Cafe and restaurant signage

Cafe and restaurant signage works in three places: on the pavement, where it has a few seconds to turn a passer-by into a customer; at the table and counter, where it sells; and behind the scenes, where it keeps staff and diners safe. The core kit is a pavement A-board, a menu board or chalkboard, window graphics and toilet signs, with cafe barriers if you have outdoor seating and allergen and date labels in the kitchen. Here is each job with real sizes, materials and “from” prices.

Cafe and restaurant signage from the kerb to the kitchen #

Where	What	From
Pavement	A-frame pavement sign with 2 posters, A2 or A1	£124.20
Outdoor seating	Cafe barrier banner kit, 1000 to 2000 mm	£619.66
Window and door	Shop window graphics, matt vinyl	£5.95
Menu wall	Printed menu board, Foamex or Dibond	£29.52
Specials	Printed chalk board, 1000 × 600 mm	£93.94
Tables and counter	Tent cards, Foamex strut cards	£10.76
Toilets	Toilet and hand-washing signs	£4.30
Kitchen	Machinery signs, allergen and food rotation labels	£5.28

On the pavement #

A-boards

A-frame pavement signs come as a frame with two posters: A2 (420 × 594 mm) from £124.20 or A1 (594 × 841 mm) from £184.01, with standard production of 5 working days. Use the two faces for different jobs: your name and what you serve on the side facing the busier direction, today’s offer or opening times on the other. Replacement posters start at £34.46, so a breakfast board can become a lunch board without a new frame.

Write for someone walking past at normal pace. One offer, one price and your name will do more than a full menu squeezed onto A2. Put the board where people approach from, not flat against your own window, and take it in at closing.

Chalkboards

Printed chalk boards are 1000 × 600 mm, supplied as a frame only or a frame with your branding UV printed on, from £93.94 and 5 working days on Standard. Print the parts that never change, such as the logo and section headings, and keep the chalk area for daily specials. The board then looks consistent even when the handwriting varies.

Cafe barriers for outdoor seating #

Cafe barrier banners mark out an outdoor seating area and carry your name along the front of it. They come as Classic or Premium full kits in 1000 mm, 1500 mm and 2000 mm lengths, printed one or both sides, from £619.66 for a 1000 mm Classic kit. Extension kits from £266.81 join onto a full kit to make a longer run, so order a full kit first if you are starting from scratch.

Barriers are the slowest item in cafe and restaurant signage: standard production is 17 working days to dispatch, with Express at 16 and Saver at 19. Order well before the first warm weekend. Tables, chairs and barriers on a public footway usually need a pavement licence from your council, so check that yours covers barriers, and keep a clear route along the pavement for wheelchairs, buggies and people with sight loss.

Menus, windows and tables #

• Menu boards: printed menu boards in A3 (297 × 420 mm) from £29.52, A2 from £40.15, 500 × 700 mm from £47.69 and A1 from £55.58, on 5 mm Foamex, 3 mm Foamex or 3 mm Dibond. Standard production is 3 working days. Foamex suits an indoor wall; Dibond suits a board that stays up outdoors. Drilled corners make them quick to screw up and swap.
• Window graphics: matt vinyl squares and circles from £5.95 for 300 mm, printed in our Manchester workshop. A round logo on the door and opening times at eye level are the usual pair.
• Tent cards: from £10.76 for a three-sided DL triangle, or A5 two-sided tents, for desserts, drinks offers or a QR code to your online menu.
• Foamex strut cards: A4 and A3, portrait or landscape, from £61.30. They stand on their own on a counter or shelf, and a scratch resistant gloss varnish is available.
• Takeaway menus: laminated folded leaflets from £74.94, A4 or A3 flat with half, roll, Z or gate folds, laminated both sides so they wipe clean. Flyers start at £19.42 for door-to-door drops.

The cafe and restaurant signage that costs least over a year is the kind you can update. Keep prices on printed menus to items that rarely change, and put fast-moving prices on the chalkboard or a replaceable poster. It saves reprinting the whole set every time a supplier puts prices up.

Toilets and customer areas #

Our washroom and hygiene signs cover toilet doors and the messages inside. Door signs such as Male Female and Accessible Toilets, Accessible Toilet and Baby Changing, Ladies and Gentlemen are 150 × 150 mm, 200 × 200 mm or 297 × 297 mm from £4.30 in self-adhesive vinyl, or on Foamex or Dibond. Now Wash Your Hands Please, Please Turn Off the Taps and Do Not Flush Sanitary Products signs start at £5.28 for A4. For toilet door signs, fix them at a consistent height beside or on the door so people using wheelchairs and people with sight loss can find them.

Behind the scenes: kitchen signs and labels #

Not all cafe and restaurant signage faces customers. Our kitchen and machinery signs include Caution This Machine Runs Hot, Dangerous Machine Procedure, Potato Chipping Machine, Vegetable Paring Machine and Convector Oven Switch Off Heater, from £5.28 for A4 vinyl. Beard Snoods Must Be Worn and Wash Your Hands Please signs sit alongside them. Vinyl suits tiled walls and stainless steel; Foamex suits painted walls.

Allergen labels carry “Allergy Advice” with write-on lines for “Contains” and “May contain”, in 62 × 33 mm or 51 × 51 mm, from £27.22. Food rotation labels in the same sizes have lines for product, prepared, use by and staff. For chillers and freezers, choose waterproof polypropylene and write on it with a permanent marker; our note on paper or polypropylene labels explains the difference.

Labels help staff pass on allergen information; they do not replace your allergen records or training. The Food Standards Agency publishes the current rules on the 14 allergens and on labelling food you prepare and pack on site.

Planning cafe and restaurant signage #

• Order barriers first, because they take 17 working days on Standard. Menu boards take 3, A-boards and chalkboards 5.
• Check your pavement licence and any council rules on A-boards before anything goes on the footway.
• Match colours and fonts across the A-board, window and menu so the place looks like one business.
• UK mainland delivery is £7.95 per order, free when the goods total is £99 or more.

Every product for food businesses is gathered in our food and hospitality hub. If you want help putting a menu layout together, typesetting is £15 and design from a brief is £35, or ask us through get a quote or on 0161 315 1151.