What allergen menus are for
Your allergen chart holds every dish you serve. If you have more than one menu, such as a daytime menu, an evening menu and a Sunday lunch, a guest looking at the whole chart has to work out which dishes are on tonight. An allergen menu is a named list of dishes from your chart, with its own allergen chart, its own export and its own public page and QR code.
A menu never changes a dish. Its allergens are the ones on your chart, so when you correct a dish it is correct on every menu it is on. A dish can be on several menus, and a dish on no menu is still on your chart and your All dishes page.
Making a menu
Open Allergens > Menus and click New menu. You have two ways to start:
Upload a menu. Paddy reads it, adds any dishes that are not on your chart yet, and offers to put them all on a menu named from the document, such as Evening Menu. You can change the name on the card before you confirm. If you already have a menu with that name, the dishes are added to it. The headings on the menu, such as Starters and Mains, become its sections.
Build from your dishes. Name the menu and pick its dishes from your chart.
If your business is part of a group, you will also see Use a group menu. That is coming soon: a group will be able to share one menu with chosen venues and send them updates.
The menu panel
Each menu opens in a panel with three tabs and one Save button.
Tab | What you set |
|---|---|
Details | The name, the sites it is served at (one, several or all of them), when it is served, and a short note shown under the name. |
Dishes | Search your dishes and add them, or add a new dish without leaving the panel. Add sections such as Starters, Mains and Desserts, and drag dishes into order. A dish whose allergens are not confirmed shows a warning. |
Page | Publish the menu's own page, copy its link, download its QR code as PNG or SVG, or download an A4 poster. You can also make this menu's page stricter than your main allergen page: show may-contain allergens it hides, or leave off unconfirmed dishes it shows. It can never be less careful than your main page. |
A new dish added from the panel starts with no allergens and shows as not confirmed. Add its allergens on the chart before you rely on it.
When it is served
The days and times you set are shown on the menu's page, for example Wed to Sat, 17:30 to 21:30. The page stays open at any time, because guests often check allergens before they visit.
The chart and exports for one menu
On Allergen chart a row of chips sits above the dishes: All dishes, then each menu. Pick a menu to see only its dishes. Export then exports that menu as CSV, Excel or PDF, titled with the menu's name, its sites and when it is served. You can also export a menu from its row on the Menus tab.
Removable allergens, marked R, show on a menu's chart and exports exactly as they do on the full chart.
What guests see
A menu's page shows the menu name, when it is served, its sections and each dish's allergens, including what a dish can be made without on request. If a site has several menus published, the page has a pill for each at the top, so a guest who scans the daytime QR code in the evening can switch.
Your existing allergen page and its QR code keep working. Once you publish a menu, that page asks guests to choose a menu, with All dishes at the bottom of the list. If you have no menus published, it shows every dish as before. Branding, your disclaimer and the line telling guests to speak to staff come from Allergens > Share.
Views
Views are counted for each menu's page, and the Menus tab shows how many each had in the last 30 days.
Deleting a menu
Deleting a menu removes it and its page. Its dishes stay on your chart. A printed QR code for that menu will then show that the page is not available, so take its posters down first. If you only want to stop guests seeing it for a while, unpublish its page instead: the same link and QR code work again when you publish it.
Asking Paddy
You can ask Paddy to make a menu, for example "make a Sunday menu with the roast beef and the nut roast", or to add dishes to one. Paddy shows you a card to check before anything is saved. Ask "what is the link for our evening menu" to get a menu's own link and QR code.
See also Allergen Matrix.