Secret Sauce of Online Ordering: Menu's

When you walk by a restaurant, a cool sign or catchy storefront might make you want to go in. But online, you can't see or feel those things. So, a hero image and the restaurant menu need to grab your attention. If the menu looks bad or is hard to understand, customers might not want to order, even if the food is awesome... (and wouldn't it be cool if those pictures started moving, like having videos instead of hero images?)

So, when you're scrolling through a food delivery app, picking what you want to eat, it's equally important to be able to customise that dish exactly how you like it, like adding extra cheese or piling on different sauces to your favourite sandwich. But here's the thing: not all platforms let you tweak your meal the same way. Imagine one app lets you go wild with cheese and sauce, while another says you can only pick one sauce. Weird, right?

My experience with the same restaurant across different platforms has shown me that the options can vary. On one platform, I can choose only 1 sauce; another allows for up to 2 sauces, and the last one offers the option to select up to 3. Despite it being the same product, price and restaurant the configurations differ. If you were ordering and you're a big sauce fan -just like me-, which platform would you choose?

The question arises: why do platforms impose restrictions that wouldn't exist in a physical store or on another platform? Why different configurations? The answer often lies in technical constraints, agreements between restaurants and platforms, or simply oversight. But these shouldn't be excuses for offering a subpar experience.

To nail the online experience, restaurants and platforms must strike a balance between showcasing their offerings attractively and aligning with what customers expect. This means considering whether to mirror the in-house menu online or to offer something tailored to the digital crowd. Online, there's no waiter to explain the menu or recommend dishes, so the design needs to "work harder" to guide customers through their choices.

Design meets data!

Food delivery platforms host thousands of restaurant menus and process millions of orders, giving them a unique ability to pinpoint what works best. 'Best' can mean different things depending on the location, type of cuisine, and other factors, but ultimately, it's about guiding restaurants to deliver the best customer experience.

Platforms have already been experimenting with ways to make menus more appealing, starting with adding images, descriptions, popular sections, and using machine learning (ML) to generate recommendations. And guess what? People loved it.

By blending the best of both worlds— and the simplicity of making choices with the behind-the-scenes tech wizardry— platforms are making their menus a great experience. It's all about hitting that perfect balance: offering all the variety you could ever want (and customisation) without making it overwhelming to choose what to eat. (avoid decision paralysis)

The goal should be straightforward: to make online ordering (great again) or as satisfying as dining in or ordering over the phone. I've always seen the phone as our biggest competitor, and understanding how we can surpass that experience was key to me.

What do you think?

What's your favourite feature on these menus, or what do you think is missing?