Preserved Topic: how would you pro's approach this....

sup peeps!

im making a site for a restaraunt. they want there entire menu on the site. they also want them grouped into food catagories like this:

-Appetizer
-Sea Scallaps
-Shrimp Cocktail

-Entrees
-Chicken
-Chicken cordon blu
-Chicken Marsala
-Chicken Parmesan
-Veal
-Veal Parmesan
-Veal Marsala


anyway, i thought of using a dhtml folding menu but it looks kinda cheesy if you go here to view it (http://www.vitositaliancafe.com/menu_test1.htm)

what other ideas do yall have? Flash? Java? Other?

thanks for any info.

Brad Nelson

First off, the music is a definite detriment. Not only is it annoying to have music on a site at all, what you've picked sounds more appropriate to an undertaker's site rather than a restaurant. Since you asked about the menu, I guess it's no big deal.

As far as the menu itself goes, I don't know how you feel about frames, but they might help. That way you could have the categories clickable and change to a page within the site itself. Other than that, I'll let some of the others come up with more suggestions.

i agree, change or delete the music.. if you keep it, add a button to turn it off...

How would I approach this? A large hammer and an electric shock prod...

It would also be a good idea to post the link instead of just the address. You'd be amazed at the amount of people who think it's too much trouble to copy and paste (myself included). I'd do it for you, but, hey, it's not my site

I think the page itself minus the music looks nice but the MENU just Doesn't Fit it doesn't blend well with the rest of teh page. You deffinatley want it to be the point of interest that teh eyes are drawn to but not stand out like a sore thumb. Frames like suggested above might do the trick once you have found an ararngment that looks good an fits with the page. maybe a Fancy but READABLE script. I would probably attempt to use Several laayers and have images for Menu catagories that match the page that when you click on them they either show or hide the correct layer displaying the info you want.

Good Luck.

I suggest you get your money up front. It sucks doing work for some one that won`t pay you afterwards.


As for the *menu* ( hehe food joke ) maybe a pop up with pictures of the dishes ?



Pain is natures way of saying " STOP IT, STUPID "

Since this is a restaurant menu, I'd follow the KISS principle:

"Keep It Simple, Stupid".

The viewers of the site are looking for a place to eat. They want to see a menu. They aren't web designers, and don't care about the flashiness of the site.

Get a hold of the restaurant's actual menu, and go along the lines of that nemu.

I'd create a top navigation of the menu choices, (appetisers, entrees, deserts, directions, etc..)

Then when clicked, I'd have it laid out like the actual menu:

Chicken Marsala (in a nice nuptial script or whatever)
Beginning with only the finest bla bla bla ( smaller text like a real menu, maybe embellished with first letter larger script...)

Then next item

Then next item

It's perfectly o.k to have the individual items listed (Like a real menu) How many times have you looked at a menu, said to yourself "This looks good, Oh, wait! Look at this!!" Give the people the same display as they'd have at the restaurant.

Then bottom navigation that mirrors the top.

I'd use an "antiqued" type off white/beige background. Maybe a deep brown for the menu items themselves.

You want to convey warmth--like a cozy place to eat--

Yeah, that music has GOT to go.

I don't like the menu you have because it doesn't expand nicely. When I click on an item, it expands the menu, but it looks like it just re-centers it based on VALIGN. That's kind of annoying, since the menu appears to move up the page a little. Hope that makes sense.

I've always found Bennigan's menu easy to navigate - http://www.bennigans.com/menu.html



[This message has been edited by Pugzly (edited 06-17-2001).]

Just to throw in my two cents, I have to agree with whats already been said. I'm not in love with scrolling for anything, but I would much prefer scrolling down a more traditional looking menu than what you have there. As a patron looking at that site, I would get annoyed pretty quick to have to wait for another page to load for every item I wanted to check out a discription of.

I think a combination of the navigation by catagory, and loading the menu items in a frame, would probably serve you well.


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