What the research says (and doesn't)
You'll often read that "seven items per section" is the ideal. That number comes from real research, but it's thinner than it sounds.
In a 2013 study, researchers at Bournemouth University (Johns, Edwards and Hartwell) showed members of the public sample menus with different numbers of choices per section. People rated how much choice felt right. The best ratings came at about 6 choices per section for quick-service menus and 7 to 10 for fine dining. These people were rating menus at university open days. They weren't hungry guests ordering and paying.
The broader idea that too much choice puts people off is also less settled than it seems. A 2010 review of 50 experiments (Scheibehenne, Greifeneder and Todd) found that, on average, the effect of having many options was "virtually zero". Results varied a lot from study to study.
So treat 6 to 10 per section as a rough starting point. Your own kitchen and your own sales tell you more.
Start with your kitchen
Every dish on the menu costs you something before anyone orders it. It needs prep time, storage space and ingredients that can spoil. On a busy night, it needs a cook who knows it.
Ask your kitchen team three questions:
- Can we send every dish well and on time at our busiest hour? If one dish always slows the line, that's a sign.
- Which ingredients go into only one dish? A fresh fish used in a single dish that sells twice a night often ends up in the bin.
- Which station is overloaded? If half the menu goes through the fryer, adding another fried dish makes the wait worse for everyone.
A shorter menu often means fewer ingredients, less waste and faster tickets. That's why many places trim their menus when costs rise or staff are short. In 2020, IHOP cut its menu from 12 pages to two. Its chief marketing officer said one reason was "to simplify operations for new and returning team members".
Then look at what sells
Pull four to eight weeks of sales from your till or your tickets. For each section, list the dishes from most sold to least sold. Then ask about the bottom few: why aren't they selling? The answer might be price, a description that doesn't explain the dish, or a spot on the menu where nobody looks. Some dishes are worth fixing. Others can go. Our article on menu engineering shows how to weigh sales against profit for each dish.
Keep dishes that do a job even if they don't sell much. The only vegan main or the kids' pasta might sell a few plates a night, but it can be the reason a group of six picks you.
An example: trimming a mains section
Here's a made-up mains section with 14 dishes and four weeks of sales:
| Dish | Sold in 4 weeks |
|---|---|
| Burger | 410 |
| Chicken sandwich | 320 |
| Fish and chips | 280 |
| Steak frites | 190 |
| Mushroom risotto | 150 |
| Caesar salad | 140 |
| Pork chop | 60 |
| Lamb shank | 45 |
| Seafood linguine | 40 |
| Chicken parmesan | 35 |
| Vegetable curry (only vegan main) | 30 |
| Duck breast | 18 |
| Halibut | 12 |
| Meatloaf | 10 |
The top six dishes make up 1,490 of 1,740 plates, about 86%. Duck, halibut and meatloaf together sell 40 plates in four weeks, and duck and halibut each need ingredients no other dish uses.
One reasonable call: cut the duck, the halibut and the meatloaf. Keep the vegetable curry, because it's the only vegan main. Then ask whether the chicken parmesan and the chicken sandwich are too alike. That leaves 10 or 11 mains, a smaller order list and less waste. If halibut is a favorite with a few regulars, run it as an occasional special.
How to cut without upsetting regulars
- Tell people. If a dish has fans, let them know before it goes, and tell them what to try instead.
- Use a specials slot. A rotating special lets you keep seasonal or niche dishes without a permanent spot.
- Try it before you reprint. Take the dish off for two weeks. If nobody asks, you have your answer.
- Listen to the floor. Staff hear what guests miss. Ask them after the first week.
Length feels different on a phone
On a printed menu, guests see a whole page at once. On a phone, they scroll, and a long section can feel endless. Short descriptions help, and so do clear section names near the top. If a section runs past ten or so dishes, consider splitting it, for example "Pasta" and "From the grill" instead of one long "Mains".
If you use Menupresso, you can switch on a section jump bar so guests can tap straight to "Mains" or "Desserts". There's also a "Hide from guests" switch on each dish. It takes a dish off the public menu but keeps it in the editor, which makes a two-week test easy. If guests ask for the dish, switch it back on.