Enterprise consultants
Built for multi-site chains. Long engagements, custom quotes, and a process that assumes you have a data team.
For Cafés, Restaurants & Bars
Your menu is a sales tool.
Most aren’t designed like one.
Chef-led menu redesign and menu psychology for independent hospitality businesses — done in days, not months, without the agency price tag.
Up to 27%more orders on items with well-written descriptions
2–6 pttypical gross-margin gain from a proper menu-engineering pass
48–72 hrsfrom your current menu to a print-ready redesign
The Gap
Two options exist. Neither fits an independent café.
Menu engineering firms are real and effective — but they price for chains and quote “tailored pricing.” The alternative is a generic design gig that can format a PDF but has never run a pass, priced a plate, or understood why a 40-item menu kills a kitchen.
Generic design gigs
Can make a PDF look tidy, but won’t know a Star from a Dog, or why your best-margin item is buried at the bottom of page two.
Chef D Aotearoa
Hospitality background, not just a design eye — plus a fast, template-driven process built for independents, priced accordingly.
See the Difference
Same menu. Same prices. Completely different result.
The redesign keeps the offer familiar while improving hierarchy, readability, visual confidence and the prominence of key items.
Selected Concepts
Different venues need different menu personalities.
All-day café
Kōwhai Café
A warm, easy-to-scan menu with stronger hierarchy, clearer categories and a more polished independent café feel.
Plant-based breakfast kitchen
Chef D’s Plant Kitchen
A focused plant-based breakfast menu that makes the range feel satisfying, accessible and commercially credible.
Modern bistro & wine bar
The Sound
Dark, restrained and confident — showing how the same process works for an evening bistro and wine-led service.
How It Works
Three steps, start to finish
Send your current menu
A photo, PDF or Word document is fine. For the full package, include a rough idea of your bestsellers and food costs.
Audit & redesign
Items are grouped, descriptions rewritten, pricing and placement reworked using menu psychology, then designed.
Print-ready delivery
You receive a finished PDF ready for your printer, plus the source file for future updates, delivered in 48–72 hours.
Investment
Flat pricing. No quotes, no retainer required.
Prices in NZD.
Menu Refresh
$150–250 / one-time- Full visual redesign of your existing menu
- Your current items, wording and prices kept as-is
- Print-ready PDF, 48-hour turnaround
- One round of revisions included
Full Menu Engineering
$350–500 / one-time- Everything in Menu Refresh
- Stars / Plowhorses / Puzzles / Dogs profitability audit
- Description rewrites and strategic repricing guidance
- Layout engineered to highlight your best-margin items
- Two rounds of revisions included
CHEF D
AOTEAROA
AOTEAROA
Why a chef, not just a designer
I’m Chef D — a working chef with a hospitality background, not a freelance designer who’s never worked a pass. I know why a menu with too many choices slows a kitchen down, why a bad description kills a good dish, and why your highest-margin item is usually the one nobody orders. The design is the visible part. Understanding food and service is what makes the design actually work.
Want to see your own menu redesigned?
Send through your current menu and I’ll come back with a sample redesign of your hero section before you commit to anything.
Email Your Menu