15 Unique Coffee Shop Menu Ideas
Anna is a retail expert writer for Fit Small Business with over six years of evaluating dozens of software for small business. She holds a double degree in Accountancy and Financial Management and is currently pursuing further education in financial and payment technology.
There are numerous coffee shop menu ideas you can use to market your cafe. With the right color scheme, font, and menu design theme (for instance, magazine-style vs hipster), you can help customers connect to your brand. It’s best to design your menu to align with the ambiance you want to create.
Here are 15 unique coffee shop menu ideas to inspire your own:
1. Coffee Roasters Style Menu
This coffee roaster master style menu is easy for customers to read. (Source: Must Have Menus)
Readability is an important element in any marketing material, and it’s even more crucial for menus. You could use eye-catching colors and high-quality images, but your customers will have a hard time deciding what to order if it’s difficult for them to read the text. This can easily upset customers and/or cause them to leave. Make sure your fonts are large enough to read with a proper layout and ensure the colors have a sharp contrast against the background.
In this coffee shop menu example, the contrast of the orange and white font against the dark brown background ensures that the information is highly readable. The coffee bean images are even clear despite being of the same color theme, so the layout looks clean and the elements are even.
2. City Coffee Style Menu
This city coffee menu keeps the eye-catching imagery in the background so customers can focus on the text. (Source: Must Have Menus)
Keep your message clear and simple. With an elaborate design, it’s best to keep your text limited to the most important information to make sure your message is communicated clearly. If you add images and other design elements, make sure they don’t distract the reader from the text. Coffee shop customers will appreciate being able to understand what kind of coffee and food you offer so they can determine what they want to order as quickly as possible.
This coffee shop’s menu exudes a sense of relaxation and calm in the midst of a busy city. So while the overall look of this menu clearly implies a city vibe, the simple design and layout help emphasize the brand. You can feel the simplicity in everything from the image of the single steaming cup of coffee in the center to the use of white font and lots of blank space; it all comes together to create a pleasant coffee shop menu.
3. Photo Collage Style Menu
This coffee house menu makes use of actual product images to help customers decide on their orders. (Source: Must Have Menus)
A collage brings together different images that connect to make a story. You can utilize this technique in your menu by showcasing a sample of your drinks and/or food. This will give customers an idea of what to expect with their orders. Be sure to hire a professional photographer to capture actual images of your products in high definition. You will also need an expert designer to add graphics to the layout so that it stands out while still complementing the rest of the design elements in your menu.
4. Coffee Blackboard Style Menu
This coffee blackboard menu adds quick calls to action for each category so customers know how to place their order. (Source: Must Have Menus)
At times, reading a wide variety of coffee choices on a menu can be overwhelming for customers, and it helps to have a call to action (CTA) to give them an idea of what to do next. Once they know the different coffee options your shop offers, it’ll be easy to encourage them to make a purchase by adding a quick CTA on the menu. Keep your call to action short, creative, and conversational.
5. Magazine Style Menu
This menu from makes use of high-quality photos to feature its special coffee products. (Source: Behance)
Featuring your specials on the menu is a great way to integrate conversation starters into the menu design. This will generate the initial attention you need to capture your customer’s interest and make them more eager to try your products. It also helps in breaking the ice during casual business meetings that are often held in coffee shops. This coffee shop menu example made use of a magazine-style layout to feature the shop’s specials. Photos of the drinks are large and prominent, with information such as ingredients and pricing added as inset captions.
6. Artwork Design Style Menu
This unique aqua green coffee shop menu allows the color, size, and weight of the fonts to organize the messaging for its customers. (Source: Must Have Menus)
Proper font hierarchy attracts readers toward a message by making use of larger colorful or highly contrasted font. This makes it a useful tool to guide customers through menus that provide a lot of details about its products. It can also help a great deal when trying to market or promote new products; by using bolder and larger fonts, you can draw the customer’s eye toward it immediately.
In this example, the words “Roasted Coffee” are in bold, white font at the center while “All hot or iced” is in smaller blue fonts and highlighted in bright yellow. These messages catch the readers’ attention (and interest) first; and afterward, the food items that are listed in smaller, white font become more noticeable.
7. Festive Design Style Menu
This perky coffee menu makes use of vibrant colors and festive background design to tie with the business name. (Source: Must Have Menus)
The colors you use on your coffee shop menu determines how catchy it will be and how long your customers remember it. If you’re using your own brand colors, chances are, you are already using a color palette designed to emphasize your brand. It not, choose colors that reflect the vibe for which you want your coffee shop to be known.
Make sure that the colors you choose evoke the emotions you want your customers to feel when they see your menu. Bright colors, like the one used in the menu above, tend to represent a livelier vibe, while more neutral colors like gray and black can symbolize a certain calmness or exclusivity.
8. Promotional Cafe Menu
This cafe promotion menu is used for advertising to ensure customers will drop by during your special events. (Source: Must Have Menus)
You might have on-going events in your coffee shop, especially if you happen to operate under a specific theme. And while you can always add posters on your walls to advertise the events, adding information to your menu is an effective approach since customers usually look them over before they place an order. It also gives customers the opportunity to ask about the event, because a cafe staff member will be providing them service before, during, and after they review the menu.
This promotional coffee shop menu example shows an announcement for an open-mic event. The white font contrasts against the dark brown and gray colors and brings more focus to the event information. It is also strategically placed at the end of the menu, so customers have a chance to read all of the available food and drink items.
9. Interactive Content Style
The back of this coffee shop menu shares interesting tips on the different types of coffee to keep customers occupied. (Source: Freepik)
If you’re not into a minimalistic design, you can still avoid clutter and have a great-looking menu. Use the backside of the menu to share interesting information and conversation starters with your customers. You can even add a link to your website and social media accounts, so customers can visit them and interact while waiting for their orders.
This coffee shop menu’s layout adds an interesting infographic for coffee lovers. While the illustrations are pretty and interesting, there is extensive information at the bottom of each image that can keep waiting customers occupied and even become conversation starters for people who need help building a connection.
10. Vintage Blackboard Design
This old-school coffee menu uses a design that emphasizes the idea of nostalgia that reflects the overall business brand. (Source: Must Have Menus)
In order to strengthen your brand identity, you need to ensure that your menu reflects your coffee shop’s overall theme. This consistency will help solidify your branding and make your store more memorable. It helps to ensure customers will think of your cafe when they need to entertain friends or clients and bond with family who will also appreciate the atmosphere.
This menu has a vintage design and puts customers in the mindset of the older coffee shops. If you’re to attract more seniors who are looking for a quiet place to relax, this design may be your style.
Working on a budget doesn’t mean you should skip consulting with professionals and just design your coffee shop menu on your own. For as low as $5, you can hire a freelance graphic designer and marketing expert on Fiverr to ensure you have the perfect menu to match your brand. Get access to Fiverr’s pool of professionals today.
11. Hipster Coffee Menu
This hipster coffee menu is eye-catching but keeps the messaging organized with colorful grids. (Source: Must Have Menus)
Use grids to keep your design organized. Regardless of how colorful or creative it is, your coffee shop menu should still look organized. A color-coded grid with four quadrants separates your coffee into different categories, so your customers can quickly find specific drinks. This will help give your customers a pleasant buying experience and turn them into repeat clients.
In this coffee shop menu example, the hipster vibe is prominent in the use of bright colors and uneven grid sizes. However, the layout is still organized, with the headers standing out and the black fonts for the food item listings simple and evenly spaced.
12. Coffee Espresso Bar Menu
This coffee espresso bar menu makes use of geometric shapes and cream color scheme on both the images and font. (Source: Must Have Menus)
It’s possible to create a pleasant overall look with a ton of images and text. Generally speaking, you should create a design that stands out but is not so excessive that it will strain the customers’ eyes. Choose elements that complement each other to achieve a balanced look. Work with accents and simple color palettes for both the font and the images.
13. American Cafe Style Menu
This American cafe coffee menu adds a tagline that customers can easily remember and associate with when looking for a place to get good coffee. (Source: Must Have Menus)
Sometimes, people tend to remember slogans more than business names if they’re catchy enough. So consider adding your business slogan or tagline on your coffee shop menu when possible. This also lets your audience get an idea of your coffee shop theme and what to expect from the food items you sell. In this example, the business tagline “best coffee on the island!” is placed just below the coffee shop name and is very easy to remember, because it conveys exactly what every coffee lover wants to hear.
14. Formal Coffee Menu
This formal coffee menu added a quick description of its coffee variants to help customers with their orders. (Source: Must Have Menus)
A photo might not be enough to encourage customers to order a new coffee variant that you offer in your shop. It’s best to add a short description that can help customers know what they’ll be purchasing. Be creative and use words that appeal to their sense of sight, taste, and smell. You can even put a spin on it and incorporate witty and funny lines. In this formal coffee shop menu example, each drink is described using ingredients and flavor.
15. Illustrated Coffee Shop Menu
This illustrated coffee shop menu gives an overall vintage diner or coffee house vibe to match the business name. (Source: Freepik)
If you feel like large images that take up much of the space in your menu are not your style, try adding illustrations instead on your coffee shop menu. This approach gives the design a more personal feel and can make the idea of ordering food, especially for new customers, more appealing. It’s a perfect approach especially for coffee shops that want to portray home-brewed and baked products.
In this example, illustrations are used for images instead of high-quality photos. This gives the menu a more artistic design that works especially well for coffee shops wanting to create a home-style or rustic brand.
Bottom Line
The best coffee shop menu ideas are the ones that can capture your business’ brand. With the right design elements, your menu can become an effective marketing platform to bring in more customers and increase your bottom line. Use our list to help inspire both simple and creative coffee shop menu designs.
Have your own coffee shop menu ideas you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments below.
