LED screens for restaurants, cafés and bakeries: digital menu boards, windows and glass

A restaurant LED screen is now the most frequent enquiry Xeron receives: kebab houses, börek bakeries, patisseries, lokantas and cafés that want to stop the person walking past and explain the menu better to the person already inside. The need is shared, but the right answer depends on the room. A transparent film bonded to a street-facing window and a fine-pitch wall showing the menu behind the counter are not bought for the same job. This guide covers the three jobs a screen does in food service, the four formats, pixel pitch and brightness, kitchen conditions, the content that sells and four worked examples.

The three jobs a restaurant LED screen does

In a food business a screen is not decoration; it is a member of staff that has to earn its keep. If its job is not written down first, the wrong product gets bought. Almost every enquiry we see on site comes down to one or more of three jobs: bring the person outside through the door, show the person inside the menu and the product, and make ordering faster. Each is taken separately below, because each job puts the screen in a different place and asks for different content, and mixing them is the root of most disappointing installations.

Pulling people in from the street

A pedestrian passes a kebab house or a bakery on a busy street in three to five seconds. What makes them decide in that time is not text but a picture: a slice coming off the spit, a börek coming out of the oven, sauce poured over cream. The screen facing the glass or the window has one job, to show that picture large and moving. This is the restaurant window advertising role, and it needs brightness matched to the sun in the afternoon and to the dim pavement opposite at night. The menu list does not belong here; it stays inside.

Showing the menu and prices inside

The second job is to make the shop's own products and its own prices readable above or behind the counter. A printed menu board is printed once, patched with tape when a price changes and is still there two years later. A digital menu board changes its own page: breakfast in the morning, portions at noon, desserts in the evening; a sold-out item drops off, a new one arrives with its photo. The screen exists to show the restaurant's own prices for its own dishes, and the restaurant always decides what appears, which is exactly what a printed board could never do quickly.

Speeding up the order

The third job is the one most often overlooked. A customer who reaches the till without having decided makes the queue longer, and the person behind them gives up. A digital menu board visible from the queue means the decision is made before the customer arrives at the counter: the day's menu, the sizes and the combination offers are read while waiting. Because the screen shows the name and the photograph together, staff spend less time describing dishes. A few seconds saved per customer in a busy lunch hour turns into dozens of extra orders by the end of the day.

Four formats: glass, entrance, back counter and fascia

In food and drink premises the screen sits in one of four places: on the glass, at the entrance or in the window, behind the counter, or on the fascia outside. Each place has its own product. The four formats below are described through the questions an owner actually asks: is the glass rented, is the entrance narrow, how many metres of wall are behind the counter, does the fascia take direct sun. A short list at the end of the section gives the quick selection, and our shop window guide covers the retail side of the same formats.

Jellyfish LED Film: the glass itself becomes the screen

Jellyfish LED Film is a 2 mm transparent LED film bonded to the inside of existing glass. At 6.25–20 mm pitch the glass keeps most of its transparency, so the tables and the window display remain visible from the street while the image plays on the glass. A brightness class of 2,000 nits and above reads from the pavement in daylight. With no drilling, no frame and no new glazing it is the most practical glass LED solution for a tenant, and there is no argument with the landlord about the façade. Because the film does not cover the glass, the room still gets daylight, which matters to a café.

Poster LED Display: at the entrance and in the window

The Poster LED Display is a 640 × 1920 mm portrait LED poster that stands on its own base or hangs from the ceiling. Its 1.53–2.5 mm pitch stays sharp at arm's length, and 600–700 nits is enough for a shaded window and for the room. It runs from one socket and takes content by USB or wireless upload. Placed beside the door or at one edge of the window, it carries the day's menu and the offer, and it moves with you when the lease ends. It is the format most often chosen as a bakery window display, because it stands next to the products without shading them.

XR Fine: the digital menu board behind the counter

If there is more than two metres of wall behind the counter, a single LED surface gives a better result than a row of televisions. XR Fine is a fine-pitch indoor series at 1.2–3.1 mm pitch and 800–1,500 nits, serviced from the front. With no bezels and no visible joins the menu reads as one design; cabinets hang on the wall and need no space behind. For a kebab house that shows three categories and fifteen dishes at once, or a café menu that runs the length of the bar, an XR Fine wall behind the counter is a digital menu board in the full sense of the word.

XR Vision and XR Edge: a small outdoor screen on the fascia

For a small outdoor screen on the fascia line, XR Vision covers 2.9–12.5 mm pitch and up to 10,000 nits, so it reads in direct sun, and its IP65 rating stands up to rain and dust. For a lokanta on a corner plot, XR Edge turns the corner as one surface with its curved cabinets. These screens do not carry the menu; they carry one message seen from a distance: today's dish, opening hours, a new product. Inside, where a structural column stands in the room, XR Column wraps it at 1.9 mm pitch and does the same job indoors.

1. 01Tenant who cannot touch the façade: Jellyfish LED Film bonded to the inside of the glass, no new glazing.
2. 02Fast start at the entrance or in the window: Poster LED Display, one socket, installed in an hour.
3. 03More than two metres of wall behind the counter: an XR Fine digital menu board in one piece.
4. 04Sunlit fascia: XR Vision, or XR Edge for a corner, IP65 and up to 10,000 nits.

Pixel pitch: menu text or street view

Pixel pitch is the distance between two LED points, and it sets the distance from which the screen reads comfortably. The rough rule is simple: the pitch in millimetres is the closest comfortable viewing distance in metres. A menu behind the counter is read from 2–4 m, which calls for P1.5–P2.5 (1.5–2.5 mm), because dish names, weights and prices are small text and break up on a coarser screen. A screen facing the glass or on the fascia is seen from 5–20 m; P3.9 and above is enough, and it is chosen because it is brighter and more economical.

The common mistake is to load both jobs onto one screen. A fifteen-line menu written on a 6 mm street-facing film cannot be read; a 1.5 mm wall behind the counter is invisible from the street anyway. Choose every screen for its own distance. On a menu board the smallest type should be at least 30–40 screen pixels tall, which at a 4 m viewing distance means 5–6 cm in real size. On the street-facing screen the rule is one line, type at least 15–20 cm tall and a large picture. Our pixel pitch guide goes into the arithmetic in more detail.

Brightness in a sunlit window

The most frequent complaint about a café LED screen on a street is that it cannot be seen in daylight, and the cause is almost always the brightness class. A north-facing window or one under an awning manages with 600–1,000 nits; a south- or west-facing window in direct afternoon sun needs at least 2,000–4,000 nits. In that band the answer is Jellyfish LED Film on the glass or XR Vision on the façade. A standard Poster LED Display in such a window is pulled 1–1.5 m back from the glass, runs dark-background content or is shaded by an awning.

Brightness is not only a daytime problem. A screen running at 4,000 nits after dark annoys the person on the opposite pavement, sends the neighbour to complain and wastes electricity. Automatic dimming from a light sensor is therefore not negotiable: full power in daylight, 40–50% in the evening, 15–25% at night. On the menu board the opposite applies; 300–500 nits is enough for indoor light, more tires the eyes and washes the colour out of food photography. The restaurant's lighting design and the screen brightness should be set together, ideally on the same evening.

Heat, steam and grease near the kitchen

What separates a food business from a shop is the kitchen. A menu board hung two metres from a döner grill takes grease vapour, heat and humidity every day. Three questions apply: the protection rating of the screen, whether the front surface can be cleaned, and ventilation. Standard indoor LED modules are IP30 and do not belong directly above an open cooking line. In those positions modules with a protective front glass or coating are chosen, and where necessary outdoor-class IP65 cabinets. The wall behind the counter is usually far enough away; the space above the grill is not.

Cleaning will be part of the daily routine. An open-fronted LED module with no protection is not made for a member of staff with a cloth; LED points break and the warranty ends. A protective glass or coating wipes down like a kitchen counter. At installation the ventilation gap is checked, and the grease filter and extractor duct must not run behind the screen. Power supplies and receiving cards are the parts most affected by heat; in an installation near the cooking line they should be reachable from the front, and an annual dust clean extends their life noticeably.

Content that sells: food footage, video and dayparts

Whether the screen sells depends on the content, and the rules for food content are well known. Motion sells: döner being carved, chocolate being poured, steam rising from soup. Warm colour sells; orange, red and gold tones open the appetite, a cold blue background closes it. Small text does not sell; on the street-facing screen one product and one sentence are enough. Every scene runs 6–10 seconds and the loop stays under 45–60 seconds. The footage should be shot in your own kitchen; stock video looks like someone else's product, and customers notice.

Dayparting is the biggest advantage a restaurant LED screen has over a printed board. Breakfast and simit from 07:00 to 11:00, portions and set menus from 11:30 to 15:00, coffee and dessert in the afternoon, mains and sharing plates in the evening. The content management software takes this schedule once and applies it every day. A sold-out dish leaves the board, a seasonal one arrives on its date, and the same software sends the same menu to three branches at the same minute. Content can come from your agency, your own team or Xeron's content team; what matters is that the calendar has an owner.

1. 016–10 seconds per scene, no more than 60 seconds per loop.
2. 02One product, one sentence on the street-facing screen; the menu stays inside.
3. 03Footage from your own kitchen, warm colour, slow and large movement.
4. 04Portrait design for a portrait screen; landscape video is not cropped and rotated.
5. 05Black backgrounds on transparent film: a black pixel is off, and what is behind it shows through.

Allergen and calorie information is becoming a requirement for more and more businesses; chains and some municipalities may ask for it on the menu. A digital menu board carries this better than print: small icons next to the dish, the full list on a separate page in the rotation or opened at the till on request. Like prices, this information is shown only for the restaurant's own products and from the restaurant's own data. When a legal requirement arrives, updating every branch with a single upload is one of the most tangible advantages a digital menu has over a printed board.

A restaurant screen does not show the menu; it shows the appetite. The menu is already on the table.

Four worked examples: kebab house, patisserie, café and İzmir-style lokanta

The four scenarios below are drawn from the business types we meet most often on site. Sizes and formats are starting points; the final decision comes from a survey of the room. Each example says which screen goes where for which job and how the content is planned. The principle is the same in all four: the surface facing the street shows the appetite, the surface inside carries the menu, and both feed from the same content calendar so that the offer on the glass matches what the till is selling.

A kebab house on a busy street

Picture a kebab house with a 6 m glass frontage on a main street. For the street job, a 2 × 2.5 m Jellyfish LED Film goes on the right-hand pane; the content is döner being carved, kebab on the coals and lahmacun leaving the oven, with no text. On the 4 m wall behind the counter a 1.5 mm XR Fine digital menu board hangs in three columns, kebabs, pides and drinks, read before the till. Because the grill sits beside the counter, the menu wall gets a protective front glass. At night the film drops to 30% and the menu board switches off.

A patisserie window

In a patisserie the product is already in the window; the screen's job is not to cover it but to add movement and to take the price list out of the window. A Poster LED Display stands beside the window: cake being sliced, sauce poured over a dessert, pastries out of the oven. Behind the counter a second 1.86 mm poster or a small XR Fine surface shows slice and whole-cake options, special-occasion orders and allergen icons. For a bakery window display brightness is kept low; the products' own lighting must not compete with the screen. Holiday pages go into the calendar at the start of the year.

A café with three windows

A café on a corner plot with three glass frontages is well placed for visibility, but it takes sun from three directions. The glass is not covered entirely; daylight inside is part of the café's identity. A 1.2 × 3 m Jellyfish LED Film goes on the upper band of the window facing the main street; the other two windows stay clear. Inside, a 2 × 1 m XR Fine menu surface sits behind the bar: coffee, cold drinks, the dessert of the day. The café digital signage content runs in three dayparts, espresso, cold drinks, dessert; each daypart is two scenes, and more counts as noise in a café.

An İzmir-style lokanta

In an İzmir-style lokanta serving stews, kokoreç and a daily menu, the menu changes every morning. A printed board cannot keep up and a chalkboard cannot be read. Here a 2.5 mm XR Fine surface or two Poster LED Displays side by side go behind the counter, and the menu is entered from a phone each morning: the soup of the day, three mains, rice, dessert. When a dish runs out at lunch it leaves the list. For the street-facing glass a single portrait Poster LED Display is enough: food ladled from pot to plate and one sentence. The layout is repeated when the lokanta grows into a chain.

Installation and power in a working kitchen

Installation can happen without closing the restaurant, but it has to be planned. Allow an hour for a Poster LED Display, half a day for film and one to two days for a wall behind the counter; the counter work is done outside service hours. On the electrical side a single poster draws around 200 W on average and up to about 600 W at peak; a standard socket feeds two posters. An XR Fine wall is budgeted at 150–250 W per m² on average and gets its own circuit. The screen is never put on the same circuit as the ovens and grills; voltage swings damage the receiving cards.

The cable route is drawn so that it never trips a hygiene inspection: cables in closed trunking, sockets and driver boxes high off the floor, out of reach of wet floor cleaning. Film needs 10–15 cm at the edge of the glass for the driver, and that gap is usually hidden behind the window frame. Wireless is enough for content management, but a wired connection is recommended for a screen as critical as the menu board. At the end of the installation the staff get one short screen training: how a price is changed, how a dish is taken off, how the screen goes off at night.

Hygiene and municipal rules

There are two rulebooks, both considered at the start. On the hygiene side, food inspections do not concern themselves with the screen as such, but they require surfaces near an open cooking line to be cleanable; a protective front glass and closed cable trunking meet that. On the municipal side every street-facing screen falls under the advertising and signage regulation, and a screen on the façade also under fascia size and brightness rules. A screen that overhangs the pavement, flashes or runs at full brightness at night draws complaints. A tenant needs the landlord's written consent for any permanent change to the façade; film and posters usually avoid that.

Common mistakes with a restaurant LED screen

1. 01A screen that is not dimmed at night: neighbour complaints, eye strain, wasted electricity.
2. 02Fifteen lines of menu on the street-facing screen: nobody reads it and the picture is wasted.
3. 03Installing without a content plan: the same video for six months, and the screen becomes a printed board again.
4. 04An unprotected indoor module above the grill: grease and heat, a fault within a year.
5. 05Rotating a landscape video onto a portrait poster: a cropped picture and unreadable text.

What these mistakes share is the idea that the screen is finished at the moment of purchase. A restaurant LED screen is installed once and then fed every week. A single page written before installation prevents most of them: which screen does which job, from what distance it is read, who enters the content, at what time it dims at night and who cleans it. Xeron fills in that page together with the business on every installation, so that when the screen goes live the first month's content calendar is ready with it.

Xeron handles restaurant, café and patisserie projects in Istanbul from survey to installation and content calendar. Share the size and orientation of your glass and the length of the wall behind the counter, and we will show, in a proposal written for that room, which format belongs where, at which pixel pitch and which brightness. A photo of the window and one of the counter are usually enough for a first assessment. A short brief on the Start a Project page is all it takes.