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Editing a menu item

The longest form in the admin, laid out so you can see the effect of what you type. On a wide screen the work sits left and the scores sit right. On a phone it is one column, edge to edge, with a line between each part.

The rule

Everything you edit is on the left. Everything that grades it is on the right, and it stays on screen while you scroll. Every card has an ⓘ chip — tap it for what that card does and when it matters.

The three switches at the top

Hidden, Sold out and Star sit next to the item name. They stay there while you scroll, so you never have to hunt for them.

  • Hidden takes the item off the online menu.
  • Sold out leaves it on the menu with a “Sold out” badge.
  • Star marks it as a pick. A box opens where you write why.

They are three separate switches. Any mix is fine — you can star an item that is sold out. Hold your finger on one to read what it does. Press Save after you change one.

You can also change them without opening the item. Tap the status tag on the Menu Items list. See Change the status from the list.

What is still missing

Under the item name there is a row of chips, one per card. A blue tick means that card is filled in. An amber number like 0/2 means it is not. Click a chip to jump to that card. Each card also shows the same tick or number next to its title.

The ring on the right shows how much of the whole item is done, out of 100. It is red under a third, amber under two thirds, and green above that.

Only things a guest or a search engine reads are counted. The hidden and sold out switches are not. Suitable for is not, because a steak suits no diet.

The same number rides next to every item name on Menu Items, as a small coloured ring — see How full an item is.

What’s where

Left, top to bottom: General info (name, link, category) → Studio (photos and video) → the three writing cards → Ingredients & dietary → Category details → pairings → Pricing, Cost and POS link → search and sharing.

Studio sits near the top on purpose: the photo is what makes a diner stop scrolling, and it used to be buried at the bottom of a third column.

Category details sits right under Ingredients & dietary because both answer the same question: what is in this?

Right: two live scores. AI discoverability is how well AI assistants will understand this item. SEO health is how your page looks in a search result and when someone shares the link. Both move as you type, and the search and social fields they grade sit underneath them.

The things you’ll do most

  • Rename or recategorise — General info. Every field has a language switcher; type English first and auto-translate the rest. A blank link is generated from the name.
  • Add photos — Studio. Drag to reorder, star to set the hero, pencil for caption and alt text.
  • Write descriptions — the blurb shows in listings, the full description is what a diner reads on tapping through. Both have Write with AI.
  • Fill allergens — Fill with AI on Ingredients & dietary reads your ingredients and drafts Contains and Suitable for. Food items only — see below.
  • Hide or mark sold out — the three switches at the top of the page.
  • Fill category details — Fill with AI drafts every field at once; per-field fill tweaks one.
  • Every AI button on the page looks the same: a purple pill with a sparkle and the credit price on it.

Good to know

  • A drink is not asked what is in it. Put an item in a wine, beer or cocktail section and the Ingredients & dietary card goes away. A wine is a grape, a year and a place, and those live in Category details instead. Nothing you already typed is lost: a drink that already has ingredient tags keeps the card so you can still change them.
  • On a drink, keep the detail boxes visible to guests. A box marked as not shown to guests is not read by the AI either. On food the AI can still fall back on the ingredients. On a drink there is nothing else, so a hidden box means the AI knows nothing about that bottle.
  • On a phone the page has no boxes. Each part is separated by a thin line and uses the whole width, so the text is easy to read. On a computer the parts are cards again.
  • A blank search title or link isn’t broken — it falls back to a sensible default, and the SEO score says so instead of marking you to zero. Filling them in is about choosing the words yourself.
  • The save bar only shows up when you change something. It tells you how many fields are waiting, and it stays in reach however far you scroll. Undo my changes puts every field back. Pairings are the exception: they save the moment you add one.
  • On a food item, Suggest drinks on the pairings card asks the AI to pick up to three drinks from your own drinks list. It costs 1 credit. It saves nothing. You tap Add on the ones you want. Drinks from Fill AI fields wait under AI suggestions to approve until you press Approve.
  • POS link only appears if your venue runs the till — on items, on categories, and as a column or tile in the menu and category lists. Without it there is no card, no pill, no column and no “not linked” count, so nothing asks you to connect something you don’t have.
  • With the till on, a pill at the top tells you whether the item is display-only. A wine you list but don’t take orders for can stay that way.
  • Category details is empty until that category has custom fields. The link in that card opens the category page, where you add them once for every item in it.
  • Internal notes never reach the public menu, but the AI reads them — so “boiling water is shared with the lasagne, use the dedicated pan for celiacs” reaches a waiter who asks.