Café menu: how to build a clear drinks menu for your coffee shop

Write the menu content before the design. Every drink needs these fields:

• The drink's name in Arabic and English, such as لاتيه and Latte
• A short description: number of shots, milk type, flavour
• The sizes you offer, each with its price
• Calories for each size
• Caffeine in milligrams for drinks that contain it
• Allergens, such as milk and nuts in desserts
• Add-ons and their price: plant milk, extra shot, sauce, cream

Most questions at the counter are about size, milk and price. When the menu answers them, the queue moves faster and fewer orders go wrong.

Order the sections the way a guest thinks while standing at the counter:

1. 1Hot espresso drinks: espresso, americano, cortado, flat white, latte, cappuccino
2. 2Specialty and filter coffee: V60 and Chemex, with the crop or origin if it changes
3. 3Cold drinks: iced latte, cold brew, iced americano
4. 4Drinks without coffee: tea, matcha, hot chocolate, juices
5. 5Desserts and bakery
6. 6Breakfast and sandwiches if you serve them

Put your signature drink first in its section, and keep the number of items as small as you can. If you serve Saudi coffee or mint tea for seated guests, give it a clear section instead of a lost line at the end.

The SFDA announced that from 1 July 2025 food businesses must show detailed nutrition information on their menus. This is what matters most for cafés:

• Disclose the caffeine content of drinks
• The salt mark next to items high in salt, such as some sandwiches and pastries
• The activity time needed to burn the calories of the item
• It applies to every menu: paper, digital and food delivery platforms

In the same announcement the SFDA said caffeine intake should not exceed 400 mg a day for adults and 200 mg for pregnant women. Calories next to every item were already required; the details and allergens are in our restaurant menu guide. Read: restaurant menu and SFDA rules

This guide is for information. Check the latest SFDA requirements before you print your menu.

• Use the same size names across the whole menu: small, medium and large, or ounces, but not both
• Each size gets its own price, calories and caffeine, since a large cup has more milk and may have an extra shot
• If an add-on changes the caffeine, such as an extra shot, note it next to it
• Plant milk and sauces change the calories, so show the difference or count the default option and say so
• Show prices including VAT, as the guest pays them

Caffeine and calorie numbers come from your own recipe and quantities, so work them out once per item and update them when you change the beans or the cup size.

Most coffee names are international, and guests know فلات وايت and Flat White alike. Write the Arabic name the way people say it, the English next to it, and the description in Arabic first. Do not translate names word for word in a way that confuses guests; let the description do the explaining.

• Arabic is the base for every item, with English next to it or in a second version
• The same order and the same prices in both versions
• A one-line description, not a paragraph

Most cafés take orders at the counter, so the board above it or the printed menu on it is what guests read first. A QR code on the tables helps seated guests who order again, and lets you update prices and mark a sold-out item without reprinting. A display QR menu is not an ordering and payment system, so know the difference before you choose. Read: display menu or ordering system?

For a printed menu: Repma's free menu maker runs in your browser with no sign-up. Type your sections and drinks in Arabic and English with price and calories, pick a design, and download a PDF or an image to print. Design your café menu for free

For a digital menu: Repma's QR menu opens on the guest's phone at menu.repma.io with no app. It has small, medium and large on one item, fields for calories and caffeine with the 400 mg daily limit note, the high-salt mark, eight allergens from the SFDA list and a sold out today mark. You enter or confirm the numbers; Repma never invents them. The menu is display only, with no ordering and no payment, and comes with Repma from 119 SAR per location per month with a 7-day trial. Try the demo menu