Menu templates
Free restaurant menu templates you can actually edit
Most menu templates are a file you download and then fight with: the columns move when you add a dish, the fonts are not installed, and the allergen information has nowhere to live. These four are not files. They are layouts you fill in here, in the browser, and print — and the prices line up on their own because the template knows what a price is.
Pick a template, load a preset for your kind of place, swap in your dishes, print A4. Free to build and print, no signup to start, and every dish can carry all 14 EU allergen tags.
The four templates, and when each one works
- Classic — serif type, centred headings, a dotted leader to the price. The default for table service, and the hardest to get wrong.
- Modern — clean sans, left-aligned, no leaders. The best choice when your descriptions run long.
- Bistro — monospaced, uppercase section headings. Suits chalkboard-style rooms and pizzerias.
- Minimal — sans, centred, a lot of white space. Fewest dishes per page; right for tasting menus, bars and wine lists.
Why a template that knows what a dish is beats a document
A Word or Canva template stores your menu as decoration: text boxes at coordinates. Add a dish and the layout drifts; change a price and you are hunting through a file. Here the menu is structured — sections, dishes, prices, allergens — and the template renders it. That is why the prices align without tabs, why allergens can print under the dish automatically, and why the same menu can later become a live page behind a QR code without being retyped.
Start from a preset instead of an empty page
The blank page is where menu projects die. Every template can be loaded with a realistic starting menu for your kind of place — restaurant, café, pizzeria, bar, bakery or food truck — with plausible sections, dishes, prices and a few allergen tags already set. You are editing rather than composing, which is a much smaller job, and the presets differ in structure and not just wording: a bar's list is not a restaurant's card with different drinks.
Allergen tags belong on the template, not in a separate folder
EU Regulation 1169/2011 requires the 14 named allergens to be disclosed for non-prepacked food, and restaurant dishes are non-prepacked food. Almost no free menu template has anywhere to put that, so it ends up in a second document that goes stale. These templates hold allergens per dish and print them under the dish. If you also need the cross-table an inspector asks for, the free allergen table tool builds it from the same dishes. This is not legal advice, but it is the right shape.
Printing a template so it looks intentional
All four are laid out for A4 with 16 mm margins and page-break rules that will not split a section across a page mid-dish. Print at 100%, never 'fit to page' — that quietly shrinks your type and is the most common reason a good template prints badly. For anything that will be handled during service, ask for 120 gsm or heavier. And read it on paper before you order a stack: mistakes hide on screens.
What these templates deliberately do not do
There is no free-form canvas, no font uploads and no image library. That is a choice, not a gap: the layouts are small enough to be good, and elaborate art direction is what Canva is genuinely better at. If you want a menu as a design piece, use a design tool. If you want a correct, current, allergen-tagged menu you can reprint in two minutes, this is the shorter road.
Frequently asked questions
Are these menu templates free?
Yes. Filling one in and printing it is free with no account. The printable sheet carries a small credit line; confirming an email address removes it, and a free account removes it too while importing the menu so you never retype it.
Do I need to download anything?
No. The templates run in your browser and print from there — nothing to install, no fonts to chase, and no file to lose. Your work is saved in your own browser as you type.
Can I edit the template later?
In the browser, yes, as long as you come back on the same device. For a menu you change often, a free account is the better home: editable from any device, and every change is live before the next guest scans your QR code.
What size do they print?
A4 with 16 mm margins, with page breaks that avoid splitting a section. Print at 100% rather than 'fit to page', and use 120 gsm or heavier if the sheet will be handled in service.
Can I put allergens on the template?
Yes — all 14 EU allergens plus vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free and spicy, set per dish and printed under it. This is the part most free templates leave out and the part a food inspector asks about.
How are these different from Canva menu templates?
Canva gives you a picture of a menu: beautiful, and completely unaware of what a dish or a price is. These are structured, so prices align without fiddling, allergens attach to dishes, and the menu can become a live QR menu later. Choose Canva for art direction; choose these for correctness and speed.
Is there a template for a bar or a food truck?
Yes. Presets cover restaurants, cafés, pizzerias, bars, bakeries and food trucks, and they differ in section structure as well as content — the template picked for each is the one that suits that kind of room.
Can I use them commercially?
Yes. Print them for your business, as many as you like. They are templates for restaurants; using them in a restaurant is the point.