How do I check the dishes a menu import read?

Check what an import read, section by section — fix and check dishes, the Edit window, the alcohol and on-request marks it suggests, joins, build-your-own dishes and bulk actions.

Part of How do I import my menu instead of typing it in?. This part covers checking what was read: the Check it step, the Edit window and the marks it suggests, joins, build-your-own dishes and working in bulk.

Check it — your menu, section by section

Once your menu has been read, the import walks you through two more steps: Check it, then Add it (the strip at the top shows where you are).

Check it shows what Rezo read, section by section — "48 dishes in 6 sections" at the top, with All, To fix and To check beside it (each with its count — press one to show only those dishes; with dishes you already have there's Already on your menu too), a search box, and sections that collapse. That top bar stays put while you scroll.

Rezo asks about each page he read — Rezo found 14 dishes on page 1 — does that look right? — press the yes button if it does, or Some are missing to add what he missed (Add a dish), then Nothing else is missing. The last step's summary counts the pages you checked.

Each dish reads as it will be created: a tick or a "!" for how it stands, its name and description, its allergens (or "No allergens ticked", said out loud), chips for anything worth knowing, its choices, and its price — with Edit and Leave out beside it.

• To fix — the dish can't be created yet, because it has no name or no price. The fix sits right on the dish: type the price (or the name) and press Save price. A menu that prints words instead of a price isn't missing one: "MP", "market price" or "seasonal" comes in as Market price, and "POA", "price on request" or "ask your server" as Ask the team — the dish shows those words in the price's place and can't be ordered until it has a price (see How do I add dishes and choices to my menu?). Type a price on the dish if you'd rather give it one — the words go. The reader says why where it can — the price was lost in the fold, say — and the menu's own wording is shown whenever a price is worth checking.
• To check — the reader wasn't sure, and says what about, in plain words: "We corrected what looked like a scanning slip in this price — please check it", "This price looked too high to be right — please check it", "This looks like an alcoholic drink, so we've ticked 'Contains alcohol' — please untick it if that's wrong". Press Looks right once you've checked it, or Edit to change it. A dish to check never stops you adding the menu.
• A panel headed Worth knowing about this import collects anything that applies to the import as a whole rather than to one dish — a section that couldn't be read, or a limit that was hit.

A green line above the dishes says how allergens came in — only where your menu prints them, never guessed — and how many dishes have none ticked, so you can add theirs before they go on your menu.

Under the dishes, Also found gathers everything else the reader spotted, each answered right there: Choices we spotted (with an Undo for any size split applied for you), any joins, build-your-own steps or set menus waiting for a yes or no, Duplicates, Finishing touches (VAT for each section and the section-wide alcohol mark — press Open them), and Preview as a guest (See the preview shows the menu the way your guests will, before it exists).

At the bottom, Next — add them to your menu stays off until every dish can be created, and the reason is written beside it in plain words — "Fix 1 dish first — Haggis bon bons: no price yet." — never a greyed-out button with no explanation. Dishes worth a check are counted there too, but they don't stop you.

Add it — the Edit window and the marks it suggests

Choices, allergens and dietary marks — in the Edit window

Edit on any dish opens its Edit window: the name, description, price, "From" price and section, plus the same tick-box checklists as the dish editor and a small choice-step editor. Cancel puts the dish back exactly as it was. So when the import flags "we didn't recognise … as a standard allergen", you can put it right there and then, rather than remembering to come back to that dish later. You can also build a choice step ("Choose your size", "Pick a sauce") on any dish before it's created; extra costs sit on top of the dish's base price.

Where "vegan" or "vegetarian" appears in a dish's own name or description — "Vegan Sausage Roll" — the matching badge is ticked for you, because that's your menu marking the dish ("can be made vegan" isn't — see below). Nothing is ever guessed from ingredients, and every tick is yours to change while you check.

"Contains alcohol" — suggested for drinks, decided by you

The Edit window carries the dish editor's Contains alcohol tick, which marks a dish for 18+ age checks when guests order and pay from their phones (Order & Pay). Where a dish, its description or its whole section reads as an alcoholic drink — a "Wines" page, "House lager", "Aperol spritz" — the box arrives pre-ticked, marked To check so you know it happened: "This looks like an alcoholic drink, so we've ticked 'Contains alcohol' — please untick it if that's wrong". A ticked dish also shows a Contains alcohol chip on its row, so nothing is ticked out of sight.

This one is a suggestion rather than a transcription — a drinks word is strong evidence, not proof — so it's deliberately cautious ("beer-battered haddock", "red wine jus", "ginger beer" and "alcohol-free lager" are never ticked) and always yours to overrule. For a whole drinks page, each section's … menu has Mark all as contains alcohol (it reads Unmark all as contains alcohol once every dish in the section is ticked) — mark the section in one go, then untick the odd soft drink dish by dish.

"GF available" — suggested as Can be made … on request, decided by you

Menus often say a dish can be had another way: "GF available", "GFA" after the name, "can be made gluten free", "vegan on request", "ask for a dairy-free version". That doesn't make the dish gluten-free or vegan — it means your kitchen can make it that way, which is exactly what the dish editor's Can be made … on request row is for (see How do I add dishes and choices to my menu?). So the import reads those words and suggests the tick rather than marking the dish: under the dish, a line says "Your menu says this can be made gluten-free on request", with Yes, tick it and Not this one. Nothing is ticked until you press Yes, tick it. A ticked one shows as a "Can be made gluten-free" chip on the row, and the dish gets the same "Standard or gluten-free?" question a dish you tick by hand does.

It only ever suggests the four marks the row has — gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan and vegetarian — and never one the dish already carries (a vegan dish needs no "vegetarian on request"). Words that say the opposite ("not available gluten free", "no vegan option") suggest nothing. A note on its own line — "GF available: Margherita, Marinara" — suggests the tick on each dish it names. The Edit window has the full Can be made … on request row too, so you can tick or untick any mark yourself before adding the menu. Spreadsheets work the same way: the words can sit in the description or the Dietary column.

Joins, build-your-own dishes and working in bulk

When several lines might be one dish

Sometimes a menu prints one dish as several lines — "Panini £6.50" followed by its fillings. The reader may spot that and offer it in a panel headed These lines might be one dish with a choice — but it never joins them itself. The dishes are imported exactly as printed, and you press Join them only if that's how the menu really works (or Keep them separate to dismiss the offer). Joining keeps every price honest: the printed price becomes the base, and fillings the menu didn't price separately join at no extra cost.

Build-your-own dishes

Menus that print things like "Create your own burger — choose your patty, add toppings +£1 each" — or a dish served with a printed choice ("choice of sauce: BBQ, Buffalo or Korean") — can come with their own offer: a panel headed This reads as a dish guests build in steps, listing each step (its question, how many guests pick, and every option with its printed extra cost). Same rule as the joins — nothing happens by itself. Press Add the choice steps to give the dish those steps (they land in the dish's own choice-step editor (Edit), where you can change any question, price or how-many-they-pick), or Leave it as printed to dismiss the offer. Every extra cost is the "+£1"-style supplement exactly as the menu printed it, sitting on the dish's own price; the dish is marked To check so you check each option's price before adding the menu. Spotting these is best-effort — a build-your-own dish the reader misses simply imports as printed, and its steps are a minute's work in its Edit window. And if any of a dish's printed option prices couldn't be read cleanly, no offer is made at all — the dish says so, and you build the steps by hand rather than trusting half a reading.

Set menus and deals. A menu that prints a bundle — "Two courses £22", "Any pizza + any drink £15" — can come with its own offer: a panel headed This menu looks like it includes a set menu or deal, showing the printed price and each course with the dishes we read for it. Nothing happens by itself: press Add this when I confirm and the set menu is created alongside your dishes when you add them — it appears under Set menus & deals, live, where you can edit or pause it any time — or No thanks to dismiss the offer. A menu that prints the same offer at several sizes — "3 plates £14.99 · 5 for £19.99 · 7 for £25", or 1/2/3-course prices — arrives as one deal with its full price ladder shown, not several separate deals; accept it and the deal is created priced by how many they pick, with each printed price as a tier. A ladder that doesn't add up — a bigger number costing the same or less — is never drafted; an amber note tells you what was printed so you can build it by hand if the menu really means it. Set menus & deals come with the Pro plan and above (or an Order & Pay product), so on plans without them the panel simply tells you what your menu prints, ready to build if your plan ever includes them. An accepted set menu starts where your venue can order it — Order & Pay if you have it, otherwise pre-orders — and you can change where it shows and where it can be ordered afterwards. If we couldn't read a bundle cleanly, an amber note says so instead — the fact is never lost silently.

Working in bulk

Every dish has a checkbox, and each section heading has a select-all. With dishes selected, a small bar appears with Move to section… and Remove — so re-filing eight dishes, or clearing the ones that came from the drinks page, is one action rather than eight. Press Open them on Finishing touches and each section shows a VAT dropdown (blank unless you use it): pick a rate once and every dish in that section gets it, which beats setting VAT dish by dish afterwards. It only applies where you choose one — leaving it blank changes nothing.

When you press the button on Add it, the dishes are created in batches, and on a big menu the button counts along — "Adding 80 of 120…" — so you can see it's working. You then land back on your menu with a summary of exactly what happened, like "36 dishes added, 12 updated". If anything couldn't be added, that message says so and why, rather than claiming everything went in.

Related: How do I import my menu instead of typing it in? · How do I start a menu import, and what does it cost? · How do I add an imported menu, or undo it? · How do I add dishes and choices to my menu?