You sit down, scan the QR code on the table, and wait. A PDF starts to download. When it finally opens, the text is too small to read, so you pinch and zoom and drag the page around to find the mains. Then you give up and ask for a paper menu.
Most diners have had that experience, and plenty of them complain about it in public. If your restaurant website sends people to a PDF, it is worth fixing. A menu page built from real text is easier to read on a phone, easier for you to update and easier for search engines to understand.
What diners are complaining about
Look at the complaints people post about restaurant websites and the same issues come up:
- QR codes that load a slow site or a heavy PDF at the table
- Menus that need zooming and scrolling sideways on a phone
- Sites that ask for an address or a location before showing the menu
- Menu links that open a file download instead of a page
- Menus that are out of date, with dishes or prices that have changed
None of these are design problems in the usual sense. They are about speed and access. The diner wants to know what you serve and what it costs, and the website gets in the way.
What a PDF menu does badly
A PDF is a print document. It was designed for a page of a fixed size, so on a phone it does not reflow to fit the screen. The diner has to zoom in, and then they lose their place. PDFs with large images or embedded fonts can also be slow to load on a weak connection, which is common inside restaurants.
PDFs are also harder to keep current. Changing one price usually means opening a design file, exporting a new PDF, uploading it and making sure the old link is replaced everywhere. In practice, many restaurants put this off, so the online menu drifts away from the real one.
Search is a mixed picture. Google can read text in a PDF, so a PDF menu is not invisible. But a menu written as text on your own page sits alongside your address, opening hours and the rest of your site, and it reads well on any device. That is a better result for the diner, and better for you.
What a good menu page contains
A menu page is simple. It needs:
- Sections in the order you serve them. Snacks, starters, mains, sides, desserts, drinks. If you run a tasting menu, list the courses in order.
- Dish names with a short description. One line about what is on the plate. Avoid adjectives that do not tell the diner anything.
- Prices next to every dish. People look at price before they book. Hiding it does not help.
- Dietary information. Mark vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options, and say how to tell you about allergies.
- The date the menu was last updated, if it changes often.
Write it as text, not as an image of text. Text is readable by screen readers, can be resized by the diner's phone, and can be found by search engines.
If your menu changes daily or weekly, show the current one and say so: "This is tonight's menu. It changes with what comes in." A diner does not mind a changing menu. They mind finding out at the table that the dish they came for is not on it.
Hours, reservations and private dining
The menu is one of four things almost every visitor to a restaurant site wants. The other three are:
1. Opening hours, including which days you are closed and when the kitchen stops taking orders.
2. How to book, with a reservation form or a link to your booking system, and a note on walk-ins.
3. Where you are, with the address, a map link and anything useful about getting there, such as parking or the nearest station.
Put all four within easy reach of the home page. A diner should never need more than one tap to get from your home page to the menu or the booking form.
If you take private dining and events, give them their own page. Say how many guests the room holds, whether there is a set menu, what the minimum spend or deposit is, and how to enquire. Event enquiries are often worth more than a regular booking, and a clear page brings in better ones.
Keeping the menu current
The best menu page is the one you actually update. A few habits help:
- Edit the page directly. In most website builders, including Framer, menu text can be changed on the page and published in minutes. You do not need a designer for a price change.
- Pick one person to own it. Whoever changes the printed menu also changes the website.
- Point the QR code at the page, not a file. A QR code that opens your menu page will always show the current version.
- Delete old menus. If an old PDF is still online and still shows up in search, remove it or redirect it.
When a PDF still makes sense
There are cases where a PDF is useful. A wine list with hundreds of bottles, a printed group menu that a booker wants to forward to guests, or a set menu for an event can all work as downloads. The rule is simple: offer the PDF as an extra, not as the only way to see what you serve. The main menu should always be a page.
How Late August lays this out
Late August is a free Framer template for fine dining restaurants, chef-led kitchens, bistros and tasting-menu rooms. It has 14 responsive pages, including the home page, a full menu page, reservations, private dining and events, the chef and kitchen story, a journal and contact. Every heading, dish, price, opening hour and photograph is editable on the Framer canvas.
The site is designed around one night of service. Each section sits at an hour, from prep in the afternoon to the last cover, and the page darkens as you scroll. The menu is real text, so you change a dish by clicking on it and typing.
One thing to do before you publish: the reservation form ships in demo mode. Point it at your own email address or booking setup so reservations reach you. If you already use a reservation platform, you can link to it from the reserve page instead.
If you run a bar, a members' club or a late-night room, The Aubrey is an alternative. It has an events collection and an invitation flow, and it costs $49.
For more options, see our list of Framer templates for restaurants. If your menu or events change often, our guide to the Framer CMS explains how to manage repeating content without editing every page by hand.
The fix for a bad restaurant website is rarely a redesign. Put the menu on a page, keep it current, show the hours and make booking one tap away. The diner at the table with a phone in their hand will notice.