Digital Menu Boards for Restaurants: What Works and What Doesn't

Why Restaurants Are Switching to Digital Menus

A printed menu on the wall has one version. Change a price? Reprint. New seasonal item? Reprint. Remove something that’s sold out? Tape over it or cross it out with a marker. We’ve all seen it — the taped-over menu board with three different fonts and a handwritten correction in the corner.

A digital menu board is a screen whose content can be edited remotely. You can prepare scheduled menu changes and update availability without replacing a printed board.

You can also test whether layout and item emphasis affect ordering behaviour instead of assuming that the screen itself changes sales.

The Basic Setup

You don’t need expensive commercial signage hardware. Here’s what a small restaurant or café needs:

Item	Cost	Notes
43-55“ TV	€200-400	Consumer TV is fine. Mount it where the menu board currently sits
Wall mount	€20-30	Tilting mount if the screen angle matters
Illustrative software budget, excluding VAT	€5/month	See current pricing
Total	€280-490 + €5/mo	Software excludes VAT

That’s less than most restaurants spend on a single round of printed menus. For a detailed breakdown of all costs involved, check our cost analysis.

What to Show on the Menu Board

The Menu (Obviously)

Your menu should be the primary content — but how you display it matters.

Layout rules:

• Group items logically — appetizers, mains, drinks, desserts. Don’t make people hunt.
• Limit items per screen — 8-12 items maximum per view. If you have more, rotate between screens.
• Use photos sparingly but strategically — 2-3 hero photos of your best-looking dishes. Not every item needs a photo. Bad food photography is worse than no photos at all.
• Prices should be clearly visible — no hiding them in small text. Customers who can’t find the price feel anxious and order less.

Typography:

• Item names: large, bold, readable from 10-15 feet
• Descriptions: medium, 1 line max (“grilled chicken, roasted vegetables, herb butter”)
• Prices: same size as item names, right-aligned

Daily Specials

This is where digital really shines. A dedicated “Today’s Special” section that changes daily without any physical work. Many restaurants use this to:

• Push higher-margin dishes
• Move ingredients that need to be used
• Test new menu items before adding them permanently

Schedule it to appear automatically — Monday’s special shows on Monday, Tuesday’s shows on Tuesday. Set it up once on Sunday night and forget about it.

Sold-Out Items

When something sells out, remove it from the screen or gray it out with “Back Tomorrow,” then verify the change on the menu board.

Menu Design Choices to Test

Restaurant consultants have studied menu psychology for decades. The same principles apply to digital menus:

Highlight High-Margin Items

Put your most profitable dishes in a “Featured” or “Chef’s Pick” section with a subtle highlight — a colored background, a larger font, or a small photo. People’s eyes go there first.

If highlighting an item is meant to change ordering behavior, compare its sales before and during the test instead of assuming that visual emphasis caused an increase.

Use Decoy Pricing

Place a premium item at the top of a category. A €22 steak makes the €16 pasta look reasonable. This works on paper menus too, but digital makes it easier to test and adjust.

Remove Currency Symbols

Studies show that “12” feels less expensive than “€12” or “12.00€.” Some restaurants use just the number. This feels more subtle on a digital display where you have control over exact formatting.

Rotate Content to Prevent “Menu Blindness”

Regular customers stop reading a menu they’ve seen 50 times. Even small changes — moving sections around, changing the featured item, updating photos — keep the menu feeling fresh. With a digital board, you can schedule rotating layouts without any daily effort.

Beyond the Menu

A single restaurant screen can do more than just show the menu:

Content	When to Show	Value
Menu	During service hours	Core function
Daily specials	Lunch and dinner	Higher margins
Wait time estimate	During busy periods	Manages expectations
Happy hour countdown	1 hour before happy hour	Drives bar sales
Instagram feed	Between menu rotations	Social proof
Behind-the-scenes photos	Mixed into rotation	Personality
Allergen information	Always available	Legal compliance in many countries
Catering menu	Off-peak hours	New revenue channel
QR code to online ordering	Always visible	Convenience

Multiple Screens

If your restaurant has space for more than one screen, dedicate each one:

Screen 1 (behind the counter / main wall): Full menu Screen 2 (near the entrance): Today’s specials + wait time + social media Screen 3 (bar area): Drink menu + happy hour details

Don’t duplicate the same content on every screen. Each one should serve a different purpose. This is the same principle we discuss in our content ideas guide — one screen, one job.

Common Mistakes

Slides That Change Too Fast

Your menu slides should stay on screen for at least 15-20 seconds. People need time to read, decide, and discuss with their companion. A 5-second rotation for a menu is frustrating — customers miss items and feel rushed.

For trade show screens, fast rotations work because you’re grabbing attention from passersby. For a restaurant menu, people are stationary and actively trying to read. Give them time.

Animations and Transitions Between Menu Items

Please don’t make your burger photo fly in from the left. No spinning text. No star wipes. A simple crossfade or cut between screens is all you need. Fancy transitions distract from the content and make the menu feel like a slideshow presentation, not a menu.

Too Many Items Per Screen

If someone has to squint, you have too many items on the screen. A printed menu can get away with density because people hold it 18 inches from their face. A wall-mounted screen viewed from 10+ feet needs larger text and fewer items.

Break your menu across multiple slides that rotate, rather than cramming everything onto one screen. The content design guide covers this in more detail.

No Backup for Power Outages

If your digital menu is your ONLY menu and the power goes out during Friday dinner rush, you have a problem. Keep a simple printed backup behind the counter — even a laminated single-pager. It doesn’t need to be pretty. It just needs to exist.

Getting Started

1. Start with one screen behind the counter or on the main wall
2. Put your current menu on it — just digitize what you already have
3. Add a daily specials section that you update each morning
4. After a week, start experimenting with highlights, photos, and scheduling
5. Track what sells more and adjust

You don’t need to redesign your entire menu on day one. The beauty of digital is that you can iterate. Change one thing, see if it works, change another. Our getting started guide walks through the general setup process.