Sweet and Salties: Make, Promote, and Sell it in Your Restaurant
By: Reviewed by: Ricson E.
Update: May 29, 2023
The lingering sweet taste of sugar paired with the savory goodness of salt is a match made in heaven. Your taste buds would definitely go crazy for sweets and salties – may it be food or desserts.
It is not a traditional blend of flavors that you’ll find in desserts or even food, but it is increasingly becoming more popular as the years' pass. This is mainly because sweetness can counteract saltiness, and saltiness can counteract sweetness – it’s the perfect combination!
In this article, you will find a handful of sweet and savory food items and desserts that you can add in your restaurant’s menu items.
You’ll also learn how to promote and sell them using MENU TIGER, an interactive restaurant menu QR code software.
This pretzel-crusted brownies’ has a layer of a salty pretzel crust that’s topped with a smooth and fudgy chocolate chip brownie. This is one of the best sweet and salties recipe for your restaurant. You can make the brownie using a brownie mix or make one with your own recipe and add toppings like an ice cream to pair.
Chicken and waffles kind of make sense and not at the same time. It’s definitely an odd combination to make as a cookie but it actually works! To add, it is also one of the best sweet and salties recipe for your restaurant pantry.
It has that crispy-savory feel from the chicken balanced out by the cookie dough’s sweetness and glaze.
Salted carmelitas are cookie bars with a layer of chocolate chips and salted caramel sandwiched between two layers of oatmeal cookie dough.
You can slice it up, individually wrap the sliced pieces, and freeze them for later. You can just set them on the counter or place them on a plate to thaw when you start craving them.
Grilled Vanilla Bean Mascarpone Peaches With Salted Bourbon Caramel
The sweetness and acidity of the peaches paired with salted bourbon caramel mellowed out by some vanilla bean mascarpone is heaven in each bite – it just melts in your mouth.
If you’re looking to add a healthier option, you can add dark chocolate sea salt almonds to your menu. Your customers will appreciate this snack to cleanse their pallets after a meal or take out to snack on the road.
Just because it has easter in its name doesn’t mean you only serve it on Easter.
The soft texture of this cheesecake blends well with a layer of roasted almonds and salted caramel making it crunchy, sweet, salty, and creamy all at the same time.
This bacon-wrapped pineapple is a great appetizer. It will fire up your customer’s taste buds and prepare them for the meal ahead.
MENU TIGER Set up
Now that you have ideas of what recipes you can add to your restaurant’s menu items, learn how to navigate and set up your MENU TIGER account.
Register for an Account
Before you start doing anything, you need to register for an account first. Follow the steps below:
1. Go to MENU TIGER and register for an account. We have a 14-day trial on all of our plans and you don’t need a card to register.
2. Verify your account by going to your registered email inbox.
3. Find the verification email [Menu-Tiger (Verify your email address for Menu Tiger)], open it, and click the “Verify Now” Button.
4. You will then be redirected to the log-in page.
5. Input your registered email and password to access the software.
That’s it! You’re in.
Explore the Software
Now that the registration is done, you can start exploring the software.
On the dashboard, you have your order analytics where you can see your Daily Orders, Daily Revenue, and Daily Customers. Plus there is a comprehensive report of your Most Sold Foods (or beverage).
You can also look at it by week, month, or custom dates.
Set up your Store/s
It’s important to set up your store/s first because you’ll be needing it when you start making your digital menu.
To set it up, follow these instructions:
1. Go to the Stores Section located below the Dashboard.
The name of the restaurant you registered is going to be the first store you can see on the list. Tap on the pen icon on the far right to edit its contents.
2. You will then see a pop-up that will ask for your restaurant’s name, address, and phone number.
Since you already have the name of your restaurant and the phone number, you can just add the address of the store. However, if you’ve input the wrong information during the registration, you can always change it here.
3. You can also add more store branches here if you have more than one branch depending on your plan.
4. If you’ve noticed, there’s a “localize” tab beside “create”. To activate this, go to the “Website” and proceed to General settings to choose the languages.
5. Next is the “Store Details”. You’ll find “tables” and “users” here.
Under “tables” you’ll be able to add the number of tables you have in your restaurant and generate/customize the appearance of your menu QR codes.
Note: Make sure you customize the QR code first before adding a table because if you add a table first, you won’t be able to edit the appearance of that table’s QR code.
Also, every time you customize your QR code, you’d have to delete all the existing tables and then add them back to reflect the changes.
6. For the “users”, it’s where you can add the people whom you want to manage that specific store.
When you add a user, you need to input their name, choose their Access Level (User or Admin), input their email, and add a password.
Note: With regard to the access level, a User can only access the Order Panel while an Admin can access everything except the Website and Add-ons.
Customize the menu QR code
1. Customize your menu QR code first before setting up the number of tables inside your restaurant.
2. In customizing your menu QR code, you can change the color, frame, add a logo and CTA phrase
3. Preview and test them first before you download and print your menu QR codes so you can check if it’s working or not.
Customize Your Digital Menu
Now, you can start adding your menu items. Follow these steps:
1. Click on the Menu Section just below Stores.
A submenu with “Foods” and “Modifiers” will appear. Click on the “Foods.”
2. From there, add Menu Categories by indicating the Store/s where the category will be available, and the category’s name.
Note: The Modifier is optional for now. Also, you can localize the name of your category but again, you would need to set up languages on the Website section.
3. After adding your categories, you can start adding your menu items to the food list.
Pick the category that you want your menu item to belong to, then click on the “New” button.
4. Input the information asked and just click on “Add” when you’re done.
Reminder: You need to finalize your categories first before adding your menu items to each of your categories.
Website Optimization
After doing everything above, head to the Website Section.
From there, you will be able to customize the content of your website.
Just fill in all of the required information, and you’re good to go. You can add promotions or the featured menu items whenever you need to. You can have them on the first page of your website.
Also, you can change the font and the color of your website based on your restaurant’s branding. Though the font is limited, we made sure that they are easy on the eyes and easy to read.
With regard to the localization of your menu, the languages available are still limited. However, you can add as many local languages as you want as long as that language is available in the software.
MENU TIGER: Boost your sales and improve restaurant operations
After setting up everything (from registration to website optimization), let’s talk about boosting your sales using this software.
There are different things you can do to boost your sales. Here is a list of strategies to improve restaurant operations.
Create catchy menu descriptions
Your menu descriptions don’t have to be too long because most people won’t even read them. It just needs to be concise and descriptive.
You can entice your customers with words but don’t overdo it. Add a little story behind the menu item to differentiate it from other restaurants.
You don’t have to be fancy with your words. As long as it’s clear what you’re offering, it’s good.
Add high-quality food photos
You need to add your own photos to your digital menu. It’s not advisable to add a generic photo to it because you won’t be able to give your customers an accurate visual description of what you are serving.
It doesn’t mean that you have to hire a professional to take them though. You can use your smartphone, tweak the photo a bit and upload it to your digital menu. However, you need to be mindful not to overdo it.
Also, make sure you don’t over-exaggerate your photos to the point where your customers won’t even recognize the dish when they get it. What your customers receive should be what your photos portray.
Having high-quality photos also makes the dish more appetizing because your customers can clearly identify your dish and see its contents just based on the photo.
It’s also a selling point where your customers decide whether to get it or not because if your customers can’t imagine what a specific dish looks like, it’s less likely that they’ll buy it.
Recommend your best sellers
Your best-sellers are best-sellers for a reason and it’s not a bad thing to recommend it to your customers, especially the new ones.
When someone doesn’t know what to get and you know that they’ll enjoy that particular menu item, make a suggestion.
Make it easier for them to get something that will keep the ball rolling and have them order more.
You can also suggest least ordered menu items so that your customers would know how it tastes and see where it leads.
Upsell by listing out modifiers to your menu items
Adding modifiers to your menu items is a great way of upselling them. You can add as many modifiers that will compliment your dish or drink and in turn make more sales.
Having modifiers is a strategic way of increasing the price of a menu item. Give your customers the power to customize their orders and tweak them the way they want to.
Run Promotions
It’s pretty easy to run promotions with MENU TIGER. All you need is to go to the website section, scroll down to the very last part and click on the promotions tab – it’s under advanced.
Scroll up again if you can’t see the add button. Once it’s visible, click it and do the following steps:
1. Put the name of the promotion
2. Add a description
3. Upload an image for it
4. Schedule the start and end date of the promotion
5. Indicate the discount for the promoted menu item/s – may it be an exact amount or percentage; and
6. Choose the menu items included in the promotion
7. Click Create
This will automatically add the promotion to your website/digital menu. So, every time a customer scans your menu QR code or accesses your website remotely, they’ll be able to see the promotion.
Faster Customer Turnover
When you use MENU TIGER to make your digital menu, you do not need a server to tend to your customers to get orders.
They don’t even have to wait for someone to give them the menu because they’ll have easy access to it through a menu QR code.
Customers only have to scan the menu QR code using their smartphones or handheld devices with internet connectivity, and that’s it!
They’ll be redirected to your digital menu where they can pick and choose which menu item they want to order.
Customers can add their menu item of choice to their digital cart and check out. When they check out, they’ll have the option of whether to pay on the spot through PayPal, Stripe, or cash.
This promotes less human interaction but at the same time, it also speeds up your operations and in turn, would create faster customer turnover.
Use Social Media
Using social media can be beneficial, especially when you want to reach more people in your area and outside of it.
One thing you can do to promote your website is to add it to your social media pages.
Another thing you can do is place a QR code that is linked to your website on every photo or video you upload to your pages. You can create one here: https://www.qrcode-tiger.com
Color Psychology
Colors can affect your appetite. According to Color Psychology, “Food is not just a resource necessary for human survival.
It is something that can be connected to more than one sense: to memories, feelings, and nostalgic moments.”
Mainly, you would want to use color psychology to direct someone or intensify someone’s feelings towards doing something, and this tactic can be implemented in your branding.
As you’ve noticed, many of the most popular fast food chains’ colors are red. That is not coincidental.
Yellow and orange are also some of the colors that brands use to induce the feeling of hunger in their customers when they see their brand. That’s why you see most food chains or restaurants using these colors.
Boost your restaurant’s sales with sweet and salty heavenly desserts using MENU TIGER
As you experiment with adding mouthwatering sweet and salty desserts to your menu, always seek to improve your restaurant operations.
Do some research, run promotions, and put yourself out there! And if you still haven’t been using digital menus for your restaurant, you’re definitely missing out!
Try out a 14-day free trial to any subscription plan with MENU TIGER today!
