Best Bar Food Menu Ideas to Persuade Clients to Order More

What is the most popular & most profitable bar food:

1.Best Bar Food Menu Ideas You Must Try
2.Most Popular Bar Food Examples
3.Unique Bar Food Ideas
4.What Is the Most Profitable Bar Food
5.How to Create a Simple Bar Food Menu
6.Bar Food Specials Ideas
7.Final Words

Owning a bar isn’t just about finding and serving classic and creative drinks that are popular with your audience. It is also about implementing the best bar food menu ideas that encourage people to spend more money at your business.

In this article, you will find a variety of profitable and unique bar food ideas that will increase your sales:

Best Bar Food Menu Ideas You Must Try

Before we delve into a variety of bar food ideas, we have a few tips that will help you create a profitable menu, specifically catered to your target customers:

Find your audience: if you want to convince people to order, you must offer them options that are to their liking. You can conduct a survey on social media to find what your local community likes to eat when they go to bars;
Recommend pairings: one of the best bar food menu ideas is to teach people what food goes with what drink. You can have your servers recommend food according to the drinks already ordered and add special sections in your menu for pairings;
Research your competition: draw inspiration from successful competitors. What food are they serving? Are they doing a happy hour or other promotions? What is their most popular menu item?
Serve unique food items: if you want to stand out from your competitors, you must offer your customers something they won’t be able to find elsewhere. For example, on Thursday, you can serve fresh oysters. It will create fear of missing out for clients as it is a limited offer.
Allow clients to order fast and easy: A bar can get quite crowded, and it can often be hard to get a server’s attention. Therefore, if you want to create a better customer experience, create a QR code restaurant menu, and print the code on flyers for every table. This way, clients will be able to see the menu and order just by scanning the QR code.
Make your bar more efficient: with a bar POS system witch allows for faster order and payment processing and increased service speed.

Most Popular Bar Food Examples

If you want to find the best bar food menu ideas for your business, you can experiment with new dishes weekly and track the sales. Keep the ones that are ordered the most to maximize profit. Check out these delicious ideas for bar food:

Pizza: this may not come as a surprise, as pizza is one of the most popular bar foods in almost every country. Try unique combinations of toppings to impress your customers;
Wings: the secret to good wings is the sauce. Offer people a variety of options they won’t be able to say no to;
Onion rings: that pair perfectly with your selection of beers. You can even set up a promo that states that you get a free portion of onion rings for every three beer purchases to encourage orders;
Loaded potato skins: inspired by the classic Spanish dish patata bravas, you can top them with delicious bacon, cheese, and jalapeno;
Mozzarella sticks: with spicy marinara sauce to make customers thirsty for more drinks;
Sticky ribs: don’t forget to provide some wet towels so customers can easily clean their fingers;
Sandwiches: great for hungry clients who want a quick, uncomplicated bite to eat;
Hot dogs: load them up with corn, radishes, and lots of sauces to make them more appetizing;
Peanuts: for people who aren’t really hungry, but still like to snack on something while they drink;
Olives: they don’t belong just in martinis, they also make a great snack.

Unique Bar Food Ideas

If you don’t want to blend in with the other bars around you, you need something special that makes you stand out. On top of delicious drinks, you can also try out unique bar food ideas that will tempt people to make a reservation:

Charcuterie boards: they are still on trend, yet not many people have the time to make them at home. Yet, if they will see them on your menu, they won’t hesitate to order them. If you also put effort into plating, people will photograph them and post them online, marketing your bar for free in the process;
Hummus with crudités: such as carrot, cucumber, and peppers. Some people may be trying to eat healthier and you should offer them the option to do so because you will attract a new audience to your bar;
Caramel popcorn: for people with a sweet tooth. If you already serve popcorn, you will just have to add a topping and serve a new dish;
German soft pretzel sticks: you can buy them frozen or mix flour, water, and yeast to prepare the perfect pretzel that is crunchy on the outside and fluffy soft on the inside. The salt on top pairs perfectly with beer;
Fried pickles: a staple in some parts of the world, and a rarity in most. Try them out at your bar and see if your customers enjoy the taste combination;
Flatbreads with prosciutto and figs: go very well with wine and feel more sophisticated compared to other bar food.

What Is the Most Profitable Bar Food

For a bar food to be profitable, the total costs that are necessary to produce it should be significantly lower than the price you sell the item for. Because labor costs and operational costs are usually fixed, you must prepare menu items that have a low food cost.

Here are a few examples:

Chip and dip: you buy the ingredients in bulk, so you can enjoy a high-profit margin. You can have a variety of dips such as ranch, salsa, guacamole, and queso;
French fries: a salty-fried snack to go with every beer on your menu. You can buy them frozen to lower food costs;
Burgers: one of the best bar food menu ideas because clients love to indulge in a delicious burger when they go out for drinks. If you want to make them even more profitable, allow people to customize their burger with toppings;
Quesadillas: easy and fast to make and only need a few cheap ingredients. They are also a light snack that pairs well with cocktails;
Popcorn: a light snack that goes well with any type of drink and costs very little to prepare.

Another tested way to increase profit is to provide customization options. Toppings are a high-profit item because they have a very low food cost. It is a win-win situation for you because you earn more while increasing customer satisfaction. After all, clients can create their perfect dish.

Learn how to add toppings to your menu:

Increase your profit margin by allowing people to customize their dishes Add toppings to your restaurant menu in no time

How to Create a Simple Bar Food Menu

If you want people to order more food, you need to make it easy for them to do so. You need a place where the best bar food menu ideas will shine and persuade people to keep adding to their orders.

The solution is the simple menu creator from GloriaFood. It is intuitive to use, you can set it up in minutes and it allows you to make unlimited changes, free of charge. Follow the instructions from this video:

It also allows you to add the irresistible promotions we will mention below at the top, in just a matter of seconds.

Bar Food Specials Ideas

Sometimes people need a little encouragement to order food. And that little push can be in the form of a promotion. Offer bar food specials can also be a great marketing technique that will convince clients to choose your bar over other options.

Here are the best bar food menu ideas that include deals:

Happy hour: you can choose the hours when your restaurant is less crowded and offer a promotion to encourage people to come in. For example, between 4 and 6 p.m., you can have a 20% off the whole menu deal;
30% off your worst-selling dish: to encourage people to try it and discover how good it is, so they will order in the future even without the discount;
Buy one, get one free: if you have items that are nearing their expiration date and you need to sell them before they become food waste. For example, but one portion of olives, get one for free;
Get a free item: encourage people to place big orders by offering them a free snack. For example, get a free loaded potatoes portion for every order over $40;
Combo deal: for example, 3 beers and pretzels for a fixed price or a bottle of wine and a charcuterie board for a fixed price.

You can set up any of the promotions above and more using the Promotions module from GloriaFood. It will only take you seconds to add offers at the top of the menu, where they will be immediately noticed by clients. Learn how easy it is:

Attract customers with bar food specials Implement bar promotions in seconds with GloriaFood

Final Words

Get people interested in your restaurant by trying out the best bar food menu ideas presented above. Every time you make a change to your menu, don’t forget to boast about it on social media to tempt people to come and taste your new additions.

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