Menu photography for restaurants

Your menu is a contract with the guest

A photographed dish explains itself before the waiter reaches the table. It shortens the decision, moves guests toward the dishes you actually want to sell, and lifts the check. I shoot the full card in your own dining room and hand back files ready for print, for the website and for delivery platforms.

Plan my menu shoot

What it does

What a photograph does on the page

A guest spends roughly ninety seconds with a menu, and in that time they are scanning rather than reading. A photograph is the fastest object on the page.

63-78%

Growth in sales of the dishes you photograph. Names travel badly, and a guest who cannot picture the dish orders the safe thing instead.

27-36%

Growth in the average check. A dish that looks considered justifies the number printed beside it.

12%

Growth for the business overall, which is the most cautious of these figures and the one I stand behind.

Not the same shoot

A menu photograph is a different object from a feed photograph

A menu photograph is read at arm's length beside a price, so it stays honest about the portion. A feed photograph is read mid-scroll with no price, so it is allowed to seduce. Shooting one set for both jobs is where the money quietly leaks away.

Cases

Four restaurants, four numbers

Grilled whole sea bream with lemon and microgreens on a white plate, photo by Alex Slyadnev

Top Cafe, Odesa

A group updating its card every six months across several cities, with the visual language drifting apart between locations. We shot the full menu and repeated it each season, so every city printed from one set.

Photographed dishes moved to a ratio of 70 to 30 against the previous year

Otoro tuna nigiri with pickled ginger on a stone plate, photo by Alex Slyadnev

Mayfair Group, Hong Kong

Namo and Gaylord refreshing their menus at the same time. We shot both in a single production block to keep one visual language across the group.

Average bill grew 24 percent at Namo and 31 percent at Gaylord

Scallop with fish roe and white wine, photo by Alex Slyadnev

Tosca, Hong Kong

A two-star kitchen where the plating is the product. We shot the dishes exactly as the kitchen sends them and let the light do the work instead of the props.

Photographed dishes sold 27 percent better in the month after publication

Octopus salad with potatoes, olives and basil, photo by Alex Slyadnev

Nash and Chaika

Two restaurants under one owner, both refreshing their menus in the same season, shot together to keep the language consistent.

Orders rose 7 percent at Nash and 9 percent at Chaika

How I work

Every frame is approved before we move on

Every frame goes onto the screen the moment it is taken, while the dish is still on set. You say what is wrong and it is changed right there, so nothing leaves the shoot unapproved.

Reshoots requested by a client in twenty years of working this way.

Questions

What restaurants ask before booking

Do the photographs have to match the plating exactly?

Yes, and I will hold you to that. A photograph that flatters a dish beyond what your kitchen sends out produces complaints and refunds, and it costs more than it earns. We shoot your dish at its best rather than a different dish altogether.

Should every dish be photographed?

A card where everything carries a picture reads as a diner, so the answer is usually no. Photograph the dishes you want to sell, which are normally the ones with the margin and the ones your kitchen is proud of, and leave the rest as text.

Can you design the menu as well, or only shoot it?

I do both, and many restaurants hand the finished file straight to their printer. If you already work with a designer, I deliver files prepared to their specification instead.

We have several locations. Can the photographs stay consistent?

Consistency across a group is the main reason groups call me. We shoot the whole group in one production block so every location prints from the same visual language, and we repeat that each season so the card does not drift apart.

How soon can we print?

Two weeks from the shoot day as standard. If you are working to a printing deadline, tell me the date on the first call and we plan the shoot backwards from it.

How many dishes can you shoot in a day?

Around twenty on a normal day, and closer to ten when the plating is complicated. The largest number I have shot in a single day is one hundred and six. You will get a realistic figure for your own card on our first call.

Next step

Send me your current menu

The fastest way to start is to send me the card you print today. I will come back with which dishes are worth photographing, how many shooting days it takes and what it costs, and that usually lands within one working day. It costs you nothing to find out.

Send my menu

Process

From the first call to photos ready for publication

01Step 1 · Consultation

or message me directly

Planning

We build a shot list together, then I select props and backgrounds for your dishes.

Shoot day

I arrive with lighting and props and shoot right in your dining room before opening.

Delivery

I select the strongest shots myself and send you a finished gallery.