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Editing a menu item

The item editor opens when you click any dish, drink, or bottle from the Menu list. It’s the single longest form in the admin, so it’s organised into three vertical columns of related panels rather than one endless scroll. On a wide laptop you see all three columns side by side; on a narrower screen the third column wraps below; on a phone everything stacks top to bottom.

What it does

Every menu item carries a lot of information that has nothing to do with the others. The name and category that the diner sees in a listing are decided once. The short blurb and full description are written when you have time to sit down and craft them. The hero photo is uploaded when you have it. Status flags — sold out, hidden, recommended — flip throughout service. Pricing, allergens, suggested pairings, SEO previews, custom fields for wines, the POS twin that routes orders to the kitchen — each lives on the same page, but each is a separate concern.

The old layout stacked all twelve panels in one tall column, so the operator scrolled past five sections they didn’t need every time they wanted to fix one thing. The new layout groups them by intent and puts every group at a glance:

  • Setup (left column) — name, category, status flags, prices, and POS link. These are the bookkeeping decisions, set once and rarely touched again, plus the daily-use sold-out toggle.
  • Storytelling (middle column) — the short blurb, the full description, the internal notes for staff and AI, and the suggested pairings (for food items). This is the prose work; you settle in to write a paragraph or two and leave.
  • Discovery and details (right column) — the photo gallery and video, the AI discoverability score, the search and social previews, and any category-specific custom fields (grape variety on wines, allergens on dishes, ABV on cocktails).

Each panel has a small ⓘ chip next to its title. Hover or tap it for a short explanation of what the panel does and when it matters — no need to memorise the rules or hunt through this wiki page.

The rule

Three columns, grouped by intent. Setup on the left, storytelling in the middle, discovery on the right. On narrower screens they reflow without losing the grouping.

How to use it

When you open an item, the top bar shows you which one you’re editing and a small pill telling you whether it’s wired up to the POS (orderable from the public menu) or display-only. The bottom bar is sticky: the Save changes and Cancel buttons stay within reach no matter how far down you’ve scrolled.

To rename an item or move it to another category, work in the General info panel at the top of the left column. Every text field carries a language switcher — type the English name first, the other languages can be auto-translated with a click. The slug under the name is what shows in the URL when you share the item link; leave it blank and the system will generate one from the name.

To temporarily hide an item or mark it sold out, use the three switches in the Status panel. Hidden takes the item off the public menu entirely; sold out keeps it visible with a greyed-out badge; recommended adds a star and surfaces it on the chef’s-pick rail with a short reason you can write yourself. The three are independent — you can recommend a sold-out item, or hide a recommended one.

To write descriptions, work in the middle column. The short blurb (one sentence) shows in listings; the full description is the story page diners read when they tap the item. Both have a Write with AI button that drafts a version from the item’s name, category, and any photos you’ve added — it’s a starting point, not a replacement for your voice.

To add photos, work in the Media panel in the right column. Drag tiles to reorder, tap the star to set the hero (the photo that carries the listing), tap the pencil on a tile to add a caption and alt text. Video URLs (YouTube, Vimeo, or an .mp4 link) render as the first slide of the gallery on the public detail page.

To tweak custom fields like grape variety, allergens, or ABV, work in the Category details panel at the bottom of the right column. The fields that show up here depend on the item’s category — wines get sommelier metadata, dishes get allergens and dietary flags, cocktails get strength and base spirit. The AI Fill button drafts all of them in one go from the item’s name and your venue context; the per-field fill is for tweaking one entry without redoing the rest.

To connect the item to the kitchen, work in the POS link panel at the bottom of the left column. A linked item gets its prices live-read from the POS twin and routes orders to the kitchen ticket printer. A display-only item (a wine you list but don’t take orders for, a seasonal special you’re trialling) can stay unlinked.

Worked example

Marco runs a Sunday lunch and wants to mark the Agnolotti del Plin as sold out, swap the hero photo, and add an internal note that the dough is shared with the lasagne so celiacs need the dedicated pan.

He opens the menu list and clicks the Agnolotti row. The editor opens with the three-column layout. In the left column, he scrolls to the Status panel and flips the Sold out switch — the panel turns amber to confirm. In the right column, he opens the Media panel, drags the new photo to the front of the strip, and taps the star on it; the rest of the gallery reorders to match. In the middle column, he scrolls to Internal notes and types “Boiling water is shared with the lasagne — for celiacs use the dedicated allergen pan.” He clicks Save changes at the bottom of the screen.

The next diner looking at the public menu sees the agnolotti greyed out with a Sold out badge over the new hero photo. The next time a waiter asks the AI assistant “can a celiac eat the agnolotti?”, the assistant reads Marco’s note and tells them to check with the manager about the dedicated pan.