Halloween for Restaurants: 7 Spooky Activities to Try

Everyone’s favorite spine-chilling holiday is around the corner. You might be wondering what to do on Halloween for your restaurant.

It’s time to put your creative juices to use and amaze your guests with creepy decor, themes, and menu items. 

Using QR code menus as mystery boxes for your tables is an excellent way to spice up the mood of the place.

MENU TIGER offers a customization feature that allows you to integrate your menu, Halloween clip art, and deal cards or incorporate ghoulish pop-up video graphics for a futuristic look. BD FTP Servers

You can use it to bring something different to your customers’ table, such as a spine-tingling dining experience. 

To help you kick off your restaurant’s Halloween celebrations, here are some top-tier restaurant ideas you can implement to make the holiday memorable.

7 Halloween restaurant ideas: A Haunting dining experience

Set up your bewitching decor 

Start the holiday by decorating your restaurant with various Halloween-themed ornaments and art pieces.

It will elevate the place's ambiance, making your customers feel the thrill and chill. 

You can be as simple or extravagant as you’d like as you put up your decorations. Here are a few tips you might want to consider: 

Decide on a color scheme

A color scheme is a combination of colors used in interior decoration. Not only does it affect people’s emotions, but it is the fastest way to transform the whole space. 

For Halloween, you can go for orange and black since they are generally used during this time of the year, or mix them with your logo’s color palette to maintain restaurant branding.

If you have interactive menu software, you can incorporate your color theme for Halloween in your menus easily without having to spend on printing new ones. 

Use pumpkins as a main decor

Without a Jack-o’-lantern, Halloween decorations would be lacking something. It is considered the season's symbol, after all. 

Turn your pumpkins into this sought-after lantern decoration to complete the vibe of your restaurant. All you have to do is carve triangle eyes and spikey smiling mouths into them and put candles inside. Don’t forget to scoop out the seeds and pulp! 

Play with sound effects and lighting

Let your restaurant be dark or dim—it creates ambiance, sets the mood, and accentuates features or objects. 

Adding doll figurines and chunky candles to your guests' tables and putting a white net on your ceiling can draw your customers' attention as they dine. 

To complete the whole scary vibe, make use of Halloween sound effects. They add a realistic atmosphere to the place, build up tension, and immerse customers with rapidly changing audio. 

Whether you use the sound of a galloping horse or of people screaming, sound effects give off a scary atmosphere that most visuals cannot do alone. 

Create scream-worthy specials

Offer exclusive Halloween menu specials to your customers to complete their dining experience. 

Experiment with flavors and plating to add more emphasis to your Halloween-themed restaurant. 

Being creative with your food items’ names and descriptions can also draw the attention of your diners as they order. 

Highlight these offerings by integrating them in a food menu QR code displayed in table tents for easy access. This allows you to create images and descriptions of your dishes and put special deals, promos, and discounts.

To give you a few examples, here is a list of Halloween menu ideas you can make:

Uncanny starters 

• Witch’s Brew soup – Roasted butternut squash, black beans, and spicy chili come together in a velvety mixture, served over a lump of sour cream, and sprinkled with pumpkin seeds to finish with a crunch.
• Sinister stuffed mushrooms – Cremini mushrooms filled with cream cheese, garlic, thyme, and breadcrumbs baked until golden brown. 
• Haunted hummus platter- Pita bread served with a trio of delicious hummus flavors: smokey chipotle, roasted red pepper, and garlicky spinach.

Mysterious Main courses

• Phantom filet mignon – cut from the tip of the tenderloin, perfectly cooked filet mignon is served with creamy mashed potatoes and stalks of roasted asparagus flavored with garlic and topped with a rich red wine reduction.
• Creepy-crawly seafood linguine – a mix of mussels, squid, and shrimp simmered in white wine and garlic sauce served over linguine pasta. It can be garnished with fresh parsley and a hint of lemon zest.

Ominous sides

• Graveyard gratin – a layer of thinly sliced potatoes cooked in a cheese sauce with nutmeg and covered in breadcrumbs to create a crisp and tombstone-like crust.
• Fingers salad – composed of baby spinach leaves topped with a vinaigrette, candied walnuts, dried cranberries, and crumbled goat cheese. 

Eerie desserts

• Mummy’s chocolate mousse cake – a rich chocolate mousse cake wrapped in white chocolate and topped with googly eyes made of milk or dark chocolate and white chocolate. 
• Cursed caramel apple tart – a warm serving of cinnamon-spiced apples in a buttery pie crust topped with caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream. 

Dangerous drinks

• Haunted Harvest punch – a blend of apple cider, cranberry juice, spiced rum, and a little ginger beer with added apple slices and cinnamon sticks. 
• Midnight elixir martini – served in a cold martini glass with a sugar-rimmed edge, this concoction combines black vodka, coffee liqueur, and a hint of orange juice.

Remember—knowing how to place these exclusive offerings on your menu is essential. Using menu engineering in designing your menu will help strategically position the food items to make them more profitable. 

Offer Halloween delivery treats with interactive menu software

You can set a “free delivery” offer for your exclusive menus and limit it to a week or two. It is a great way to upsell your special deals to your customers. 

To help you smoothly manage your orders, having user-friendly menu software with all-in-one navigation, order integration, e-payment options, and the ability of adding tax rates to menu prices would make the job easier.

With its customization features, you can also design your website and restaurant menu QR code according to your branding and holiday theme. 

With the help of this food ordering software, you can simultaneously take orders while operating onsite without the hassle.  

Have your staff wear makeup and costume

Dress your staff in Halloween attire to create a fantastic ambiance at your restaurant. 

Get some masks and costumes for your employees to wear as Halloween-themed characters. Their spooky appearance will surely attract your guests, especially the little ones. 

To make things more memorable, pick popular themes such as murder mystery, monster mash, or mad scientists. 

Organize a costume contest among them to add more fun to your celebration. To register for the event, use a QR code where they can input their inspiration for the costume. 

To pick the winners, customers can vote among the entries using ‘QR codes’ on table tents or counters—one of the best QR code menu ideas to place them,  which they can scan using their smartphones to choose who has the best costume. 

Host a Halloween for restaurants' kiddy party

Halloween is one of the children’s favorite holidays. It is a great time to plan entertaining activities for them and their parents at your restaurant. 

You might want to consider arranging a children’s party for the whole day. 

Take inspiration for the party from the most recent horror films and current trends and let them wear costumes according to the set theme. 

During the party, you can give away sweets, candies, and lollipops. Do not forget to introduce fun and interactive games for them to participate in, like shooting a pumpkin with a paper ball and a stop dance challenge. 

You can also give out awards like “Best in Costume” and “Scariest Kid Ever.” 

To wrap up the event, you can ask their parents to participate in a Halloween cooking contest where they can pair up and make delicious treats for the holiday. 

You can even integrate their dishes into your meal directories with your QR code menu. You can offer their entries as special deals for your other customers. 

Plan your promotion ideas for Halloween

Halloween is not typically a golden opportunity to attract customers compared to shopping seasons like the start of the school year and Christmas. 

However, in 2021, the National Retail Foundation reported that the average American spent $103 on costumes, decorations, and food for the holidays, with a total national expenditure of $10.6 billion. 

Planning your promotions doesn’t have to be complicated. Use these suggestions for easy-to-implement Halloween marketing:

• Use email marketing for Halloween

One of the best tools for informing your current clients about holiday deals is your email list. 

Send a Halloween restaurant marketing email to your customers to alert them that the holiday is fast approaching and encourage them to avail themselves of the deals offered. 

Use eye-catching animation or video graphics to accentuate the holiday you are talking about. 

You may add a QR code with Halloween greetings in your email that they can scan. 

Remember to put themed graphics to intensify your marketing campaign. 

• Create a Halloween-themed landing page

Customize your website by giving your landing page a Halloween motif: add animation, images, and sound effects to make it more lively.

Consider using a pop-up on the page announcing sales for anyone who signs up. 

Pro tip: Make sure your website is mobile-friendly when you design it so that customers can access your Halloween specials easily. 

• Develop  fun social media posts or campaigns

Social media for restaurants is a great tool to help customers find you. Use it to build content about the holiday. You may include posts showcasing your restaurant’s decorations and exclusive menu offers.

For example, you can give a promo code or offer free drinks on your postings to attract more customers. 

You can use Halloween-related hashtags with your branding hashtags. It will help you build brand awareness in your area.

For accessibility, incorporate your social media accounts into a QR code and pop-up campaigns. Add them to your social media postings for a broad audience reach. 

Incorporate your special deals in a digital restaurant menu QR code

Talking about your scream-worthy food items, you can include them in a QR code menu placed on your table tops or counters for accessibility. 

You no longer have to spend more on a printed menu for the holiday—it is just a scan away. 

What makes it even more advantageous is you can put graphics, descriptions, and clear images of your offerings. 

This visual upgrade entices your customers' senses and encourages them to try the dishes themselves. 

Stick to your theme by adding Halloween symbols on the landing page. 

Do not forget to put an instruction on how to scan a menu QR code for your elderly guests—the more inclusive your restaurant is, the better. 

How to run Halloween for restaurant events hassle-free

Doing many things simultaneously during events could be a pain in the neck—you might not even know what to do first.

A tool like an interactive menu software that can assist you in assist you taking orders, cleaning tables, or even the payment process can be a huge help.

It can help you streamline your kitchen operations by keeping track of incoming orders on a tablet or computer. It can also provide payment alternatives catering to more customers, making ordering more convenient. 

You won’t have to worry anymore about lost orders or uncatered guests during this Halloween special in your restaurant.

Kickstart your Halloween festivity with MENU TIGER 

Halloween for restaurants with incomparable quality service and an exceptional dining experience for customers is something to look out for. 

MENU TIGER is a digital menu system that elevates your management operations and gives you a seamless experience.

It allows menu integration and automatically generates customizable QR codes to print off and post on your counters or tabletops. 

Payment alternatives are available so your customers can pay without waiting in line. 

Here’s the best part: A restaurant waiter call button system has been added as a feature to streamline your workforce. 

It’s a package of features that you need encapsulated in one software. 

Ready your email and phone number to sign up and create an account, then commence your haunting Halloween celebration. 

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