How & Why to Create a Prix Fixe Menu for Your Restaurant + Useful Tips

What is the first thing you check when trying to decide on a place to eat? It is most surely the menu. And you are not alone in this, 93% of customers check out restaurant menus online.

Therefore, your menu can significantly influence your potential customers’ choices. They will look at the images, the price, the promotions, but also at the type of menu. In this article, we will focus on the importance of a prix fixe menu for restaurants.

We’ll show you how it can help your business and how to easily create one:

What is a prix fixe menu?

A prix fixe menu for restaurants is a fixed menu at a set rate. It can be comprised of between 3 to 10 dishes, allowing customers to discover more of your chef’s talent.

While you would usually see a prix fixe menu at a fine dining establishment, it is not uncommon for casual and fast casual restaurants to use this type of menu for special occasions.

The benefits of a prix fixe menu for restaurants

A prix fixe menu is beneficial not only for restaurants but for customers as well. While you, as a restaurant owner get to experience increased operational efficiency, clients get to try out a variety of exciting dishes.

Here are some more benefits you can enjoy:

• Makes ordering a breeze: clients no longer have to spend a long time trying to decide what they would like and get distracted by too many choices. Moreover, you can offer a speedier service that will make their experience more pleasant;
• Increases client satisfaction: it is a special occasion to get to try out so many new dishes, prepared by a talented chef. Customers will appreciate the novelty and the attentive service that accompanies it;
• Reduced costs: because you know exactly what customers will order, you can adapt your inventory and practically eliminate the food waste that was costing you money;
• Ability to forecast revenue accurately: when you are creating a financial report, it will be easier to forecast costs and revenue if you only provide a prix fixe menu;
• More profit: if you include a variety of high-profit margin dishes in your prix fixe menu, you will be making more money compared to a traditional a la carte menu.

When you should add a fixed menu to your restaurant

There are many ways to implement a prix fixe menu for restaurants. You can have it as your primary menu or as an added option alongside your classic menu. Or, if you want it to pop out more and make it special, use it only for occasions, such as:

• Holidays: create a prix fixe menu out of all the traditional dishes usually served for the specific holiday, be it Christmas, New Year’s Eve, or Thanksgiving Day. Clients are more likely to indulge in a lot of food around special occasions;
• Events: if you organize events at your restaurant, make it easier for customers and for you and use a fixed menu. This way, couples who celebrate their engagement or people at a work event don’t have to waste precious time browsing the menu, they can just enjoy the food. Furthermore, you can more easily manage a big group and provide them with excellent service;
• Seasonal changes: once every couple of months, you get access to new produce that is in season and cheaper than other times. Why not take advantage of it and showcase the fresh ingredients in inventive ways with a prix fixe menu?

Read more: Restaurant Holiday Marketing & Planning: How to Get Ready for the End of 2024

7 tips to create the best prix fixe menu

If a prix fixe menu is a new concept for you and you are not sure how it is best to incorporate it into your business model, check out these useful tips:

1. Create a cohesive theme

A prix fix menu for restaurants is not just a random blend of dishes, it should tell a story. Take your clients on a culinary journey with dishes that are linked by the same theme. Here are some examples:

• Ingredients that are imported from the same region;
• Unique cooking techniques that impress the clients;
• A special blend of flavors that makes the menu stand out.

2. Save money with an online restaurant menu

If you change your menu often or only plan to use a prix fixe menu for restaurants, you can expect to invest a lot of time and money into printing out new paper menus each time.

But what if there was a way to do it for free? We have good news. With the restaurant menu creator from GloriaFood, you can create an irresistible online menu in no time and you can make as many changes as you like, free of charge.

You can create a special category named “Prix fixe menu” and only make it available for a certain holiday, such as Christmas.

Don’t worry, you can make the online menu available for on-premise diners by generating a QR code restaurant menu and adding the printed flyer on each table.

Follow this in-depth tutorial to get started:

3. Include your best-selling dishes

When you make changes to your menu, you don’t want to upset your loyal customers. To keep them coming back, include your best-selling dishes in your new prix fixe menu.

How can you find what are your most appreciated menu items? Easy, use the Reports module from GloriaFood that gives you access to valuable restaurant data that enables you to make informed business decisions.

Read more: How to Successfully Use Restaurant Analytics to Increase Revenue

4. Market your new prix fixe menu on all platforms

You’ve decided to take the big step and try out a prix fixe menu for restaurants, but how will your customers know? To get the word out about it and increase your number of table reservations, you will have to market it on:

• Your website: add a banner announcing your new menu and encourage people to discover the unique experience. If you don’t have a website, you can generate a sales and SEO-optimized one with GloriaFood in less than 10 minutes;

• On social media: tease your new menu and then post a variety of professional photos of the new menu items to tempt people to try them. Don’t forget to add a direct link to your menu in your bio and the post captions. We can help you with a smart link if you use our online ordering system.

Read more: How to Attract More Customers to Your Restaurant Using Social Media

5. Offer two or three price points

Some of your clients may want to try out your new prix fixe menu but are not able to because of the big price point or a large amount of food. To keep them happy, you can scale down your menu to fit all budgets, such as:

• Prix fixe menu 1: 10 dishes, 1 amuse-bouche, 3 starters, 4 mains, 2 desserts
• Prix fixe menu 2: 6 dishes, 2 starters, 2 mains, 2 desserts
• Prix fixe menu 3: 3 dishes, 1 starter, 1 main, 1 dessert

6. Maintain menu proportions

While tasting a prix fixe menu for restaurants is a unique experience, it should still follow the same principles of a traditional meal. The dishes should be in classic order, so no dessert before a main or starter at the end.

Additionally, try to maintain the classic menu proportions, where you just multiply the starter + main + dessert by 2 or 3 to get to the number of dishes you want to serve. Moreover, make the portions smaller, almost tasting size, if you have a lot of menu items to not overwhelm the customers.

7. Think seasonal

A prix fixe menu is not set in stone, you don’t create it once and keep it forever. Otherwise, clients will get bored of the same food and stop visiting you. The best and cheapest way is to take advantage of seasonal ingredients and try to cook them in innovative ways.

Read more: The Benefits of a Seasonal Restaurant Menu & How to Implement One

Final words

Using a prix fixe menu for restaurants can be very beneficial for your establishment because it enables clients to try something new and it helps you to increase profit. You don’t have to completely commit to it, you can just try it out on holidays and monitor your sales to see if it is the right choice for your business.