Printed Restaurant Menus: Real Costs and Hygiene

September 17, 2026 · 7 min read

When restaurants order new menus, they usually compare suppliers, paper and covers. A beautiful custom menu with embossing looks high-end on the table, and a reputable supplier in Switzerland will deliver it in good quality. The question that rarely gets asked is not "Which menu?" but this: what will it cost over two or three years, and what happens to it between one guest and the next?

This article works through the costs of a printed menu honestly, including the items that never appear on a quote. It also raises a topic the hospitality industry does not like to talk about: the hygiene of a menu that passes through dozens of hands every day.

A printer's quote shows the price of the first print run. The real costs only appear once the menu is in use, because a menu changes all the time: prices go up, a supplier drops out, the season changes, a dish does not sell.

The example below assumes a restaurant with around 60 seats and 30 menus. The amounts are guide values, not a price list. Depending on the supplier, material and print run, your figures will be higher or lower. Always get several quotes for your own restaurant.

One-off costs

Design and layout: a graphic designer creates the layout, typography and categories. Expect CHF 400 to 1'500, depending on the scope and whether you already have a logo or corporate design.
Covers or folders: custom covers in leather, faux leather, wood or linen with embossing typically cost CHF 25 to 80 each. For 30 menus, that is CHF 750 to 2'400.

Ongoing costs

Printing the inserts: the printed inside pages are the cheapest part, roughly CHF 3 to 8 per menu set. For 30 menus, that means CHF 90 to 240 per print run.
Reprints: most restaurants change their menu three to four times a year, because of price changes, seasonal dishes or simply a typo. Every change means new layout work (often CHF 80 to 200) plus a new print run.
Replacement: menus get stained, corners bend, inserts tear. Every year, some of the covers and inserts have to be replaced.
Time: someone has to collect the changes, coordinate with the designer, proofread, swap the inserts and throw away the old ones. Those hours are not on any invoice, but they are missing from service.

The example in summary

In the first year, design, covers and three to four reprints easily add up to CHF 1'500 to 5'000. In the following years, you still have reprints, replacements and staff time, so anywhere from several hundred to around 2'000 francs a year. The drinks list, the wine list and a daily menu are not included yet.

The most expensive consequence is not on the invoice

When every reprint costs money and effort, many restaurants do the obvious thing: they stop reprinting. Instead, a sticker goes over the old price, a dish gets crossed out with a ballpoint pen, or staff say "sorry, we don't have that anymore" with every order.

To guests, this does not look thrifty. It looks careless. A menu with prices stuck over signals that this restaurant is not too particular about details. And a menu showing a different price than the bill leads to an argument at the till that nobody wants to have.

So a printed menu forces you to choose between two bad options: pay regularly, or live with an outdated menu.

Picture an ordinary lunchtime. The guest at table three has just sneezed and wiped their hands on a napkin afterwards, or maybe not. They flip through the menu, put it down next to their plate, which still has sauce on it, and hand it back. The table is cleared and wiped. The menu goes back on the pile. Twenty minutes later it lies in front of the next guest, who picks it up before eating their bread.

This is not an exaggeration. This is the normal routine in almost every restaurant. A menu is one of the few objects that every single guest touches, and at the same time one of the few that is not cleaned after each guest. Plates go into the dishwasher, cutlery is replaced, the table is wiped. The menu is not.

How bad it is depends on the material:

Paper and card cannot be cleaned at all. Whatever gets on them stays there until the menu is replaced.
Leather, fabric and linen look high-end, but they absorb grease and moisture and cannot handle disinfectant.
Laminated menus could be wiped down after every guest. In practice, this hardly ever happens during the lunch rush, because nobody has time for it.

Your guests do not always think about this. But since 2020, far more of them think about it than before, and a guest who feels a sticky corner on the menu will not have forgotten it by dessert.

Why a QR code avoids this problem

With a QR code menu, guests scan the code on the table and read the menu on their own phone. Their phone is not sterile, and claiming otherwise would be wrong. But it is theirs. They know where it has been and who has touched it. The menu that twenty other guests held before them is simply gone.

Guests do not need to pick up the table stand with the QR code, because scanning works from a few centimetres away. Still, choose a wipeable material, and the stand simply becomes part of normal table cleaning.

With a digital menu, the calculation changes fundamentally, because the most expensive items disappear:

No reprints: a new price takes a minute to change and is instantly up to date on every table.
No replacement menus: there is nothing to stain or tear. The only one-off cost is the QR table stands.
A daily menu without a chalkboard: you enter the lunch menu digitally, with a validity date if you like, and it is visible on every table right away, with no board and no slips of paper.
Several languages without several menus: the same QR code shows the menu in whichever language the guest chooses.
Sold out instead of crossed out: when a dish runs out, mark it as sold out instead of striking it through with a pen.

With online-menu.ch, the digital menu is free up to 3000 menu views per month, with no trial period and no credit card. Most small and medium-sized restaurants stay below this limit.

Custom printed menus and digital menus can work together

A high-quality custom menu has its place. In fine dining, it is part of the experience, and for a wine list that rarely changes, it can be the right choice. The question is not "printed or digital?" but: which part of your menu changes often, and which does not?

Many restaurants do best with a mix:

Digital for what changes often: the main menu, the daily menu, seasonal dishes, prices.
Printed for what stays stable and belongs to the atmosphere: a showpiece wine list or a menu for a special occasion.
A few printed copies on request for guests who do not have a smartphone with them or simply prefer paper. A handful of copies instead of 30 cuts printing costs considerably.

That way, you only invest in custom printing where it makes a difference, and you do not pay for a reprint every time a price changes.

Checklist before your next print order

How often did you change your menu last year, and what did each change cost?
Are there stickers or crossed-out items on your current menus?
How are the menus cleaned between guests, and does that really happen during the rush?
Which parts of your menu change often, and which almost never?
Do you need several languages, and how many printed menu versions would that mean?
Do you have at least two quotes, and do they include the cost of changes?

Conclusion

A printed menu does not cost money once. It costs money every time something changes. And it passes through many hands every day without being cleaned in between. Neither point is an argument against a beautiful menu as such, but both are arguments against a printed menu for content that changes all the time.

Our guide to creating a QR code menu shows how to set up a digital menu in just a few minutes. For more advantages, read our article on the benefits of a digital menu, and if your guests speak different languages, see our article on the multilingual menu in Switzerland.