Swedish Burger power!

Source: http://yigitarslan.deviantart.com/art/Cafe-Mia-Menu-Design-187974989
Title: Cafe Mia Menu Design
Artist: yigitarslan

Light browns and grays are a good start. Close ups of food images in wavy pictures like ocean tides. The font here is a change of pace from all other menus critiqued so far. Very art deco and the kerning is tight. The dark brown in the dish names doesn't contrast and works with the light brown backdrop.

Even in a different language, it reads well. The legibility for a general audience with calm colors so not to overly stimulate one's eyes. And the fact this was found on deviant art, a place with a dubious reputation, shows there is still talent testing the limits of their skill.

Black & White is something you don't see everyday.

Source: http://www.effectivedesignworld.com/2014/08/hotel-menu-design.html
Title: Tri-fold Brochure 2

You don't normally see a menu quite like this except for old dives and places that cater to older crowds over 50. First, there is no pictures. Nothing to distract the elderly but younger audiences may hate having to imagine what their meal may look like. Also black and white is not an ideal color combination when you want to sell something in the food industry. It's very basic and slightly depressing like being at a funeral parlor with a coffin on the table.

Now the typeface has thriving potential here. An art deco serif style for the title and the rest being serif style black with simple distinction between meal name and description with boldness and lead mono spacing. The thin black lines under each description are meant to further separate but seems unnecessary due to the spacing.  I like because it's retro and doesn't hurt the eyes when reading.

More Photoshop hand model madness.

Source: http://www.effectivedesignworld.com/2014/08/hotel-menu-design.html
Title: Mexican Restaurant Menu

Here's an example template for a Mexican/lunch theme restaurant. Notice the abundance of green and red in both the background space and foreground photos. Bright primary and secondary tones commonly used to indicate natural organic while being colorful enough to attract attention.  The close of the soft shell chime chungas smothered in peppers and spices is a good start to get mouths watering.

Inside, the background is plain white with capital sans serif typeface of red for dish entries and black for descriptions of ingredients. Leading of the lines is reasonable with tracking is not overly stretched. Prices are spaced to match their designated dishes but could use some connection like a dotted line. The bottom of the page appears torn to show the cover page from above. Probably a space saving trick to prevent from splitting the dinner specials across two pages.

I like the steps this unknown artist took because it doesn't try to be in your face with large pictures or flashy colors.

The amazing spider...wait, its not about him?

Source: http://www.effectivedesignworld.com/2014/08/hotel-menu-design.html
Title: The Amazing Restaurant Menu 2

Strange title to claim. What does make this an amazing restaurant menu? Is it the color? The style? The identical hand model in both pages?

Well the text had some thought put into it with a downward descent from left to right. Dish names being bold with icons next to them for easy to identification. Yet the descriptions have a different color that makes them blend too well with the background colors and the small size isn't helping much. Add to those woes is the lack of connection between dish names and their price tags. Hard to tell what home made hot dogs cost with the $6 free floating in space like that. Even after zooming I still have trouble reading the descriptions of the meals on both pages.

Color palette has some range to it with soft tones and shapes resting the background to help contrast with the dish name to hard solid fusion tones that act as borders. Photos thankfully are limited to three per page but their size and shape vary too much.

All in all it's not totally bad like the dreaded Balls of Asia...shudders....but there is a few necessary tweaks to be worked on.

Good bistro is so hard to find.

Source: http://www.effectivedesignworld.com/2014/08/hotel-menu-design.html
title: Bistro Menu Design

If any one is looking for an effective, organic loving, well spaced clean design for their future bizz in the restaurant fast game then this selection from effective design world.com is a good template. The overall color choices are soft primaries and secondary teals over a white backdrop with a blue border hugging the top only. Photos are limited to two  with one large to cover the top and the second nested to the mid right to provide additional eye candy.

Typeface is actually balanced. All lines and lettering is mono spaced so well I think someone took the time to use a ruler to measure every space taken. Every category has a good proximity with dotted lines connecting price with meal. Leading is good with bold font style to separate names from descriptions.

It's good. No. It's better then most menus I've come across. Designed by someone with professional eye for detail. The menu doesn't clog nor does it have an abuse of excessive colors. An example to try and emulate for those interested in Graphic Design.

Coffee menus for Men?

Source: http://www.effectivedesignworld.com/2014/08/hotel-menu-design.html
Title: Coffee Menu

Target audiences are very important when considering a design. Some designs are obvious while others are...abstract. So here its seems strangely targeted to males of age 20-32. How did I arrive to this conclusion? The strange presence of grey and black, which are considered in some marketing circles masculine, as well as straight polygons. Minimal pictures and all of them focus on different styles of coffee. And there's the text. Straight to the point sans serif typeface with spacey leading between lines and long tracking.

There is no cartoon characters, no bright colors except for the yellows used in the price spheres next to the images. There is no flowers or warm hues. It's obviously not for most but the die hard male coffee drinkers.

Christmas lights is not a good pattern for Chili's.

Source: http://www.tapja.com/10-examples-restaurant-menu-design-business-restaurant/examples-of-fast-food-menu-design/
Title: Chili's Menu

Being a national recognized brand, Chili's menu needs to be good design wise. So why does it have some poor choices? For example, the leading of the text is fairly close due to the size of the printing but the tracking is spaced enough to cover the majority of the columns. Tightly packed under a single large circular picture that is enlarged to show a delicious meal available. And the color for the small typeface is a light cream white which normally be easy to see thanks to contrast. I suppose the white is a tad too light. Then again the background colors of altering Christmas lights isn't' helping.

Yet there is somethings that do work. The category titles on titled banners are a nice touch that separates and highlights. Easy to read and naturally brings attention thanks to the rebelling of alignment.  The pictures also work because of the careful focus on the food.