selection options. This increases flexibility for your customers.

If you have any zero-price offers where your customers can add side dishes to the main order, you can easily display them on the order page of your app or website, as displayed in the screenshot below.

Concluding Thoughts

Your restaurant can benefit from a digital menu as it shows you are concerned about your customers' health. Indicating nutritional values on menu items can help customers know about the calories and other nutrient details in their favorite food items.

While health-conscious people seeking healthier choices can automatically benefit from customizable menu options, such initiatives can propagate mindful consumption.

Listing ingredients, nutritional information, cooking methods, allergen details, and other customizable options helps you offer healthier food choices and can instill greater customer trust.

Moreover, it can help restaurants use feedback to improve their existing menu and balance nutritional values, taste, and overall appeal to attract more customers to their eateries.