Menu Printing for Restaurants and Cafés: Sizes, Paper and Costs

Most cafés and restaurants land on one of three formats: a flat A4 or A5 menu on 250–300gsm card with wipeable matt lamination for table service; a folded A4-to-DL for takeaway counters and door drops; or a stapled A5 booklet when the menu runs past four faces. The strategic advice matters more than the format: print short runs so a price change doesn't cost you a box of obsolete menus.

Format chooser

Format	Best for	Notes
Flat A4/A5, laminated	Table menus	Wipeable, lasts months of service
Tri-fold A4→DL	Takeaway menus, door drops	Cheap in volume, letterbox-friendly
A5 stapled booklet	Long menus, drinks lists	Page counts in multiples of 4
Single-sheet paper	Specials, daily menus	Print weekly in-house or with us

Lamination: worth it?

For anything touched by customers and wiped by staff — yes, matt lamination specifically (gloss shows every fingerprint under restaurant lighting). For takeaway menus given away, no — spend it on paper feel instead (gloss vs silk vs uncoated).

The pricing trap: over-ordering

Menus date faster than any print product. Suppliers change, prices move, dishes fail. Fifty laminated table menus plus a short-run reprint each quarter beats five hundred printed once. Booklet-format menu costs here; flat menus price as flyers/card prints.

Design notes from the print side

Dark backgrounds look premium but show wear at edges; leave price columns aligned and uncluttered (they're what customers scan); and keep a master file with styles set so dish swaps take minutes.

FAQ

Same-day menu reprints? Flat menus yes, artwork by 1pm; laminated by next day typically. Do you store our menu file? Yes — reorders and price tweaks by email. QR/online menu inserts? We print table talkers and QR cards too — ask at the shop.