Restaurant Ad Design: 15 Brilliant Examples To Take Inspiration From

A mouthwatering restaurant ad design can help persuade diners to try your meals. From unique layouts to appetizing meal photos, you have to be able to spark their taste buds.

90% of guests will research a restaurant first before heading over to dine or order food from them. And you have to put extra effort into your marketing - the U.S. alone has more than 1 million restaurants . Each one is vying to attract diners to have a seat at their food establishment. To entice customers, you need a restaurant ad design that triggers their palate or gets them curious about your offering.

How do you create an effective advertisement for a restaurant? We've compiled some exceptional and clever ads from various restaurants that showcase their meal, branding, or unique selling proposition. Whether you're an established restaurant or about to open up one, these design inspirations can have people be curious about the meals on your menu.

1. Yellow Moon

The ad creative here basically combines the name of the restaurant and the purpose of the ad. That is, to "launch" or introduce the Yellow Moon restaurant to diners. With what seems to be the hands of an astronaut serving a palatable dish, the restaurant references Frank Sinatra's song "Fly Me To The Moon." It relays the feeling of being "on the moon" once they order a meal from them.

Tip: Incorporate the restaurant name in your ads with relevant visual elements.

2. FATZ Restaurants

Usually, you'd find unsolicited restaurant pamphlets on the windshield of your car. FATZ restaurants, though, have an ingenious way of hooking paper kabobs on car antennas. Instead of handing out brochures or simply leaving them on the car, they use the car antenna as the stick holder to promote their shrimp kabob dish. It's an out-of-home ad design that makes people be interested instead of the usual passive reactions from blatant ads.

Tip: Create out-of-home ads that have unique and engaging formats.

3. Amber Hotel Fine Dining

We all know that fine dining means you have to be prim and proper. However, if the food is too delicious, you may forget to wipe off that extra grease or food particles. This message is what the ad describes with its subtle placement of pasta on the model's face. Amber Hotel Fine Dining maintained a classy look while elegantly infusing how scrumptious their dishes are.

Tip: Be playful with your ads while still keeping the restaurant's brand identity.

4. Shashlik Restaurant

How do you make people feel important at your restaurant? With a meal fit for the royals emphasized in a mouthwatering ad copy. Shashlik Restaurant keeps it refined with a powerful message celebrating the story behind its dish. The restaurant ad design with a layout similar to a typical restaurant menu invites people to order the meal.

Tip: Infuse a bit of history in your ads to make diners learn about the dish or restaurant beginnings.

5. PDQ

A straight-to-the-point ad with minimal copy and just the photo of the meal is effective enough to have people craving over your dish. If you have an out-of-home ad campaign, this type of ad design instantly triggers the hunger of your target market. You can also use this for seasonal campaigns, such as the fall menu indicated on PDQ's restaurant ad design.

Tip: Grab attention in an instant with ads that state directly what your restaurant offers.

6. Jong Hwa Chinese Restaurant

Include utensils in your ads to illustrate the taste or experience people will get from your food. Jong Hwa Chinese Restaurant promotes its spicy shrimp meal by the creative execution of burnt chopstick tips. While there's no image of the dish, you can still deduce the hot taste. It's a minimalist approach for an effective restaurant ad design that captivates diners.

Tip: A restaurant ad doesn't always have to be about the food itself and could even include the utensils, location, or experience.

7. BLU Bar at Shangri-La Hotel, Singapore

The canvas painting of the blueberry cheesecake may look surreal at first. For BLU at Shangri-La hotel's target demographics, though, the format works. It appeals to them visually with color elements almost similar to the "The Starry Night" painting by Vincent Van Gogh. The uneven brush strokes even translate how the dessert melts tastefully.

Tip: Don't be afraid to experiment with other mediums or formats to create a conversation piece restaurant ad.

8. Pekao Fresh Market & Restaurant

There are so many ways to show how fresh the seafood of a restaurant is. With this sample art direction from Pekao, you can already understand that they serve fresh seafood straight from the sea to your plate. The careful use of colors puts the sliced sashimi at the focal point of the image. And dark tones surround it to turn the viewer's eyes towards the main course.

Tip: Have a unique interpretation of food or the type of service that's already common.

9. A&W

A conventional way to present your food is by looking into what shape it resembles or take a photo of it in such a way that it relates to your narrative. In this example, the heart-shaped chicken tenders tell the viewers a relevant message through an appetizing advertisement. A&W finishes the ad with graphic designs to make it more exciting.

Tip: Go the simple route of what the food looks like or its resemblance aside from restaurant-related items.

10. Frescatto

Deconstruct the ingredients to indicate the burst of flavors contained in the dish. Ads like this one from Frescatto tell the people what to expect from your meal. It's a great way to make them anticipate its taste. You'll be able to present what goes into the food, especially for discerning diners who are meticulous with the ingredients or want to recreate their favorite dish.

Tip: Put the ingredients into the spotlight. After all, they complete a meal's flavor.

11. McDonald's

The graphics of the McFlurry™ Merengon from McDonald's visualizes the texture of flavors you'll taste from the dessert. It uses repetitive patterns and bright colors of the fruit ingredients. The splash of colors accentuates the flavor combination, which invites consumers to have a scoop or two.

Tip: Use graphics to your advantage with eye-popping designs that complement the food photo.

12. Red Robin

Pair delicious food photos with iconic typography and memorable ad copy just like what Red Robin did. Customers enjoy reading something to provide context instead of just full images. When you do this, people will stay longer on the ad to read. They'll appreciate the creative wordplay and have an increased awareness of your brand.

Tip: Complete your visual materials with an expressive ad copy or memorable tagline.

13. Subway

Not all people will like every single ingredient in a food. Some prefer not to have pickles on their burgers or pineapple in their pizza (very debatable). That's why Subway highlights its unique offering - the ability to choose what goes into your sandwich. To emphasize this, they put the exact food ingredient that fast-food consumers may not like, making it a noticeable ad.

Tip: Identify what makes your restaurant unique and create a simple, direct ad that people can understand.

14. KFC

At first glance, you already know that the chili picture means the food is spicy. However, KFC takes it up a notch by arranging the chilis to resemble flames. The format stresses how fiery hot the chicken will taste.

Tip: Be creative in using simple food ingredients to illustrate a message in your ad.

15. Burger King

Burger King not only updated its logo - it also overhauled its entire branding with ads that coincide with the new look. The massive rebranding effort is easily recognizable with its retro fonts and flat-colored illustrations. Even without actual photos of the food itself, the ads tell the story to the viewers.

Tip: When you rebrand, accompany it with cohesive advertising materials using various mediums and formats.

How To Make a Flyer for a Restaurant

Make a creative brief.

The first step to an unforgettable restaurant ad design is brainstorming its look and feel through a creative brief. The creative brief gives a direction as to what the output of the ad will be. You can do this by understanding your target demographics, what the market wants to see on a restaurant ad. Ensure as well to align the ad to your branding by noting them in the creative brief.

Organize the tasks.

Manage the tasks and procedures that you need to produce the ad. If you want a mouthwatering picture of your dish, you may need a food photographer as it's their specialty. For full-blown ads requiring a model and further editing, organize the production project to have a smooth execution based on the restaurant ad design.

Find a graphic designer.

You will need a full-time graphic designer or a freelancer to create the ad and edit them as needed. Depending on the direction you want to set for the restaurant ad design, a talented designer can bring your ideas to life.

Aside from employing a designer, you can also subscribe to graphic design services and have a skilled designer work on your ads. Instead of a full-time salary, overhead expenses, or varying freelancer fees, these on-demand subscription firms only require a flat fee. One of them is Delesign. Subscribing to Delesign comes with unlimited design project allocation, so you can have as many advertisements and revisions as you require. A dedicated graphic designer from Delesign can recommend design ideas and infuse creativity into your restaurant ad design .