Menu Management
Create categories, add menu items, and configure modifiers for your restaurant outlets
A well-structured menu is the foundation of every restaurant operation in Veridien. It determines what your staff can sell, how items appear on kitchen tickets, and how charges land on guest bills. Getting the menu right before you open for service saves hours of corrections later.
This guide covers the key concepts behind menu organization, walks you through creating categories and items, and shows you how to use modifiers to handle the variations guests expect —from steak temperatures to extra toppings.
Key concepts
Before you start building your menu, understand the four building blocks that Veridien uses to organize food and beverage offerings.
Outlet is the top-level container. Each outlet (restaurant, bar, pool bar, room service) has its own independent menu. A menu item in your fine-dining restaurant does not automatically appear in your pool bar —you add it explicitly where it belongs.
Category groups related items together. Think of categories as the sections of a printed menu: Starters, Mains, Desserts, Cocktails, Soft Drinks. Categories control the order in which items appear on the ordering screen and on printed bills.
Menu Item is an individual dish or beverage that can be ordered. Each item has a name, price, an optional description, and belongs to exactly one category within an outlet. You can assign the same dish to multiple outlets by creating it in each one.
Modifier captures the choices a guest makes when ordering an item. A burger might need a cooking temperature. A coffee might need a size and milk choice. Modifiers can be free or carry an additional charge, and you can mark them as required or optional.
Creating categories
Categories give your menu structure. Create them in the order you want staff to see them on the ordering screen.
Navigate to Restaurant > Menu and select the outlet you want to configure from the Outlet dropdown.
Click Add Category. Enter a name (for example, "Starters" or "Red Wines") and an optional sort order. Lower numbers appear first.
Click Save. The category now appears in the sidebar of the menu editor, ready for items.
Repeat for every section of your menu. Most restaurants need between five and fifteen categories. Keep names short and intuitive —your servers will be scanning them quickly during service.
Adding menu items
Once your categories exist, populate them with the dishes and drinks your outlet serves.
Click Add Item. Fill in the Name, Price, and an optional Description. The description appears on guest-facing receipts and can help servers explain the dish.
If the item should route to a specific kitchen station (grill, cold, pastry), select the appropriate Station from the dropdown. This controls where the ticket appears on the Kitchen Display System.
Toggle Available on or off. Turning availability off hides the item from the ordering screen without deleting it —useful for seasonal dishes or when the kitchen runs out of an ingredient mid-service.
Configuring modifiers
Modifiers handle the real-world complexity of restaurant orders. Without them, servers would need to type special instructions into a free-text field, which the kitchen cannot reliably parse.
Cooking temperatures
A classic modifier group. Create a group called "Temperature" with options like Rare, Medium Rare, Medium, Medium Well, and Well Done. Mark the group as Required so the system forces the server to select one before submitting the order. Attach it to steaks, burgers, and any other item where cooking temperature matters.
Sizes
For items that come in different sizes —a coffee, a pizza, a bowl of soup —create a "Size" modifier group. Each option can carry a price adjustment. A small coffee might be the base price, while a large adds $1.50. When the server selects the size, the price updates automatically on the order.
Add-ons
Add-ons are optional modifiers that let guests customize their order. Extra cheese, a side of avocado, substitute fries for salad. Create an "Add-Ons" modifier group, mark it as Optional, and set a price for each option. You can allow multiple selections (extra cheese and avocado) or limit the guest to one choice.
Admin: shared modifier groups
Modifier groups are shared across all items they are attached to within an outlet. If you edit the "Temperature" group —say, removing "Rare" as an option —that change affects every item using that group. Before editing a shared modifier group, review which items reference it by checking the Used By list on the modifier group detail screen.
Attaching modifiers to items
Scroll to the Modifiers section and click Add Modifier Group.
Select an existing modifier group from the dropdown, or click Create New to build one on the spot.
Set whether the group is Required or Optional for this specific item. A modifier group can be required on a steak but optional on a salad.
Click Save. The modifier options now appear when a server adds this item to an order.
Menu organization tips
A menu that is easy for servers to navigate translates to faster order entry and fewer mistakes. Keep these practices in mind:
- Limit categories to a manageable number. If servers have to scroll through twenty categories to find a soft drink, the ordering screen needs restructuring. Aim for a single screen of categories whenever possible.
- Name items clearly. "Grilled Atlantic Salmon" is better than "Salmon #2." Servers and kitchen staff both benefit from unambiguous names, especially during a rush.
- Use sort order intentionally. Put your most-ordered items near the top of each category. Servers spend less time searching, and order accuracy improves.
- Archive instead of delete. If a dish leaves your menu permanently, toggle its availability off rather than deleting it. This preserves historical order data and revenue reports. You can always delete it later if you are certain the data is no longer needed.
- Review modifier pricing regularly. Ingredient costs change. A $2.00 add-on for avocado might need to become $2.50. Audit modifier prices alongside your menu pricing reviews.
Scenario: launching a new dinner menu
Your executive chef has finalized a new dinner menu for the property's signature restaurant. The menu introduces two new categories (Sharing Plates and Chef's Specials), retires the old Appetizers category, and updates pricing across all mains.
Here is how you handle it in Veridien:
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Create the new categories. Add "Sharing Plates" and "Chef's Specials" with sort orders that place them logically on the ordering screen —Sharing Plates before Mains, Chef's Specials at the top.
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Add new items. For each new dish, create a menu item in the appropriate category. Assign prices, descriptions, and kitchen stations. Attach modifier groups where needed —the new lamb chops need the Temperature modifier, and the sharing board needs a Size modifier (for 2 or for 4).
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Update existing items. Open each item in the Mains category and adjust the price. If a dish has moved to a different category (the tuna tartare is now under Sharing Plates instead of Appetizers), update its category assignment.
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Retire the old category. Rather than deleting the Appetizers category immediately, toggle all remaining items to unavailable. This keeps historical data intact. After your next reporting period closes, you can safely delete the empty category.
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Test before service. Open the ordering screen on a tablet and walk through placing a test order. Confirm that every new item appears in the right category, modifiers prompt correctly, and prices are accurate. Void the test order when you are done.
The new dinner menu is now live. Servers see the updated categories and items the next time they open the ordering screen, and the kitchen receives tickets with the correct station routing and modifier details.