Restaurant Menu Description Generator
Restaurant menu copy is not product copy. A dish description has ~40-80 characters to do three jobs at once: make someone hungry, list the ingredients honestly enough that allergen-avoiders can decide safely, and survive being squeezed into DoorDash's truncated item-card preview without losing the important bits. scrb's restaurant mode generates dish descriptions that work on a printed menu, on your online-ordering page, and on every delivery app you list - with correct allergen tagging (the 14 EU-regulated allergens + US FDA big-9), dietary labels (V, VG, GF, DF, halal, kosher), and ingredient transparency without turning every line into a recipe readout.
What scrb knows about restaurant menus that a chat model doesn't
scrb's restaurant mode is built against the real distribution surfaces a restaurant actually uses - a physical printed menu, your own ordering page, DoorDash / Uber Eats / Grubhub / Deliveroo / Just Eat, and the Square for Restaurants POS catalog. Each has different character budgets, different allergen conventions, and different ways the description is shown to the diner.
- Short (print menu) mode: 40-80 chars - the size that fits under a dish name on a printed menu without wrapping awkwardly. Evocative, concrete, no filler.
- Medium (online ordering) mode: 80-150 chars - the DoorDash / Uber Eats item card preview length. Gives context without requiring the diner to tap "more."
- Long (detail page) mode: 150-300 chars - when the diner taps through, the full description includes prep style, key ingredients, and pairing suggestions.
- EU-14 allergen tagging: gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, peanuts, soybeans, milk, nuts, celery, mustard, sesame, sulphites, lupin, molluscs - the 14 allergens EU FIR (Regulation 1169/2011) requires explicit labeling for.
- US FDA big-9 allergen tagging: milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans, sesame - the nine FALCPA-regulated allergens, with sesame added January 2023.
- Dietary labels: V (vegetarian), VG (vegan), GF (gluten-free), DF (dairy-free), halal, kosher, pescatarian, keto, paleo - tagged accurately based on ingredients, not optimistically.
- Calorie labeling: required in NYC, Philadelphia, California chain restaurants (20+ locations), UK chains (250+ employees) - scrb preserves calorie counts when provided in input.
- Spice level: 1-5 chili scale where the input suggests a spicy dish.
- Prep-style framing: "charred," "slow-braised," "hand-rolled," "fire-roasted" - specific verbs that replace generic "delicious" / "flavorful" / "authentic."
- Menu-section-aware: appetizer vs. main vs. side vs. dessert framing is tuned per section - an appetizer description emphasizes shareability, a main emphasizes satiety and pairing, a dessert emphasizes indulgence.
Before / after: real examples
Generic AI output:
Dive into a flavorful culinary journey with our grilled salmon. This exquisite dish features a beautifully seared salmon fillet, complemented by the delicate notes of roasted fennel, juicy orange segments, and a drizzle of aromatic chili oil. A perfect harmony of flavors that will delight your senses.scrb output tuned for a restaurant menu:
Short (print menu, 76 chars): Grilled salmon, charred fennel, blood-orange, chili oil. GF · DF · 24Why this wins: "charred fennel" beats "delicate notes of fennel" because it's concrete and tells a line cook and a diner the same thing. "May contain cross-contact" is the sentence that prevents lawsuits - generic AI skips it.
Medium (online ordering preview, 134 chars): Skin-on grilled salmon over caramelized roasted fennel, fresh blood-orange segments, and a drizzle of Calabrian chili oil. GF · DF.
Long (detail view, 267 chars): Skin-on Atlantic salmon grilled to medium, served over fennel caramelized in olive oil, fresh blood-orange segments, and a drizzle of Calabrian chili oil. Pairs with a lightly oaked Chardonnay or a dry rosé. Gluten-free, dairy-free, pescatarian.
Allergens: fish, citrus (orange). May contain: cross-contact with shellfish (shared grill surface).
Dietary: GF, DF, pescatarian.
Generic AI output:
Indulge in our handcrafted Pork Gyoza, a delightful appetizer of six golden-browned dumplings filled with savory pork. Served with a traditional ginger-soy dipping sauce, these gyoza offer a perfect blend of textures and flavors, promising a truly satisfying start to your meal.scrb output tuned for a restaurant menu:
Short (68 chars): Hand-folded pork gyoza (6), ginger-soy dipping sauce. Contains wheat, soy.Why this wins: "crisp bottom, steamed top" explains the dish to someone who doesn't know what gyoza means - and doesn't over-explain to someone who does. The allergen block is separated from the flavor copy so it's easy for the kitchen to keep updated without rewriting the menu every time.
Medium (128 chars): Six hand-folded pork gyoza, crisp bottom, steamed top. Served with house ginger-soy dipping sauce. Contains wheat, soy, sesame, egg.
Long (242 chars): Six hand-folded pork gyoza, pan-fried crisp on the bottom and steamed on top in the Japanese style. Served with a house-made ginger-soy dipping sauce with a hint of rice vinegar. Great shared as an opener for two. Made fresh each morning.
Allergens: wheat, soy, sesame, egg.
Dietary: none (not vegetarian, not gluten-free).
Spice level: mild.
FAQ
Will the allergen tags be accurate enough for EU / UK compliance?
scrb tags allergens based on the ingredients you provide as input. If you supply "contains: wheat, soy, sesame, egg" then output reflects that. scrb does not guess unstated allergens or infer them from dish names - if an ingredient isn't in the input, it won't appear in the output. For EU / UK FIR 1169/2011 compliance, the menu owner is still legally responsible for verifying ingredient accuracy. scrb's output is a formatted representation of the data you provide, not an allergen audit.
Does scrb handle calorie labeling for chain-restaurant jurisdictions?
Yes - if you provide a calorie count in the input, it's preserved in the output in the format required by NYC, Philadelphia, California's 20+ location chain rule, and the UK's 250+ employee regulation (effective April 2022). If you don't provide a calorie count, scrb will not fabricate one. For chains that legally must display calories, treat the input as the source of truth and scrb as the formatter.
Can I use this for DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub, Deliveroo, Just Eat, and my own online ordering page?
Yes. scrb generates three length variants per dish (short / medium / long) so you can pick the right fit per surface. DoorDash and Uber Eats item cards use 100-150 chars, Grubhub uses similar, Deliveroo tends to show more. The long version works for your own ordering page and your printed menu's detailed-section format if you have one.
Can I upload a whole menu CSV and get it back with descriptions?
Yes - on Pro and Business plans. Export your POS menu (Square for Restaurants, Toast, Clover, Lightspeed Restaurant all support CSV export) with the dish name and ingredient list columns. Upload to scrb, select "restaurant menu" mode, and download a CSV with short / medium / long / allergens / dietary columns added. Re-import into your POS or pass to your menu designer.
Does scrb support multi-language menus (for tourist-heavy restaurants)?
Yes - scrb generates directly in 25+ languages. The usual workflow for a multi-language menu: generate in English first, review and approve, then regenerate the same dishes in French / Spanish / German / Japanese / Korean / Italian / Portuguese. Allergen tags are translated to the local conventions (gluten → gluten / Gluten / 글루텐 etc.) rather than left in English.
How to plug scrb into your workflow
Restaurant menus change on different cadences - a 20-dish neighborhood restaurant updates 2-3 items per quarter, a 60-dish chain rolls out a full seasonal refresh 4 times a year, a ghost kitchen might onboard 200 dishes in a month. scrb fits each.
- Web app one-off: paste dish name + ingredients + allergens + dietary info, select "restaurant menu" as platform, get short / medium / long variants + formatted allergen block.
- Bulk CSV: export your POS menu, regenerate, re-import. Supports Square for Restaurants, Toast, Clover, Lightspeed Restaurant, and generic menu CSV formats.
- Zapier + POS integration: on new-item creation in your POS, auto-draft the dish description with scrb and hold for approval before publishing to the ordering page.
- Agency / menu designer flow: for restaurant branding agencies - a single Pro or Business plan serves 10-50 restaurant clients at once, with bulk CSV to turn around full menu refreshes in days not weeks.
Pricing
- Free: 5 dish generations/month - enough to test on a few items.
- Starter ($9.99/month): 100 generations - a small restaurant's full menu (30-40 dishes) plus seasonal tweaks.
- Pro ($24.99/month): 500 generations + bulk CSV + REST API. Sized for a restaurant group with 3-5 locations or a menu-design agency with a handful of restaurant clients.
- Business ($49.99/month): 3,000 generations - for chains, ghost-kitchen operators, or agencies managing 20+ restaurant clients.