10 Easy Steps to Start Labeling Your Menu
/There was a time when people would get dressed in their fancy attire, hire a babysitter, visit a restaurant, sit down and look at the menu, and order a dish that sounded delicious, WITHOUT asking questions about the ingredients or the environment in which the food was prepared…
Now is not that time.
Today’s restaurant customers prioritize more than just taste when it comes to their meal choices. An increasing amount of customers demand that their ethics, sustainability concerns, nutritional requirements and food sensitivities are given priority when deciding where to dine and which menu items to select.
So what is the hospitality industry to do? Well, we could sit around blaming the consumer for being an annoying inconvenience to our business, or we could modernize our business practices to meet the needs of today’s consumer. Positive change usually starts as a complaint, because we need to identify that something is wrong in order to fix it. If you find your staff sitting around complaining about those pesky, difficult to please vegan customers, just know that you’re in the right place, and that this is your launchpad for making a better experience for both your customers and staff. Keep reading, we wrote this for you!
In order to have ease in the service arena and systemization in the kitchen, our Number One recommended starting point is this: ADD LABELS TO YOUR MENU.
What are we really doing when we are adding labels?
We are providing information for our customer so that they can make the most informed choice for their own body.
We are building trust with our customer, so that they have confidence that we know what is in our food.
We are communicating to our customer that we understand and care about their needs.
We are making the server’s job easier and reducing communication errors
To label your menu accurately, follow these 10 steps:
1) Choose letter labels that are obvious to the customer and easy to understand. For example, V for Vegetarian and V+ for Vegan, rather than photos of leaves. We also prefer GF for gluten free rather than a photo of grain. These graphics are often printed very small on menus and can be difficult to read.
2) Ensure that you have a KEY at the top or bottom of each menu page explaining what each symbol or letter stands for.
3) Double and triple check your menu for any labeling errors. Better yet, hire a consultant (yes, us!) to evaluate your menu through a comprehensive chef interview to ensure that no ingredient is missed (for example, did you know that fortified orange juice is often not vegan friendly?).
4) Now that we’re talking about orange juice…remember to also label your drinks menu! This includes juices as well as wines, beers, and other alcoholic drinks. When we help our clients with this, we not only look at ingredients used in the final drink product but also the fining agents and processing of the items on your menu.
5) Don’t forget to label your sides as well, or you’ll surely receive questions about whether your side of broccoli is cooked with butter!
6) Salad dressings need to be labeled too, as well as sauces…you get the picture now, a lot of detail goes into a properly labeled menu!
7) Labeling should include thought around the preparation of items - for example, we don’t recommend labeling french fries as vegan if they are cooked in the same frying oil as your chicken nuggets.
8) Make sure to update both your print menu and your online menu. They should look identical to avoid any confusion.
9) If there are opportunities for incidental cross contamination in your kitchen, be clear about that on your menu as well. For example, if you cook gluten free pizza crust in the same pizza oven as your wheat-based pizza, this should be disclosed to customers in writing.
10) Finally, if you finish labeling your menu and realize that there are not many vegan options (for example, you have a vegan main dish but no vegan dessert), then you are an excellent candidate for our high impact hospitality consulting program, which takes you through our comprehensive and customized process of menu evaluation, recipe support, menu labeling, and more!
Vegan Hospitality helps restaurants, hotels, cruise lines and resorts become Vegan Friendly so they can attract more customers to raise profits, gain top reviews, and stay ahead of their competitors. Click the here to apply for a FREE CONSULTATION (virtual, available worldwide).