Menu types
A menu type is one complete restaurant experience: its own admin menu, its own categories, its own item fields, its own public archive, and its own printable PDF. Fenómenus ships ten of them, and a site enables only the ones it sells.
This chapter explains what each type is for, which fields and prices it carries, and how to turn one on.
The ten types
| Menu type | One record is… | Prices it stores | Bulk paste table |
|---|---|---|---|
| À la carte menu | One dish | Full portion, half portion, unit | Yes |
| Terrace menu | One independently managed terrace dish | Full portion, half portion, unit | Yes |
| Breakfast | One breakfast item | Full portion, half portion, unit | Yes |
| Desserts | One dessert | Full portion, half portion, unit | Yes |
| Bar menu | One counter item | Full portion, half portion, unit | Yes |
| Wine list | One wine | Glass, bottle, Magnum, Benjamin | Its own wine tools |
| Cocktails | One cocktail | One price | Yes |
| Beverages | One drink | Glass, shot, bottle | Yes |
| Tasting menu | A whole multi-course menu | Menu price, pairing price | No |
| Set menu | A whole menu with choices | Menu price | No |
Also in this chapter:
- Enable and disable menu types — turning a type on, and what to do when a menu is retired.
- Rename a menu type for guests — changing the name guests read without changing the structure.
Two families, not nine unrelated things
Eight of the ten are item lists. One record is one thing a guest orders, it belongs to a category, and it carries the prices for the formats in which it is served. Everything in Items and categories applies to all of them.
Two of them — Tasting menu and Set menu — are menus. One record is a complete offer built from titled blocks, priced as a whole. They have no per-item price columns, no Excel export and no bulk paste table, and they use two dedicated public designs instead of the item layouts.
Recognising which family you are in answers most questions about why a screen looks different.
What every type has in common
- A category taxonomy of its own, managed in All categories.
- An All items screen with search, category and status filters, drag ordering and inline editing.
- A public archive whose layout is chosen when the type is enabled.
- Per-type appearance settings — background image, icon, plural label, contact dock links, navigation toggles — under Settings → Restaurant settings → Content settings → Content settings.
- Its own PDF menu generator with its own saved design preferences.
- Allergen support, when the type is ticked under Content settings → Allergens.
What differs between types
- Which price fields exist. A dish has portions; a wine has bottle formats; a cocktail has one price.
- Which text fields exist. The à la carte and terrace menus carry a recommended wine and a recommended cocktail; only tasting and set menus carry course blocks and a footer note.
- Which media field exists. Most types use a photo gallery; wine lists and beverages use a single image instead.
- Which layouts are offered. Item types choose from five layouts; tasting and set menus choose between the two menu designs.
- Which extra taxonomies exist. The à la carte and terrace menus each add their own NOT suitable for and Options lists; the wine list adds vintage, ageing classification, winery, grape and region.
Choosing what to enable
Enable a menu type when the restaurant genuinely sells that experience separately. Two practical rules:
- Do not enable a type you cannot fill. An enabled but empty menu type still shows up in navigation and reads as a broken promise.
- Do not split what guests read as one card. If desserts are printed at the end of the same card, keep them as a category of the à la carte menu instead of enabling the Desserts type.
Start with Enable and disable menu types.