A practical guide to Toast digital menu boards

Start with how guests read the board

A menu board is read from a distance, in a line, in a few seconds. That is very different from a website menu read on a phone at home. Before choosing any layout, stand where your guests stand. How far away are they? How long do they wait? Do they decide before they reach the counter, or at it?

The answers shape everything else. A quick-service counter needs large prices and very few words. A café with a slower line can afford short descriptions. A bar might want the drinks list on its own screen.

Choose a layout that fits the menu

Most restaurant boards fall into a few practical layouts. Pick the one that matches the shape of your menu, not the one that looks best in a demo.

• Three-column. Sections side by side across a landscape screen. Good for menus with clear categories, such as plates, mains and drinks.
• Promo sidebar. The menu takes most of the screen and one panel highlights a seasonal item or offer. Good when you want to feature something without crowding the list.
• QR-ready. The board includes a QR code that opens the full menu on a guest’s phone. Good when the board can only show highlights and the full menu is longer.

Decide orientation and screen count

Landscape screens suit wide, sectioned menus. Portrait screens suit long single lists and narrow walls. Some counters use two or three screens side by side, each showing one section. Count your sections and items before buying or repositioning screens, so the menu fits without shrinking the type.

Garnsh does not install or manage hardware. It publishes the board display, and the restaurant chooses and maintains the screens and players.

Use promotional areas with restraint

A promo area earns its space when it changes behavior: a new seasonal plate, a combo, a drink pairing. It loses its value when it is always the same graphic. Keep one message per promo area, use a short headline and a price, and change it on a schedule your team can actually keep.

Promotional content in Garnsh is part of the published board, so it goes through the same preview and publish step as the menu. Garnsh does not switch promos automatically by time of day.

Configure each location separately

If you run several locations, do not assume one board fits all. An airport counter, a neighborhood café and a flagship dining room usually need different sections, layouts and promos, and sometimes different prices.

Location-specific configuration means each location has its own board layout and its own mapped menu. The airport board shows airport prices. The flagship board shows the flagship menu. Nobody has to remember to edit a shared file correctly.

Preview and publish on purpose

Boards are the most visible menu in the room. A mistake there is seen by every guest in line. Preview the board as it will appear on the actual screen size, then publish deliberately, ideally outside peak service.

If a change looks wrong after publishing, rollback returns the board to the previous published version. That is faster and calmer than trying to fix the source while guests watch.

Plan for upstream problems

Sometimes a connection fails or an upstream service has a bad hour. A board that goes blank or shows an error in that moment is worse than a board that is a little behind. Garnsh keeps the last-known-good menu on public surfaces when an upstream issue occurs, so the board keeps showing the most recent version that published correctly.

That behavior does not make the board aware of live stock or 86 status. If an item runs out mid-service, your team still handles it at the counter.