Latest / Restaurant Business with Fexingo: Food Service, Hospitality, and Independent Operators / How Restaurant Menu Fonts Affect Your Per-Head Revenue
Transcript
- Lucas: So you're sitting down at a restaurant, you open the menu, and within about 90 seconds you've decided what to order. But here's the thing — that decision isn't just about what you're hungry for. It's heavily influenced by the font on the page. Luna: Font? Like, Times New Roman versus Comic Sans? I feel like that's a big swing from the usual margin analysis we do on this show. Lucas: It sounds trivial, but there's actual peer-reviewed research now. A study from Cornell's School of Hotel Administration published last year looked at how typography affects order behavior. They tested over 1,200 diners across multiple restaurant settings. Luna: What did they find? Lucas: The headline number: restaurants that used a heavier, serif font for the price — think a bold Garamond or a heavy Caslon — saw their average check size increase by six percent compared to menus that used a light sans-serif for prices. That's not a rounding error. Luna: Six percent on check size just from the font weight? That's pretty wild. But why does that work? Is it a perception thing? Lucas: Exactly. The researchers theorize that a heavier, more substantial price font signals solidity and value. When the price looks 'weighty', diners subconsciously feel the offering is worth it. Conversely, a light, airy price font makes the cost feel less concrete, which can actually suppress spending — diners become more price-sensitive because the number seems less anchored. Luna: So the font weight is almost like a pricing cue in itself. I'm trying to think of a restaurant I've been to recently that does this well. Lucas: A great example is Sweetgreen. A few years back, they redesigned their menu boards and their printed menus with a custom sans-serif font called 'Apercu'. But they used a bold weight for the price and a lighter weight for the description. It's subtle, but it works. Luna: And on the flip side, I bet some fine-dining places use very thin, elegant fonts for everything — prices included — to feel exclusive. But does that hurt their check size? Lucas: That's the fascinating part. For fine dining, a thin, elegant font can actually increase perceived luxury. But the Cornell study found that if the font is too thin — below what they called a 'weight threshold' — diners actually ordered less because they felt the prices were 'flimsy' and therefore overpriced. So there's a sweet spot. Luna: Right — you want it to feel luxurious but still substantial. So what about the font for the dish name or description? Does that matter too? Lucas: Absolutely. The study also looked at script fonts — those cursive, handwritten-style fonts. When a dish description was written in a script font, orders for that item increased by twelve percent compared to a standard sans-serif. But only for dishes that were described as 'premium' — like a steak or a seafood entree. For burgers or salads, script fonts actually decreased orders slightly. Diners felt it was trying too hard. Luna: So the font has to match the expected price point and cuisine. That makes sense. If I see a script font next to 'Grilled Cheese', I'm suspicious. But next to 'Pan-Seared Scallops', it feels right. Lucas: Exactly. And the effect isn't just on what people order — it affects how they perceive taste. There's a separate 2024 study from the University of Oxford that found people rated a chocolate mousse as tasting richer when the menu described it in a serif font versus a sans-serif. Same mousse, same description, different font. Luna: That's kind of mind-blowing. But let's get practical for a moment. If I'm an independent operator listening to this, how do I actually test this? I can't commission a custom font. Lucas: You don't need a custom font. Most restaurants are already using standard fonts like Helvetica, Arial, Georgia, or Times New Roman. The low-cost test is: print two versions of your menu — one where the prices are in a bold serif like Georgia Bold, and one where they're in a light sans-serif like Helvetica Light. Run them for two weeks each, and track your average check. If you see a three-to-five percent lift, that's thousands of dollars a year. Luna: And you can do that with just a word processor and a printer. No designer needed. But what about menu readability? If the font is too fancy, won't people struggle to read it? Lucas: That's a real concern. The study emphasized that legibility is paramount. If a diner has to squint, they get frustrated and may order less. So script fonts should only be used for a few premium items, not the entire menu. And the body text should always be at least 12 points for printed menus, maybe larger for older demographics. Luna: So you're saying there's a hierarchy: use clean, readable fonts for the bulk of the menu, then strategically deploy heavier or script fonts for the items you want to push. Lucas: Exactly. It's menu engineering, but at the typographic level. And it's not just fonts — it's also spacing, line height, and even the color of the font. Dark navy or charcoal on a cream background tends to perform better than pure black on white, which can feel harsh. Luna: I've also heard that using dollar signs versus just the number can affect spending. Is that related? Lucas: Yes, there's a classic study from 2009 that found removing the dollar sign from prices increased average spend. But more recent work suggests that the effect is smaller when the font weight is already optimized. So the font may actually be a stronger lever than the currency symbol. Luna: That's a nice insight. Let me ask you this: are there any restaurants that have publicly credited a font change with a revenue increase? Lucas: There are a few case studies. One that comes to mind is a New York-based Italian restaurant called 'L'Artusi'. They redesigned their menu in 2023, switching from a thin, modern sans-serif to a heavier, slightly condensed serif. Their general manager told a trade publication that their per-head average went up by about four dollars in the first month. Now, that's not a controlled experiment — they also changed some dishes — but the timing was suggestive. Luna: Four dollars a head in a restaurant that does maybe 200 covers a night — that's $800 a night, $24,000 a month. That's real money. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the kind of low-hanging fruit that independent operators often overlook because they think menu design is about photos or layout. But the font is the first thing your eye hits, and it sets the context for every price on the page. Luna: Okay, so if I'm a listener, what's the one thing I should do next week? One concrete action. Lucas: Print your current menu as a PDF. Then pick three items you really want to push — your highest-margin dishes. Change the font of those item names to a bold serif, or a script if it fits the cuisine. Print that version and put it on half your tables for two weeks. Track what happens. That's a $0 test that could yield a nice bump. Luna: I love that. And it's something you can do between lunch and dinner service. You know, this reminds me of something we've talked about before on this show — how small, almost invisible changes can have outsized effects on revenue. And I think that's part of why we keep doing these episodes. We get to share these little levers that operators can pull. Lucas: And honestly, that's why listener support matters here. If these conversations have moved your work forward in some small way — maybe you tested a table shape or changed your lighting based on what we covered — it really helps to know that. And if you've gotten value from the show, one way to keep it going ad-free is to support us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: Yeah, it's a small gesture that goes a long way in keeping these deep dives coming. Every bit helps us stay independent and focused on the numbers that actually move the needle. Lucas: So back to fonts — there's another dimension I want to touch on: digital menus. QR code menus are still common in 2026, and font rendering on screens is different from print. Screen fonts tend to look lighter because of backlighting, so a font that looks good in print might look too thin on a phone. Luna: That's a good point. So the same test might need a separate version for digital? Lucas: Exactly. For digital menus, you want fonts with a heavier weight — think bold or extra bold — and larger sizes, because people are reading on a small screen. Also, sans-serif fonts tend to render more cleanly on screens. Serifs can get blurry at small sizes. Luna: So if you're doing a two-pronged menu — print and digital — you might actually want two different font strategies. That's a lot of testing, but the upside is there. Lucas: Right. And the research is still evolving. There's a new paper coming out of the University of Chicago this fall that looks at font color contrast and its effect on tipping behavior. Early results suggest that higher contrast between the font and the background increases tip percentages by about one point. Luna: One basis point on tips across an entire restaurant — that's significant. I'm going to keep an eye out for that study. But for now, the takeaway seems clear: don't let your menu font be an afterthought. Lucas: Absolutely. It's one of the cheapest changes you can make, and the data suggests it works. So next time you're staring at your menu, actually look at the letters, not just the words.