Menu and Signage Copy Editing and Proofreading Services

A menu is read standing up, in poor light, by someone deciding under mild social pressure with a server approaching. A sign is read from six feet away by someone already walking. Neither reader is going to work anything out. In hospitality this writing also carries a legal dimension that most other copy does not: an allergen statement is a safety-critical communication delivered through the same document as the marketing, and a customer who dies because a dish description omitted something is not a customer service failure.

We edit what restaurants, hospitality groups, retailers and venues produce — menu item descriptions and menu structure, allergen and dietary information and its presentation, wine and drinks list copy, specials and seasonal menu copy, price presentation and service charge explanations, table talkers and point-of-sale copy, wayfinding and directional signage, safety and regulatory notices, opening hours and access information, drive-through and counter signage, staff scripts for allergen and dietary queries, delivery platform listings and photography captions, and multilingual and accessible menu versions. Our editors read this material the way a customer does.

The menu description is the piece of writing that has to sell a dish and disclose it at the same time, and the two functions are frequently in conflict. Adjectives take space that ingredients need; a description reading "our signature pie, slow-cooked and rich" tells a customer nothing about what is in it and forces the allergen conversation onto a busy server. We write these so the dish is identified by what it actually contains in the first clause, so anything a customer might not expect is named — the anchovy in the dressing, the butter in the "vegetarian" mash, the nut oil, the alcohol in the sauce — because unexpected ingredients are where both disappointment and harm come from; so allergens are marked in a way that survives being read quickly, with a clear statement of what the kitchen cannot guarantee; and so the adjectives that remain are the ones doing work. We also write the server script alongside the menu, since the menu's job is to make the conversation shorter and the script is what happens when it does not.

Everything you send is treated in confidence, including menus before launch and supplier information. We are editors rather than food safety, allergen or regulatory advisers, and we offer no view on allergen compliance, labelling requirements or any legal obligation — those must be verified by someone qualified. What we can do is make the writing clear and the important information hard to miss.