Lunya is one of Liverpool’s most loved restaurants – a Barcelona-inspired deli, bar and restaurant on Hanover Street with a fiercely loyal following and a real sense of character. Having worked with Lunya before on restaurant graphics and Lunyalita, I was delighted to be asked back for this restaurant menu design project, this time to help bring their menus into a new era.
The brief was straightforward: strip it back. The previous menus had a LOT going on (oodles of text, lots of detail), and the time had come for a fresher approach that would feel more in keeping with where the restaurant was heading. The challenge, as always with an established and well-loved venue, was to modernise without alienating the existing customers who love Lunya exactly as it is.
The new design strips things back, letting the food do the talking. Cleaner typography, more breathing room, a more confident layout and less waffle.
The new menus also feature a QR code linking to a dedicated allergen information page on the restaurant’s website. Previously, allergen details had to live on the menu itself. This took up space and, more problematically, risking being out of date the moment anything changed. The QR code means the information is always current and always accessible, without compromising the design of the menu.
If there’s one part of this project I want to talk about, it’s the children’s menu. Dotted around Lunya are some small sculptures – quirky little figures that are very much part of the restaurant’s personality. Weird and wonderful in equal measure, they’re exactly the kind of thing that makes Lunya loveable.
I took photos of the sculptures and used them as the basis for a series of hand-drawn illustrations, which became the heart of the children’s menu design. It felt important to capture them – there was a chance they might not be around forever, and I wanted them to have a permanent place in the Lunya story. I’m really proud of how they turned out. They’re playful and full of character, and I think they give the children’s menu something really special.
If you’re looking for restaurant menu design in Liverpool or beyond, I’d love to hear about your project. Get in touch and let’s talk about what you need.
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