Add and Manage Your Menu

Your menu is the heart of dineomAI. It's what guests see in the chat, and it's what the AI uses to answer questions and suggest pairings. You manage all of it from the menu page at /admin/menu.

Add a menu item

On the menu page, add a new item and fill in the details:

• Name and price: the basics, shown to every guest.
• Category: groups the item in the chat (for example Starters, Mains, Breads, Desserts).
• Description: a short line that helps the AI describe the dish.
• Diet tags: mark items as veg or non-veg so guests can filter.
• Alcoholic: flag drinks as alcoholic so the AI handles them correctly.
• Health insight: an optional note (such as calories) the AI shares when a guest asks about nutrition.
• Photo: upload an image so the dish shows in the chat (add this after the first save).
• Availability: keep it on to show the item, or turn it off to take it off the menu.

Save, and the item shows up in the chat straight away. There's nothing to redeploy.

Edit or remove an item

To change a price or fix a typo, edit the item and save. To stop serving a dish, you have two choices:

• Toggle availability off if it's a temporary thing, like a dish you're out of today.
• Archive the item if you've dropped it for good. Archiving hides it but keeps your past order history intact, and you can bring it back later.

Mark an item sold out (86 it)

During service, things run out. To 86 a dish, open the menu page and toggle that item's availability off. It disappears from the guest chat at once, and the AI stops offering it. Toggle it back on when it returns. This manual toggle is the only way an item comes off the menu. dineomAI never hides a dish on its own, so a low or empty ingredient count will not pull it from the chat.

See a dish's food cost (Recipe)

Each item has a 🧪 Recipe button on the menu page. Open it to link the dish to the stock ingredients it uses and set how much of each it takes. dineomAI then shows the live food-cost percentage and the margin per dish, so you can see which items actually make money. Set up your ingredients first in inventory and stock, then build the recipe here. Linking a recipe also lets dineomAI deplete that stock automatically as the dish sells.

Categories keep the menu clean

Group items into clear categories so the chat stays easy to scan. A guest who opens "Breads" should see only breads. Short, obvious category names work best. You can set your own category labels in settings.

FAQ

Do menu changes go live instantly?

Yes. Add, edit, or toggle an item and the change shows in the guest chat right away. There's no publishing step and no wait, so you can fix a price or mark a dish sold out in the middle of service.

What happens to past orders if I archive a dish?

Nothing. Archiving hides the dish from new orders but keeps your history and analytics intact. Your reports still show what that dish sold in the past, and you can unarchive it any time to bring it back.

Can I add photos to menu items?

Yes, you can add an image to a menu item so guests see the dish in the chat. Clear, well-lit photos help, since a good photo tends to sell a dish better than a description alone.

Can I see how much a dish costs to make?

Yes. Open the 🧪 Recipe drawer on any item, link the stock ingredients it uses, and dineomAI shows the food-cost percentage and the margin per dish. Set up your ingredients in inventory and stock first.

What to do next

With your menu in, set up your tables and QR codes so guests have something to scan.