Guide
Menu proofreading checklist
How to proofread a menu before it goes to print: ten checks, in order, that anyone can run with a printout, the price list and a pen.
By the LYNCE team · Updated
A menu is a short document made almost entirely of facts: prices, dish names, allergen marks, opening hours, a phone number, often a second language. Each of those facts has a source somewhere else, and the menu is a copy of them, made by someone who was probably also choosing the font. Menu proofreading is checking that copy against its sources. This menu proofreading checklist is the method: ten checks, facts first, that work by hand on any menu.
It is written for whoever ends up holding the proof: owner, manager, chef, designer or printer. For artwork in general, the companion guide is how to proofread an image.
Before you start: the sources.
Proofreading a menu without its sources only proves the menu is tidy. Put these on the table next to the proof.
The current price list
Dated. If nobody can say which one is current, fix that first; no proofread will.
The master copy
The approved dish names and descriptions in the main language. Every translation is checked against it.
The allergen reference
Whatever the kitchen signs off: a matrix, recipe sheets, a spreadsheet. Never the previous menu.
Hours and contact details
From wherever they are kept up to date: the booking system, the website, the door.
How to proofread a menu, in ten checks.
In this order: facts before sentences, sources before opinions, layout last.
Proof the final file, at actual size
Print the exact PDF going to the printer, at 100%, or open the exact image going online. Not the Word draft, not the version from Tuesday’s email: mistakes are made during layout, and only the final file contains them.
Check every price against the price list
Put a ruler under each line: read the dish, find it on the price list, compare the number, tick both. Then the prices people forget are prices: sides, supplements, glass, carafe and bottle, set menus, children’s menus. A price rise is when menus go wrong: the spreadsheet changes everywhere, the menu almost everywhere.
Count the dishes
Count the items in each section of the menu and on the price list. A dish that was added in the kitchen and never on the menu, or taken off and still for sale, will not show up by reading. It shows up by counting.
Check names and descriptions against the master copy
Dish names, producers, places and foreign words, accents included: crème, jalapeño, Gewürztraminer. Descriptions that still mention an ingredient the kitchen replaced. Only then ordinary spelling and grammar, read bottom to top so your eye cannot run ahead.
Check every allergen and dietary mark
Each mark against the allergen reference the kitchen has signed off, not against memory and not against the old menu. Check that the key explains every symbol used, that every number points at the right allergen, and that a dish which changed recipe also changed marks. Use the list your rules require; in the EU and the UK that is 14 named allergens. Proofreading confirms that the menu matches the reference. Whether the reference is right is a kitchen question, and usually a legal one.
Check hours, days and dates
Hours, closing days, seasonal dates, the date on a set menu. Check each day name against its date with a calendar: menus get reused, and “Wednesday 31 December” was right last year. Then check the hours match the website, the booking system and the door.
Dial, type and scan
Call the number. Type the web and email addresses. Scan the QR code with two phones and confirm it opens this menu, not last season’s PDF or a deleted page. Check the address, postcode included.
Check each language against the master
Compare each language with the master element by element: same dishes, same order, same prices, same allergen marks. Translations drop lines, and decimal points become commas. A native speaker judges the wording; anyone can check the facts, the way any translation is checked against a master.
Read the small print, then the layout
Service charge, cover charge, whether tax is included, the allergen statement: lines copied from the last menu and never read again. Then the page as a page: lines cut off at the column edge, a price wrapped beside the next dish, type too small for a dimly lit table.
Have someone else sign it off
First the person who owns the price list and allergen information, then someone who did not make the menu. Initial and date the printout and keep it with the print file: next season it tells you what was checked, and against what.
The printable menu proofreading checklist.
The same checks as a sign-off sheet. Print this page, or copy the list into your own pre-print routine.
Sources
- Final print file, printed at 100%
- Current, dated price list
- Master copy of names and descriptions
- Allergen reference signed off by the kitchen
Facts
- Every price, including sides, sizes and supplements
- Dish count per section matches the price list
- Every allergen and dietary mark matches the reference
- The key explains every symbol used
- Hours, closing days and dates; day names match dates
Contact
- Phone dialled
- Email and web address typed
- QR code scanned on two phones
- Address and postcode
Words and layout
- Names, producers and accents as in the master
- Each language matches the master: dishes, prices, marks
- Service, cover, tax and allergen statements current
- Nothing truncated; every price beside its dish
- Signed off by someone who didn’t make it
What actually goes wrong on menus.
Six mistakes that reach the table far more often than typos do.
The price rise that missed a page
The price list went up across the board. Wine by the glass kept last year’s price: it lives on the drinks page, which nobody reopened.
The mark that fell off
A dish moved section during layout and its allergen marks stayed behind, or landed on its neighbour.
Last year’s date
“Wednesday 31 December” on the New Year’s Eve menu. Correct in 2025. In 2026, 31 December is a Thursday.
The half-translated menu
The English side got the new dish. The Greek side still lists the one it replaced, at the old price.
The QR code to nowhere
It opens the summer menu, or a page that was deleted when the website was rebuilt.
The orphaned price
A long description wrapped onto a second line and pushed its price down beside the next dish.
Where software helps, and where it doesn’t.
Split the job honestly: the comparison is repetitive and unforgiving, which is what software is good at. Knowing the food is not.
Software can do
Read every price, mark and number on every page and in every language, and compare them with the price list and master copy without tiring on page six. That is what LYNCE’s menu proofreading does, with the differences pinned to the menu and a suggested fix.
People must do
Know what is in each dish, confirm the allergen reference is right, and decide whether a description sounds like your kitchen. Nothing should sign off a menu on its own.
Either way, keep the sources
Keep the current price list and allergen reference with the print file. That helps a person with a pen as much as a tool reading a long PDF page by page.
Proofreading menus, answered.
The final check, before it goes live.
Give the finished creative one more QA pass before publish, send or print.
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