First and foremost, you must make sure that your restaurant menu design is clear and easy to understand. It's common for people to want to make their menus works of art and interesting pieces to look at. This is encouraged and can be a great marketing tool. However, everything you do should be done with the express goal in mind to keep the menu functional as well. You want to list everything you have to offer along with a price to make sure that it is clear.
Once you've made sure to keep the design of your menu functional, you'll have some other things to consider. First, you must think about what type of restaurant you are opening. If you're opening a small diner, your restaurant menu design will likely be relatively simple and folksy. However, if you're opening a fine dining establishment, you must find a way to make your menu reflect to experience you hope your guests will have.
If your restaurant is a folksy and simple diner, you're likely to want to have a simple menu. You'd typically list the items you have for sale in their perspective categories. People do find pictures helpful, so it's a good idea to have food photographer photograph some of your best looking and most popular dishes. You might also consider adding some quote and quirky quotes or fun facts to your restaurant menu design to make it a little bit more fun for your guests.
On the other hand, if you have a sleek and modern fine dining restaurant, your restaurant menu design would be greatly different. One option that some restaurants have had success with is making an edible menu. Each day the specific menu for that night's dinner service will be printed with edible ink on a piece of paper made out of sugar. Once your guests order, they're actually able to eat their menu. This creates a huge buzz and people have a great time with it as well.
Of course these are just to extreme examples of restaurant menu design. It's likely that your restaurant will fan somewhere between incredibly simple and incredibly elegant. Your goal is to understand your restaurant and who your ideal client base is. You'll then need to understand what they're looking for and what they would consider fresh and new. A good option is to hire a professional team like those at www.atlanticrestaurantconsultants.com. If you do choose a consultant, make sure that they specialize in restaurants. This is the best, and typically only way, to make sure that they understand your unique needs.