The challenge

Chiquito is a restaurant chain that serves Mexican and South American dishes. It comes under the umbrella company of The Restaurant Group (TRG). Their existing menu needed a redesign both visually and with regard to issues raised by staff and customer feedback. The challenge was to address these issues and propose solutions together with a full mock-up.

The solution

As part of the presentation, a detailed report was provided to address concerns raised in the brief and to flag-up other issues with the design of their existing menu. This report demonstrated the reasoning and rationale behind the proposed solutions. These included:

Their existing menu proved very daunting for customers. A more logical hierarchy was proposed with more obvious headings (some colour-coded) and cleaner more legible typography for the dishes.

A fold out flap means that the lunch, drinks and dessert menu can be easily accessed by waiters and customers. It was important for the lunchtime menu to be separated in this way as this was previously causing confusion for many diners.

A glossary was proposed to explain some of the dishes to those unfamiliar with Mexican cuisine (burritos, fajitas etc). Also, a guide for how to pronounce dishes adds a fun and educational element.

A more sophisticated cover was proposed to be in keeping with the refurbishment of their chain of restaurants. It was designed to look smart and unobtrusive when stored in the menu dispensers.

Solutions were also offered for more technical issues. These included the type of laminate used to avoid cracking and slipping from waiters’ hands, rounded corners to help prevent menus becoming dog-eared and tatty and resolving issues of confusing copywriting.