Tezzu menu setup follows one order that saves you rework: categories first, then items with prices, then variants and add-ons, then combos and bundles, and finally availability rules for items that are not sold all day or all week. A 60-item menu built this way takes two to three hours in one sitting, and most of that time goes into variants and add-ons.
The same menu serves every channel: the WhatsApp ordering bot, the web menu opened from the chat, your free store page at tezzu.in/store/your-name, and dine-in QR tables. Change a price once and it is live everywhere. This guide covers each step, with the decisions that trip people up and a short table on when something is a variant and when it is an add-on.
Plan the menu on paper before you open the dashboard
Take your printed menu and mark three things. First, which items you actually sell; anything that has not sold in three months is better left off the online menu. Second, which items come in sizes or portions. Third, which items have optional extras or removals. That marked-up sheet is your build plan, and it stops you from creating an item, realising it needs variants, and rebuilding it.
Keep categories between four and eight. Customers scrolling a phone screen give up on a menu with fifteen categories. Starters, mains, breads, rice, desserts, drinks is enough for most kitchens. A cloud kitchen with one cuisine can go even smaller. Our guide to menu descriptions that sell is worth reading before you type the descriptions, since you will be writing sixty of them.
Step 1: Categories
Create each category with a short name and put them in the order customers should see them. Best-sellers and high-margin items belong near the top, because the first category is the one most customers open. Drinks and desserts go last; they are added at the end of an order, not the start.
A category can carry its own availability rule, such as "Breakfast: weekdays, 7 am to 11 am". Items inside inherit that rule unless you override them, which saves setting the same hours on twenty items. Leave this for Step 5; create the categories empty first.
Step 2: Items, prices and photos
For each item you need a name and a price. Descriptions, photos and a dine-in price are optional, and each one earns its keep differently.
- Name. Use the name customers say when they order on the phone. "Butter Chicken (boneless)" beats "Murgh Makhani Special" if that is what people ask for.
- Price. The delivery and pickup price. If your dine-in price is lower because there is no packaging, set a separate dine-in price on the item; the QR table menu uses it automatically.
- Description. One line: what is in it, how spicy, how many pieces. Portion size is the question customers most often ask on WhatsApp, so answer it here.
- Photo. Items with a photo sell better than items without. One good phone photo in daylight is enough. Do the top twenty items first and the rest later.
Enter the ten best-sellers, then place a test order on WhatsApp before entering the other fifty. It takes two minutes and catches a wrong tax setting or a missing opening hour early.
Step 3: Variants and add-ons
This is where most of the setup time goes, and where a wrong choice makes orders confusing for the kitchen. The rule: a variant changes what the item is; an add-on changes what comes with it.
| Question | Variant | Add-on |
|---|---|---|
| What it means | The customer picks exactly one option, such as size or portion | The customer picks zero or more extras, each with its own price |
| Examples | Half or full; 7 inch or 10 inch; regular or jumbo | Extra cheese ₹30; extra gravy ₹20; no onion ₹0 |
| Pricing | Each option has its own price; the item has no price of its own | Added on top of the item or variant price |
| Kitchen print | Prints as part of the item name | Prints as a line under the item |
| When to use | When the kitchen cooks a different thing | When the kitchen adds something to the same thing |
Keep variant groups to one per item where you can. "Size" with three options is clear. "Size" plus "base" plus "crust" on one pizza works but takes the customer four taps; consider splitting into two items instead. Free add-ons at ₹0 are useful for instructions the kitchen must see, such as "less spicy" or "no coriander", because they print on the KOT instead of getting lost in a chat note.
Step 4: Combos and bundles, including build-your-own
A combo is a fixed set at one price: a biryani, a raita and a drink for ₹299 instead of ₹340 separately. A build-your-own bundle lets the customer choose within rules: pick any two mains, one bread and one dessert for ₹499. Both raise the average order value, and the second is what a family ordering on a Sunday actually wants.
Build the combo as its own item under a "Meals" or "Combos" category, and name the components in the item name or description so the kitchen knows exactly what to pack. For a build-your-own bundle, define each slot (main, bread, dessert), which items can fill it, and how many the customer picks. Price the bundle a little below the sum of its parts; the saving should be visible on the menu, ₹40 to ₹60 on a ₹300 to ₹500 bundle is enough to notice. The pricing logic is covered in combo offers and bundles.
Put combos at the top of the menu for a week after launch and see what happens to average order value on the dashboard.
Step 5: Availability, scheduling and rotating menus
Three situations need rules rather than manual toggling. An item ran out today: mark it unavailable and switch it back on when stock returns. An item or category is only sold at certain times or on certain days: set a schedule with weekdays and time windows, such as breakfast on weekdays from 7 to 11 or a Sunday-only special. A menu that changes by the day, as in a tiffin service: set each day's items to their weekday.
For scheduled items, choose what customers see outside the window: either the item greyed out with a note on when it returns, or the item hidden. Showing it greyed out is better for signature items, because customers learn when to come back; hiding is better for a long list of weekday-only options that would clutter the weekend menu. Pre-orders respect the schedule, so a customer can order breakfast at 9 pm for the next morning. The full set of options is in menu scheduling in Tezzu.
What the finished menu looks like on Tezzu
Once built, the menu appears in three places without any extra work. On WhatsApp, the ordering bot presents categories and items, asks for the variant and add-ons, and keeps a cart with a running total. The web menu opened from the chat shows the same items with photos, for customers who prefer tapping. The store page at tezzu.in/store/your-name, or your custom domain, shows it to anyone with the link, with promo banners and auto-applied coupons on top.
Dine-in tables scanning a QR code see the dine-in prices. Every order, from any channel, lands in the live dashboard with its variants and add-ons spelled out, and the KOT prints them line by line. If you run more than one outlet, the master menu holds the items and each outlet can set its own prices.
Menu changes are instant. Raise a price at 6 pm and the 6:01 pm order uses it. The Tezzu setup playbook covers where the menu step sits in the overall setup, and the 15-minute setup guide shows the quick first version.
Build your menu this week
Start the free trial, enter your ten best-sellers, and take a test order on WhatsApp before you add the rest.
Start your free 7-day trialFrequently asked questions
How many items should an online food menu have?
Fewer than the printed one. For delivery and WhatsApp ordering, 30 to 60 items across four to eight categories covers most restaurants, and cloud kitchens often do well with 15 to 25. A shorter menu loads faster on a phone, is easier for the kitchen to execute consistently, and makes your photos and descriptions a manageable job rather than a project.
What is the difference between a variant and an add-on on a menu?
A variant is a choice of one option that changes the item itself, such as half or full, small or large, and each option carries its own price. An add-on is an optional extra on top of the item, such as extra cheese or an extra roti, priced separately, and a customer can pick several. Use ₹0 add-ons for kitchen instructions like "less spicy" so they print on the KOT.
Can I set different prices for dine-in and delivery?
Yes. Each item takes an optional dine-in price alongside its regular price. Customers who scan a table QR code see the dine-in price, and delivery or pickup customers see the regular one. This lets you keep dine-in prices lower, since there is no packaging or delivery cost, without running two menus.
Can I schedule menu items by day and time?
Yes. A category or an item can be set to specific weekdays and time windows, such as breakfast on weekdays from 7 to 11, or a Sunday-only thali. Outside the window the item is either shown greyed out with its next available time or hidden, whichever you choose. Customers can still pre-order a scheduled item for a time when it is available.