Best Resources for Choosing a Menu Design Template

Whether it’s a greasy-spoon diner, a Michelin-star restaurant, or a hip gastro-pub, every restaurant needs a menu. And of course, coming up with great dishes is the head chef’s job, but the menu must reflect the overall vibe of the restaurant. Fortunately, there are many great platforms where you can find a menu design template for any type of establishment.

Learning how to design a restaurant menu template might be a good choice if you have the time and will to create something unique and never-before-seen. However, chances are that you have a ton of other responsibilities and issues you need to look into.

That’s where templates for menus come into play. Selecting the best menu design template might sound like a chore, but it can be a lot of fun if you go into it with the right mindset.

When you think about how to create menus, you always start with the basic question: what do I want the menu to look like, and what type of food do I offer? The principle is the same in selecting the actual dishes and in choosing the right menu design template.

If your business is a pastry shop or maybe a bakery specializing in cakes, you’ll probably want to look into menu card templates that lean into the whimsy and delight of sweets. Something with soft, pastel colors and jaunty title fonts.

On the other hand, if you’re opening a modern, yet casual eatery, going for something like a retro-industrial vibe might be the way to go. There are tons of amazing free menu design templates for this particular kind of design, seeing as it’s been popular for quite some time.

Still, this doesn’t mean you have to blindly adhere to certain rules or expectations. The best part of running your own business is getting to decide what you want it to look and feel like. Whatever the aesthetic you’re going for might be, you’ll certainly find some great templates for menus. Here are some of our favorite platforms for finding the best menu design template for your business!

Canva

When it comes to free menu design templates, or any kind of free templates, Canva is a treasure trove. Even with the free basic plan, you get access to hundreds of templates. With one of the plans, the sky’s the limit.

White green vintage restaurant food menu

This wonderful design by Arkhytirema is a mix of calm colors and intricate details that will enchant customers.

The design is vintage-inspired, yet sleek and modern. The warm colors make it inviting and reminiscent of a bygone age. It can be a fantastic choice for a country-style restaurant, as well as pizza parlors, and even food trucks.

The layout is neat and legible, with space for additional information, without being cluttered. The illustrations and nice serif font give it a bit of detail and visual interest.

Simple minimalist food menu

This is another one of the amazing free menu designs you can find on Canva. As the name suggests, it’s a no-frills minimalist design that lets the items on the menu speak for themselves.

However, it still leaves room for showcasing pictures of the star items on the menu, which will tickle the customers’ imaginations. Creating effective menu layouts is all about balancing information and space. You want the customer to have a clear picture of what you offer without overwhelming them.

This can be a wonderful choice for pub grub menus or even food trucks. It’s simple and to the point, which leaves more room for enjoying the food.

Brown elegant fast food menu

Although the name suggests that this template is best suited for fast food establishments, it doesn’t look that much different from a casual, slow dining restaurant menu.

Free menu design templates on Canva have an incredibly wide range, and this template showcases that. It’s an elegant, well-designed template with lots of space, and well-thought-out design elements.

As such, it can be a lovely choice for all kinds of restaurants. The template is fully customizable, so you won’t have any trouble tailoring it to your menu and aesthetic.

Muted green typographic general bar menu

Despite its name being a mouthful, this menu template is incredibly simple, almost utilitarian, yet powerful and effective.

The muted olive green is an interesting choice for a background, and the layout is neat and to the point. The overall design is reminiscent of mid-century Eastern Europe (dare I say, Eastern-European socialism?).

However, it’s a timeless design that’s bound to stay fresh and interesting for years. It doesn’t have to be strictly a bar menu either. The items can be changed so that they list food instead of drinks. It’s so versatile and can be an amazing fit for all kinds of restaurants, pubs, diners, and cafes.

Envato ($16/month)

Envato is a paid platform, so you won’t find free menu designs there, but the designs it offers are amazing. And the subscription price itself isn’t all that steep, especially because you probably won’t need it for more than a month.

Food menu

This is another one of the best menu design templates you can get. The layout is clean and simple, and it’s stunning in its understated elegance.

Still, it’s far from boring or underwhelming. The title boxes immediately catch the customer’s eye, and the frame grounds the entire design. All the smaller elements work perfectly together. And best of all, even if the simple, monochrome color scheme isn’t what you had in mind, you can easily swap it out for something bolder.

However, it bears mentioning that this template is only customizable in Adobe Indesign and Microsoft Word. With the download, you also get a detailed file guide, so customizing might not be as difficult as you might think.

Food menu trifold brochure

Trifold brochure menus typically suggest less sophisticated restaurants, such as fast food places and bakeries, but this doesn’t mean they can’t be used as menus for more formal settings.

If the template is elegant as this one, one could see it being used as a menu for a trendy bistro. The framing, while quite eye-catching, isn’t overbearing and serves to enhance the textboxes and create a distinct layout.

It might seem that the space is more limited than in more traditional menu layouts, but a trifold brochure provides more space to provide information. It also has a designated space for logos, QR codes, and social media handles, which is great for expanding your marketing reach.

MustHaveMenus

As the name suggests, this platform is all about restaurant marketing. It has tons of resources that will help any restaurant owner find their aesthetic and build a strong brand. They also offer a free plan, which is great for new businesses, but with the paid plan ($23 per month, billed annually) you get unlimited hi-res downloads, priority customer support, and tons of other perks.

Printable burger menu

This is a wonderful template that offers loads of space, as well as character. The frames ground the page layout and make the text neat and organized.

The illustrations are vintage-inspired, detailed and charming. They make the design playful and vibrant, while still staying elegant and classy. One could hardly expect to use those words for a burger place, but that just goes to show the power of a well-designed menu.

It might be a bit niche, seeing as it's centered around burgers, but if you’re opening a burger bar, it could be an amazing choice.

Barley pub menu

This template has one of the more classic menu formats, which can work well for many restaurants. It has a tried-and-true color scheme, with lovely pops of yellow amid the white and black.

It also provides you with space for additional descriptions of the dishes, pictures, or even the chef’s recommendations.However, it still has character and fun visuals, such as the wood grain pattern in the background.

Contemporary pub menu

This lovely template combines warm colors and crisp, contemporary typography. The result is a wonderful design that can be a good fit for many types of restaurants.

The template has loads of space, which is great if you have a large menu, with many different items. The additional design elements are more vintage-inspired which creates a beautiful and timeless look.

However, the colors can be trickier to incorporate if you opted for a different color palette for your decor and other brand elements.

ManyPixels

Last, but certainly not least, ManyPixels offers a wide variety of design services, including menu design, of course. If you find yourself wondering how to create menus that best reflect your brand, the best way is to work with a designer that can help you put your ideas into work.

This wonderful template by our own Bojan Budjarovski is simple, elegant, and full of character. The layout is neat and the items are grouped so that there’s no confusion. The visual elements are cohesive and the little pops of gold give it vibrancy and visual interest.

The design itself is timeless and will be usable for many years to come. It can be a wonderful choice for bistros and restaurants and even cafes.

However, this is only a small taste of the stellar work our designers do. They will help you figure out how to design a restaurant menu template, or indeed menus for all kinds of businesses, whether it’s a hair salon, bakery, dog grooming salon, or even a spa.

With a ManyPixels subscription, you can get any piece of branding your business needs, as well as website landing pages, logos, and social media graphics. ManyPixels offers various subscription plans that will suit the needs of any business. Even with the most affordable plan, you can get your designs in as little as 1-2 business days. We’ll be happy to schedule a live demo if you have any additional questions about our work.