Four ways AI earns its keep.

1. Refine with AI

Picking a theme is a great starting point, but every restaurant has a specific look in mind. Type that look in plain language and let the model tune the theme to match.

• Plain language prompts. "brighter, more casual brunch spot" or "ultra minimalist Tokyo cafe, more whitespace," and the model adjusts the theme accordingly.
• What it adjusts. Colors, the heading and body fonts, how tight or airy the layout feels, the margins, and the number of columns.
• Refine again, anytime. Your last prompt is remembered under a "Refine again" button so you can iterate. A one click Reset rolls the theme back to the curated default.
• You can't break it. The AI only produces valid designs, so you'll never end up with a broken-looking menu.
• Built into the wizard. Refining the theme happens up front, right next to theme selection, so the menu the AI later generates is rendered inside the look you already dialed in.
• Live preview. The wizard's theme preview re-renders immediately after each refinement so you can see whether the new direction is working before committing.

2. AI Menu Generation

If you already have a menu in another format, you don't need to rebuild it from scratch.

• Paste raw text and let Menu Author turn it into a structured layout.
• Upload a PDF of an existing menu.
• Your artwork can come along. When a PDF has high quality artwork embedded in it (a full page background, a designed cover, a logo), Menu Author makes a best effort to extract it, save it to your asset library, and place it in the generated menu. Crisp digital PDFs extract well; photos and low resolution scans usually don't, and you can always upload the original files yourself.
• Photograph a printed menu, up to 10 photos at once. Each photo becomes its own page, and you drag them into order before generating, so a whole multi page menu comes over in one pass.
• Upload Excel or spreadsheet files from your point of sale system or a spreadsheet.
• Direction comes from your theme, not from a freeform "instructions" field. Pick a theme, refine it if you want a specific mood, then let the generator slot real menu content into that look.
• Built on your theme. You choose the theme and look up front, so the menu the AI lays out already fits a consistent style instead of arriving as plain text.
• Automatic price parsing across more than two dozen currencies.
• Dietary tag recognition. Common abbreviations and synonyms (v, vg, veg, gf) are detected and tagged correctly.
• Allergen suggestions, opt in. Switch on allergen suggestions and the generator marks each dish with the 14 EU allergen codes: ones stated in your source menu plus ones clearly implied by a dish's own ingredients. It's off by default, and every code is yours to verify before it reaches a guest.
• Plan-aware up front. If your plan can't fit another menu, the wizard tells you immediately on step one with your current count and limit, not after you've uploaded a PDF.
• Automatic retry if a generation attempt fails or produces an unrenderable page.
• Fully editable results. The generator is a starting point, not a lock-in.

3. Polish with AI

Sometimes the menu is already there. You just want the words to land better. Polish with AI reviews the copy on your existing menu items and proposes sharper, more evocative wording you can accept or reject one at a time.

• Item level suggestions. Targets item names and descriptions, not prices, sections, or structure.
• Accept or reject per item. You see each suggested change next to the original, and nothing changes unless you say so.
• Your voice stays your voice. The model is steered toward improving clarity and texture without rewriting your brand. You can always revert.
• Works on any menu. Whether you imported it from PDF or built it from scratch, Polish operates on the live menu in the editor.
• Built into the editor. No separate workflow: open the polish panel, review, apply.

4. Translate with AI

Tourist towns, hotel restaurants, and bilingual cities all serve guests who would rather read the menu in their own language. Translate with AI turns one published menu into many, without you retyping a word.

• 27 languages. A curated list covering most of Europe plus Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Hindi, and Turkish. Add as many languages to a menu as you like.
• AI drafts, you approve. Every dish name, description, section title, and note gets a suggested translation. You review them line by line, edit anything, and approve what goes live. Unreviewed AI output never reaches your guests.
• Go live before you're done. Approved lines show translated; everything else falls back to your original wording. Translate the headliners today and the wine list tomorrow.
• A flag bar for your guests. Published menus show a small language bar. One tap and the diner is reading in their language, at a link of its own you can also print or share directly.
• QR codes, exports, and TV too. Pick a language in the share dialog for links, QR downloads, social posts, and website embeds. PDF and image exports come out in any language you've added, and TV displays can run in any of them.
• Never silently stale. Change a dish and its translations are flagged for review. The old approved wording stays live until you update it; nothing rots without you knowing.
• Search engines follow along. Every language version is announced to search engines with proper language tags, so guests searching in French can find the French menu.

There's more on how this works for your guests on the multilingual menus page.

What AI doesn't do

• Doesn't paint backgrounds or design logos. There is no image generation in Menu Author. Backgrounds come from your theme, from more than 50 patterns with editable colors, from a curated gallery, or from images you upload, and the logo block displays artwork you provide. When you generate from a PDF that already contains good artwork, a best effort is made to extract it and carry it over, but nothing is invented.
• Doesn't replace your voice. Every suggestion is reviewable; nothing rewrites your menu silently.
• Doesn't auto-publish. Nothing goes live without your explicit action.
• Doesn't guess allergens on its own. Allergen suggestions run only when you switch them on, and each suggested code needs your confirmation. Accuracy stays your call, as it should for a legal declaration.
• Doesn't see your guests. Analytics are anonymized counts; they aren't tied to anything the AI does.
• Outputs are always valid. Refinements can't produce broken themes; generations land in your real menu, ready to edit.
• You stay in control. Accept, reject, undo, or reset at any point.

Frequently asked, AI edition

Does Menu Author generate logos or background images?

No. The AI here works on structure, design settings, words, and translations, not image generation. It won't design a logo or paint background art for you. Backgrounds come from your theme, from more than 50 patterns whose colors you control, from a curated gallery, or from your own uploads, and the logo block uses artwork you provide. One useful nuance: if the PDF you generate from contains high quality backgrounds or a logo, Menu Author makes a best effort to extract them, add them to your asset library, and reuse them in the new menu.

What AI does Menu Author use?

We use trusted AI providers and pick the right one for each task (refining a theme, building a menu, polishing words, translating a menu). You don't have to choose or configure anything.

What does AI cost on top of my plan?

Nothing extra. AI features are included in your plan; there's no per prompt billing.

Is my menu content used to train AI models?

No. Files and text submitted to our AI workflows are sent to managed providers under their data terms; your input is not used to train any models.

What happens when AI fails?

Menu Author retries failed generations automatically before surfacing an error. Refinements that can't be turned into a valid design are skipped and you're prompted to try a different phrase. Polish and translation suggestions you don't approve simply never apply. Your menu is unchanged.