Consider your target audience and the restaurant’s lighting when you are planning your design. A brightly lit diner catering to college students can have much smaller text and finer detail than a candle-lit supper club catering to an older crowd. Make a mock-up of your design and try to read it in a similar setting to the one your audience will be in.

Also, check and double-check spelling! Food terms can have unusual spellings (not to mention accents and other special characters), so be sure you have the right spelling (And just because the chef says it’s spelled that way doesn’t mean he’s right–check it yourself to be sure.) Misspellings on a menu make it look very unprofessional.