Speaking during a session on maximising menus amid inflationary and tax pressures, Wainwright said operators should think beyond price and focus on how food and drink are presented, positioned and sold to customers.
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She said menus should not be treated as simple lists of products, but as “the most powerful sales document in your business”, shaping what guests notice, choose, spend and experience.
Value vs price
Wainwright said operators need to think more about value than price, with customers still willing to go out if the experience feels worthwhile.
She said a typical pub menu, with dish descriptions on the left and prices lined up on the right, can encourage guests to compare numbers before they have properly considered the food.
“The eye goes straight to those numbers before the guest has really taken in any dish,” she said. “At that point you’re not really selling the food, you’re presenting a price list.”
Instead, she recommended placing the price at the end of the dish description, close enough to find easily but not in a single comparison column. “That way the guest reads the dish first, then the price,” she said.
Wainwright added that the same drink could command very different prices depending on the serve, glassware, garnish and overall experience around it. A basic serve might feel every day, while the same product in better glassware, with fruit, ice and a more considered presentation, could feel more premium.
“That is not just aesthetics, that is value perception,” she said.
Wainwright said the strongest menus are built around a clear idea of the ideal guest experience. Operators should ask what their happiest customers are doing, what they are ordering, and what a strong visit looks like.
She said menus should not simply list products, but guide customers towards the best experience for both the business and the guest.
Citing work with ramen group Konkotsu, Wainwright said the happiest customers were not just ordering a bowl of ramen, but sharing sides and ordering drinks. Following a menu redesign that pushed sides and drinks more clearly, the group saw a 12.4% uplift in spend per head, driven by growth in the categories it wanted to encourage.
She added the changes also improved guest sentiment scores and gave teams more confidence in making recommendations.
She added that inclusivity is a commercial driver, with gluten free, vegetarian and other dietary needs affecting group booking decisions. Low and no alcohol also needs to be treated as a mainstream category, rather than a secondary part of the offer.
Anchoring
She also pointed to anchoring as a useful menu engineering tool, where a premium item is highlighted to make other parts of the menu feel better value by comparison. This works particularly well when the premium option is an upgraded version of an established best seller.
She said operators should identify their top five or 10 performers and consider how they can make them more unique, more distinctive and more closely linked to the guest experience.
Wainwright concluded that menu engineering is not just about changing design, but about using the menu to shape the guest journey, increase confidence and guide customers towards higher value choices.
