How to write menu descriptions that sell

Open most menus in Cairo or Alexandria and you will find a list of names and prices: "Chicken Pane, EGP 240. Pasta Alfredo, EGP 260. Mix Grill, EGP 480." The guest has to guess what arrives, how big it is, and why the mixed grill costs twice the pasta. When people have to guess, they order what they already know, or they call the waiter over and ask, which slows the whole room down.

A good description fixes that in one or two lines. It tells the guest what the dish is, what makes yours worth ordering, and what comes with it. This guide gives you a four-part formula, a list of words that make descriptions weaker, before-and-after examples from a typical Egyptian menu, and a practical way to use AI to draft Arabic and English versions without publishing nonsense.

1What a menu description has to do in fifteen words

A menu line is not advertising copy. The guest is scrolling on a phone with one thumb, often while talking to someone. You have roughly one line of attention per item, so every description must answer three questions, in this order:

1. What is it? The main ingredient and how it is cooked. "Chicken breast, crumbed and pan-fried" is already more useful than "Chicken Pane".
2. Why this one? One detail that is true of your version and not everyone's: the cut, the sauce made in-house, the bread baked on site, the cheese you import.
3. What comes with it? Sides, portion size, or a number of pieces. This is the question waiters answer most often, and it is the one owners forget to write.

Aim for 10 to 20 words in English. Anything longer gets skimmed, and on a phone screen a four-line description pushes the next item off the screen.

2The four-part formula (with before and after examples)

Build every description from these parts, and drop any part that adds nothing for a specific dish:

• Anchor: the main ingredient, named specifically ("beef kofta", not "meat").
• Method: how it is cooked ("charcoal-grilled", "slow-cooked", "baked in our oven").
• Texture or flavour cue: one or two concrete words ("crispy onions", "garlic-lemon", "smoky").
• Proof or portion: the fact that justifies the price ("300 g", "for two", "served with rice and tahini").

Before	After
Koshari	Rice, lentils and macaroni layered with spicy tomato sauce, garlic vinegar and crispy fried onions. Large bowl.
Mix Grill	Charcoal-grilled kofta, shish tawook and lamb chops (450 g total) with tahini, grilled vegetables and baladi bread. Serves one hungry person or two light eaters.
Feteer Cheese	Flaky feteer folded by hand and baked with white cheese and roumi. Cut into 8 pieces for sharing.
Pasta Alfredo	Fettuccine in a cream and parmesan sauce with grilled chicken strips and mushrooms.
Iced Spanish Latte	Double espresso over ice with milk and condensed milk. Sweet and strong; ask for it less sweet.

Notice that none of the "after" versions uses the word delicious. The specifics do the persuading. "450 g total" explains the price of the mixed grill better than any adjective could, and "serves one hungry person or two light eaters" answers the question every table asks.

3Words that make descriptions weaker

Certain words appear on so many menus that guests no longer read them. Others promise things the kitchen cannot deliver. Strip these out:

• Empty praise: delicious, tasty, mouth-watering, amazing, perfect. Every restaurant says it; it carries no information.
• Unproven claims: "famous", "best in town", "authentic", "homemade" when the item is bought in. If a guest can catch you out, the whole menu loses credibility.
• Vague freshness: "fresh ingredients" says nothing. "Tomatoes and cucumber cut to order" says something.
• Adjective stacks: "rich, creamy, indulgent, velvety" reads like filler. Pick the one word that is most true.
• Kitchen jargon: "jus", "gastrique", "confit" are fine at a fine-dining room with explaining staff, but on a casual QR menu use plain words or add a short explanation.

4Which items deserve a description first

You do not need to write 80 descriptions tonight. Prioritise by where a sentence changes what people order:

1. High-margin items you want to sell more of. If you have done a menu engineering exercise, start with the dishes that make good money but sell slowly. The walkthrough in our menu engineering guide shows how to find them.
2. Unfamiliar or house-named dishes. "The Riva Plate" means nothing to a first-time guest. Tourists also need descriptions for Egyptian classics like molokhia or hawawshi that locals order by name.
3. Expensive items. The higher the price, the more the guest needs a reason. Weight, number of pieces, or sharing size belongs here.
4. Items with common questions. Ask your waiters which dishes they explain every shift, and write those answers down.

Soft drinks, water, a plain espresso and extra fries can stay as names only. A description on "Pepsi" is clutter.

5Arabic and English: write two menus, not one translation

Many Egyptian menus are bilingual, and the Arabic side is often an afterthought, or the English is a word-for-word machine translation of the Arabic. Guests notice both. A few rules that work in practice:

• Keep Egyptian dish names in their original form. In Arabic, write the name the way people say it (كشري, حواوشي, فطير مشلتت). In English, transliterate it and let the description explain: "Hawawshi: baladi bread stuffed with spiced minced beef and baked until crisp."
• Write the Arabic description in clear Modern Standard Arabic, short and plain, rather than translating English marketing language. "صدر دجاج مقرمش مع بطاطس وسلطة" does the job.
• Check the portion and price facts match in both languages. The most common bilingual error is a weight or side dish that differs between the two versions.
• Have one native reader check each language before publishing. Ten minutes of review catches the embarrassing mistakes.

If you serve many tourists, the hands-on setup for extra languages is in our Arabic, English and tourist-language menu guide.

6Using AI to draft descriptions without publishing nonsense

A general AI assistant (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or similar) can draft 40 descriptions in the time it takes you to write three. The risk is that it invents ingredients you do not use, which is both misleading and an allergen hazard. The fix is to give it facts and forbid it from adding any.

Prepare a simple list for each dish: name, main ingredients, cooking method, sides, portion. Then use a prompt along these lines:

Write a menu description for each dish below. Use only the ingredients I list; do not add any. 12 to 18 words each. No words like delicious, amazing or perfect. Mention the portion or sides. Then write a short Arabic version in simple Modern Standard Arabic, keeping Egyptian dish names as they are.

Then do three checks before anything goes live:

• Every ingredient in the draft is actually in the dish.
• Portion sizes, piece counts and sides match what the kitchen sends out.
• The Arabic reads naturally to a native speaker and uses the same facts as the English.

If you are starting from a printed menu that already has some descriptions, Menyo's AI menu scanner can pull the items, prices and existing descriptions off a photo or PDF so you edit rather than retype. On the Professional plan, the built-in translation can then produce Arabic and other language versions that keep your brand and dish names intact. You still review the result; the tool saves typing, not judgment.

7Telling your story without a wall of text

Owners often want the menu to "tell our story". A paragraph about your grandmother at the top of a QR menu mostly gets scrolled past. Story works better in small, verifiable pieces placed where they matter:

• One or two lines at the top of the menu saying who you are and what you are known for: "Family-run since 2009. Our feteer is folded by hand every morning."
• Proof points inside item descriptions: "our own tahini", "bread from our oven", "beans cooked overnight in the qidra". Only if true.
• The longer version on your website or about page, where people who care will read it.

The test for any story line: could your competitor across the street paste it onto their menu unchanged? If yes, it is not your story yet.

8Frequently asked questions

How long should a menu item description be?

For a phone-based QR menu, 10 to 20 words in English is a good range, which usually fits in two lines on screen. Signature or expensive dishes can go slightly longer if the extra words carry facts, such as weight or what is shared.

Should every item on the menu have a description?

No. Standard drinks, sides and items everyone recognises can stand on their names. Spend your effort on high-margin dishes, house-named items, expensive plates and anything waiters routinely have to explain.

Is it OK to use AI to write menu descriptions?

Yes, as a drafting tool, provided you give it the real ingredients and forbid it from adding others. Always check the output against the recipe, because an invented ingredient can mislead a guest with an allergy.

Should the Arabic description be a direct translation of the English?

It should carry the same facts (ingredients, sides, portion) but be written to read naturally in Arabic. Keep local dish names in their original form rather than translating them literally.

How often should I rewrite descriptions?

Whenever the recipe, portion or sides change, the description must change the same day. Beyond that, reread the whole menu each season and rewrite the lines for items that sell poorly despite a good margin.

9Where to start this week

Pick the ten items that make you the most money or that waiters explain most often. Write each one with the anchor, method, flavour cue and portion formula, remove the empty adjectives, and have a native reader check the Arabic. Watch what those ten items do over the next month before you rewrite the rest. For how the descriptions sit alongside photos and layout, see our guide to designing a digital menu guests want to use.

If you want a menu where you can edit descriptions from your phone and have the change live on every table immediately, you can start a Menyo account; plans start at $19 a month with a short trial.