Publishing Your Menu

Once your dishes and ingredients are set up, ChinaYung turns them into a professional digital menu that your guests can access on any device. This page covers how to preview, organize, and publish your menu — and how to keep it up to date without any manual effort.

Menu Preview

Before your menu goes live, you can preview exactly how it will look to your guests. The preview reflects your current dish order, category structure, images, and descriptions.

Accessing the Preview

1. Navigate to Menu in the sidebar.
2. Click Preview in the top-right corner.
3. The preview opens in a new tab, showing the menu as your guests will see it.

The preview updates in real time as you make changes. Use it to check layout, ordering, and content before publishing.

Adjusting Order

You control the exact order of dishes and categories using drag-and-drop. The order you set here is the order your guests see on the public menu.

Dish Order Within a Category

1. Go to Menu > Sort Order.
2. Select a category from the dropdown or sidebar.
3. Drag dishes up or down to rearrange them.
4. Click Save Sort Order.

Category Order

1. On the same Sort Order page, switch to the Categories tab.
2. Drag categories into your preferred order.
3. Click Save.

Tip: After saving a new sort order, ChinaYung automatically regenerates your published menu in the background. You do not need to manually republish.

Category Images

Each category on your menu can have a representative image — either from our icon library or your own photo.

Choose an Icon Set (recommended)

We provide 7 professional icon sets with over 160 icons — matching different cuisine styles:

To apply a complete set:

1. Open Dish Management
2. Click the „Choose icon set“ button at the top
3. Browse the gallery (with preview images)
4. Click a set to see all its icons
5. Click „Apply set“
6. All categories automatically receive matching icons

Tip: During onboarding, a matching set is automatically applied based on your cuisine type. You can switch it anytime.

Mix Individual Icons

You don’t have to stick to a single set — mix icons from different sets freely:

1. In Dish Management, click the image icon next to a category
2. Select the „From library“ tab
3. All sets are shown grouped by cuisine
4. Click the icon you want — done!

Upload Your Own Image

You can also use your own photos:

1. Click the image icon next to a category
2. In the „Upload image“ tab: drag and drop an image or click to select
3. Supported formats: JPG, PNG, WebP (max 5 MB, recommended: square 800×800 px)

Remove an Image

Click the image icon and then „Remove image“. The category will show a colored placeholder with initials instead.

Tip: You can freely combine all three methods: some categories with set icons, others with custom photos. Custom uploads always take the highest priority.

Multi-Language (GROWTH / PRO)

ChinaYung supports multi-language menus so you can serve international guests in their preferred language.

Available Languages

• German (DE) — Included on all plans.
• English (EN) — Available on GROWTH and PRO.
• Chinese (ZH) — Available on PRO.

How It Works

1. Dish descriptions are stored per language in the database.
2. On GROWTH and PRO plans, the published menu includes a language switcher that guests can use to toggle between available translations.
3. Descriptions can be translated manually or generated via AI (PRO plan).

On the FREE plan, the language switcher appears grayed out on your menu as a preview of what becomes available when you upgrade.

Tip: If you only need German, the FREE plan covers you fully. Multi-language generation is designed for restaurants with international clientele.

Visibility Controls

Not every dish needs to be visible at all times. ChinaYung provides several ways to control which dishes appear on your public menu.

Sold Out

Mark a dish as sold out to temporarily hide it from the menu without deleting it. Useful for daily specials or seasonal items.

1. Open the dish detail view.
2. Toggle Sold Out to on.
3. The dish disappears from the public menu immediately.

Lunch Specials

Flag dishes as lunch-only so they appear on the menu only during your configured lunch hours.

Scheduled Visibility

Set a start and end date for a dish to appear on the menu. This is ideal for:

• Seasonal menus
• Holiday specials
• Limited-time promotions

Tip: Visibility changes take effect immediately on the public menu. There is no separate publish step required.

Public Menu

Your published menu is accessible to guests via a dedicated URL. This is the page you share with customers, link from your website, or display via QR code.

Menu URL Structure

Your public menu lives at a subdomain like:

menu.yourrestaurant.com

This is set up as a CNAME pointing to ChinaYung’s platform. The menu is mobile-optimized, loads fast, and shows allergen information for every dish.

What Guests See

• All visible dishes, organized by category.
• Category images (if uploaded).
• Allergen icons and details per dish.
• Nutritional information per serving.
• Language switcher (GROWTH/PRO).
• Prices and descriptions.

Automatic Updates

One of ChinaYung’s key advantages is that your published menu stays in sync with your data automatically. You do not need to remember to republish after making changes.

What Triggers an Automatic Update

• Ingredient changes — If you update an ingredient’s allergen data or nutritional values, every dish using that ingredient is recalculated and the menu regenerates.
• Dish changes — Editing a dish name, description, price, or visibility triggers a menu update.
• Sort order changes — Saving a new sort order regenerates the menu in the background.
• Category changes — Adding, removing, or reordering categories updates the menu.

How It Works

When you save a change, ChinaYung runs a background task that regenerates the affected menu pages. This typically completes within a few seconds. The chatbot is also updated with the new data, so guest-facing answers always reflect your latest menu.

Tip: This automatic regeneration is the core promise of ChinaYung — change your data once, and every output channel (menu, chatbot, allergen declarations) updates itself.