Tabern

Sections & items

Build your menu as menus, sections, and items — with photos, prices, variations, dietary tags, search, and bulk tools.

A screen recording for this guide is coming soon.

Menus in Tabern have three levels: the menu itself (Dinner, Brunch, Drinks), the sections inside it (Starters, Mains), and the items inside those. You can run more than one menu and guests switch between them on your public site.

Create a menu

  1. Open the Menu page from the dashboard sidebar.

  2. Click Add Menu and give it a name — Dinner, Brunch, Drinks.

  3. Save — the new menu appears in the menu selector.

Menus appear in the selector in the order you create them. Switch between them with the menu selector.

Sections

  1. Select the menu you want to edit.

  2. Create a section — Starters, Mains, Desserts, whatever fits.

  3. Sections display in the order you create them; remove a section with its delete control and re-add it to change its position.

Items

  1. Open the section and click Add Item.

  2. Enter the name and price — the two required fields.

  3. Add a description, photo, and dietary tags as desired.

  4. Add variations for sizes or options — Small/Large, Glass/Bottle — each with its own price.

  5. Set the item Active or Draft to control its visibility.

Photos

Guests scan menus on their phones — a photo makes an item land. Open an item from the menu table, upload a photo on the edit form (Tabern compresses and sizes it automatically), and save. Items without photos still look good; photos are a boost, not a requirement. Square crops work best.

Prices and variations

Set the price as a plain number; currency formatting follows your venue's locale. For items sold in multiple sizes or preparations, add variations — for example Small / Large or Glass / Bottle — each with its own price, instead of creating separate items.

Dietary tags

Tag items as vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, spicy, and more. On your public menu, tags render as labeled badges with text — never color alone — so every guest can read them, and hovering or tapping shows the full explanation.

Finding and organizing

  • Search — find any item by name across the current menu.
  • Section filter — narrow the table to one section.
  • Column customization — choose which columns the table shows.
  • Bulk delete — select several items and remove them together.

Active versus draft

Every item can be Active (visible on the published site) or Draft (hidden). Use Draft to stage seasonal items or work-in-progress without touching the live menu. Empty sections don't appear on the public site.

Tips

  • Already have a printed or PDF menu? Don't type it. Scan it instead.
  • Menu changes are drafts. Publish to push them live.
  • Seasonal swap: flip outgoing items to Draft and incoming to Active, then publish once.
  • Shoot menu photos in natural light, straight-on, before plating gets fancy.
  • Proofread prices after a menu scan. The scanner is a draft, not a final answer.
  • Variations not selling? A single price reads cleaner on phones.