Beach bar and beach kiosk menu

Usual sections

1. Fried seafood: calamari, whitebait, prawns, fish and chips.
2. From the grill: sardine skewers, fish of the day, octopus, burgers.
3. Paella and rice dishes, per person.
4. Fresh and light: salads, gazpacho, poke bowls.
5. To share: chips, nachos, mussels.
6. Desserts and ice creams.
7. Drinks: beer, sangria, spritzes, frozen cocktails, soft drinks.

On the beach, drinks matter as much as food. If you serve a lot on the sunbeds, a separate drinks menu, short and in a small format, is easier to hand out and read than the full menu.

Portions, half portions and market price

• Full and half portions: two columns (“Half” and “Full”) for the fried seafood, which is what gets shared most.
• Skewers by the unit, with how many sardines each one has, even if it’s approximate.
• Fish of the day: if you sell it by weight, give the price per kilo and say the weight before cooking. If you write “market price”, customers have to know the price before they order. The seafood menu guide explains this in detail.
• Rice dishes per person, with the minimum number of people and the waiting time in the section note.
• Jugs: sangria or Pimm’s with two columns, “Glass” and “Jug”, and the jug’s size in the description.

If you’re not sure what to charge for a portion, the guide on how to price a menu shows how to work it out from your costs.

Bar, table and sunbed

Many beach bars charge differently depending on where they serve you. That’s fine as long as it’s announced: the number customers see is the number they pay. The clearest option is two price columns (“Bar” and “Sunbed”) or a clear note with the supplement. The guide to menu labelling rules covers what the menu has to show.

A menu for visitors

On the coast, many customers don’t read the local language. Two options:

• Bilingual: the second language under each dish, in smaller type. Staff and customer point at the same line.
• One menu per language, in the same order and with the same prices, if you get a lot of guests from one country.

Dishes with their own name keep it, with an explanation: “Espeto — Sardines skewered and grilled over a wood fire”. Pimm’s, gazpacho or a Spritz, the same. More ideas in how to translate a menu.

Allergens at a beach bar

• Fish: all the fried fish, the sardines, fish and chips, salads with tuna.
• Molluscs: calamari, baby squid, clams, mussels.
• Crustaceans: prawns, langoustines and the stock in many rice dishes.
• Gluten: the flour or batter on the fried seafood, and the bread in the gazpacho.
• Eggs: aioli and mayonnaise, tartare sauce, some batters.
• Sulphites: marinated anchovies, the vinegar in the gazpacho, wine, sangria.

The fryer is the tricky part. If you fry fish and calamari in the same oil, each one can carry traces of the other; if you also fry chips or breaded snacks, traces of gluten, egg or milk. Say so in a note.

Any fish you serve raw or marinated (anchovies in vinegar, ceviche) must have been frozen first to kill parasites, unless an exemption applies. In Spain you also have to tell customers, so a line at the foot of the menu covers it; in the UK, keep your supplier’s freezing records; in the US, the FDA Food Code’s consumer advisory applies to raw fish.

A menu that survives the beach

• Laminated or in a sleeve: sun, sand, sun cream and wet hands.
• Large type and strong contrast: it has to be readable in full sun, with sunglasses on.
• A4 or slim A4 on the tables, A5 for the sunbed drinks menu, an A3 poster at the bar and a 16:9 screen if you have a TV. More in menu sizes.
• Post or story to announce the Sunday paella or the afternoon music.

The menu changes every season. Saved in your browser, next summer you only adjust prices and dishes. The summer menu guide has more ideas for these months.

Format and style

The template’s style is Beach Bar, with beachy lettering and sunset orange. Mariner suits you if your food leans towards seafood, Azulejo if you want a calmer Mediterranean feel, and Tiki if cocktails are the star. More examples in menu templates.

Make it in MenuDesign

Open the beach bar template, add your rice dishes and drinks, mark the allergens and add a second language for visitors. Download the PDF for the tables and the A5 for the sunbeds. Free, no account, and saved in your browser for next summer.