10 Delicious Fall Menu Ideas For Your Restaurant

As the seasons change, so do your customers' cravings. Fall is the perfect time to introduce new, seasonal dishes and comfort foods. By offering a thoughtfully curated fall menu, you can create a sense of excitement and anticipation that drives customer engagement.

In this article, we’ll outline the top fall ingredients and the best fall menu additions from real restaurants. From sweet to savory, these 10 delicious menu ideas will give your restaurant the edge it needs to thrive this autumn.

Let’s dive in.

Why using seasonal ingredients will elevate your fall menu

Seasonal ingredients not only taste fresher and richer, but they can also support local agriculture, reduce food costs, and align your menu with what customers crave in cooler months.

When fruits and vegetables are harvested at their peak, they’re packed with flavor and nutrients, bringing a natural vibrancy to your dishes. This can elevate a simple recipe into something memorable, all while giving your menu a local, sustainable edge.

Here’s a breakdown of the ingredients that are in season from October through early December and how you can incorporate them into your fall dishes.

October seasonal ingredients

• Pumpkins: Not just for pies and lattes! Pumpkins can be roasted, puréed for soups, or used in risottos. Their natural sweetness pairs beautifully with warm spices and herbs like sage.

• Butternut squash: Sweet and nutty, butternut squash is perfect for soups, salads, and even as a roasted side dish.

• Brussels sprouts: These nutrient-rich vegetables can be roasted with balsamic or sautéed with bacon for a crispy, flavorful side.

• Apples: In their prime in October, apples bring a fresh crunch to salads or a sweet complexity to desserts like apple crisps or caramelized tarts.

November seasonal ingredients

• Sweet potatoes: Creamy and rich, sweet potatoes are a November favorite. Use them in mashes, gratins, or baked and stuffed as a hearty main dish. You can also consider using sweet potatoes for your mashed potatoes side to add some color to your plate!

• Cranberries: This tart berry adds a pop of brightness to sauces, chutneys, or baked goods like muffins or scones. You can also use them as garnishes for seasonal cocktails, like a cranberry Moscow Mule!

• Cauliflower: Cauliflower’s neutral flavor makes it the perfect ingredient for creamy soups, roasted sides, or even as a plant-based alternative to meat in tacos or pasta dishes.

• Pears: November pears are juicy and sweet. Use them in desserts, salads with cheese, or roasted alongside proteins for a hint of natural sweetness.

Early December seasonal ingredients

• Pomegranates: These jewel-like seeds are ideal for sprinkling over salads, roasted veggies, or desserts for a burst of tart flavor and bright color. Pomegranate seeds also make for a bright cocktail garnish!

• Beets: Earthy and vibrant, beets add depth to salads or can be roasted and served alongside root vegetables.

• Leeks: Their mild, onion-like flavor is perfect for soups, quiches, or sautéed as a base for sauces.

• Fennel: With a slight licorice flavor, fennel can be roasted, shaved thin for salads, or paired with seafood for an aromatic dish.

By incorporating these seasonal ingredients into your fall menu, you’ll create fresh, flavorful dishes that resonate with the season and enhance the overall dining experience for your customers.

The top 10 fall menu ideas

Now that we’ve established the best ingredients to use in your fall seasonal menu, here are the top restaurant fall menu examples (in no particular order) to use as inspo for your fall recipes:

October plates from Troutbeck – Amenia, NY

Troutbeck's menus are impeccably sourced, plentiful, and immensely satisfying. At the bottom of each seasonal menu you can find the featured farms, in which the seasonal ingredients were sourced.

Troutbeck’s entire October Menu is made up of the flavors of the season. However, their small plate that’s made up of Castelfranco radicchio, golden apple, candy roaster squash, and pepitas specifically stands out.

Pumpkin Tortellini from Bricco - Boston, MA

If you’re lucky enough to spend a fall in New England, you should consider trying the Pumpkin Tortellini from Bricco in Boston’s historic North End. The Pumpkin Tortellini here is punctuated with sweet vegetables, amaretti and honey, sage butter, root vegetables, and ricotta salata. The Sage, a brilliant friend to pumpkin, is toasted in butter until crispy and gives off a nutty aroma.

Image source

What else should you order during your visit? Bricco’s Famous Espresso Martini with Absolut Vanilla, Bailey’s, Kahlua, Frangelico, Disaronno, espresso, raw sugar & a cocoa rim will get you absolutely right.

Roasted Chicken from Houseman - New York, NY

Houseman is the ultimate spot for fall meals. This Hudson Square restaurant has an American menu that highlights seasonal produce that’s served in a cozy atmosphere.

Top players on the menu here include the Roasted Chicken with Curry Succotash or their Roasted Pork Chop with spiced kabocha squash, and caramelized shallot butter.

Slow Baked Yellowedge Grouper from FIG - Charleston, SC

FIG’s menu is creative and seasonal. It changes often, fluctuating with the seasons and availability of products.

Image source

Although the menu changes regularly, their Slow Baked Yellowedge Grouper caught our eye. This menu item features butternut velouté, collards, muscadine, and hazelnut. Other honorable, delicious, mentions on their current menu include Pumpkin + Farm Egg Raviolo with chanterelle mushroom and Lady Edison country ham + Asian pear brown butter, with pleasant ridge reserve.

Spectacular, give us 14 of them!

Fall Squash from Fleeting – Savannah, GA

Blending global flavors and techniques with regional classics, fleeting brings the coastline to tableside with a commitment to hyper-local ingredients.  

Fleeting’s Fall Squash with galangal vinaigrette, squash puree, pickled chilis, and roasted peanuts sounds absolutely delightful. Their current menu also features Kale Orecchiette with hazelnut + sage frico, pecorino, and kale cream. Lastly, you have to end with a sweet treat here! Fleeting is offering a Local Apple Cobbler with local apples, sweet biscuit crunch, and vanilla ice cream.

Pumpkin and Fontina Risotto from Bottega – Yontville, CA

There are a plethora of restaurants in Napa Valley, but Bottega stands out as it offers the perfect atmosphere for a meal and an experience to remember.

Although the daily risotto at Bottega is seasonal, their current offering is pumpkin and fontina risotto. Bottega also offers Cavoletti di Bruxelles Arrostiti, Forno roasted brussels sprouts with black truffles sott’ olio and “Salsa di Uovo”. Lastly for their standout fall dishes this restaurant crafts a Zuppa di Zucca with honey roasted butternut squash, pink lady apples, and roasted walnuts.

Burrata with apple butter from Dowling’s at the Carlyle – New York, NY

Located in Manhattan's Upper East Side on Madison Avenue, The Carlyle is emblematic of the New York experience. The restaurant inside, Dowling’s, gives guests a beautiful and memorable NYC dining experience.

Their current menu offers an appetizer of Burrata with apple butter, pickled apples & espellete, with grilled miche. Chef’s kiss.

Apple sesame tart from etch – Nashville, TN

Let’s talk about a sweet treat now.

etch is a globally-inspired restaurant by award-winning chef Deb Paquette. The eclectic menu here incorporates innovative dishes inspired by Deb’s favorite regions of the world to leave a lasting impression, or etch, on every diner.

etch offers an Apple Sesame Tart with puff pastry crust, tahini almond cream, roasted apples, sesame crumble, burnt honey ice cream, and apple miso butter. Before indulging in such a treat though, this restaurant offers seasonal entrées, like their Pork Ribeye. This dish includes couscous stuffed winter squash, charred onion, butternut puree, granola spice butter, apple marmalade, grapefruit, tangerine lace, frisée golden beet salad, and oat crumble. Yum!

Painkiller Pumpkin Pancakes from Lincoln Tavern – Boston, MA

Lincoln Tavern in South Boston is known for its ever-changing menu, designed to highlight seasonal flavors.

The standout fall item this year is on their weekend brunch lineup, the new Painkiller Pumpkin Pancakes. These indulgent pancakes come loaded with chocolate chips, drizzled with pecan maple syrup, and topped with painkiller cream cheese frosting, a sprinkle of nutmeg, and a maraschino cherry. For those with a big appetite, you can SUPER STACK your order for an extra $5 and enjoy a hot stack of five freshly made pancakes, straight from the griddle.

Beyond the pumpkin cakes, Lincoln offers many other fall flavors. Check out our other Lincoln Tavern fall favorites:

• Apple Cider Doughnuts - vanilla bean anglaise, apple butter

• Caramel Apple Cheesecake - maple oat crumble, caramel apples, vanilla bean whipped cream

• Crispy Brussels Sprouts - honey crisp apples, whole grain honey mustard, pepitas

• Old World Cocktail - Citadelle, spiced pear, lemon

• Fallin’ Mule Cocktail - Corvus, apple cider, ginger beer

I mean, come on...

Pumpkin Kegs from Loreley Beer Garden - New York, NY

Loreley is the first-of-its-kind Biergarten in New York City. Opened in 2003 and has become a staple of the Lower East Side. This spot has the largest heated outdoor beer garden in LES and has a great selection of imported beers, wines, and spirits. 

Loreley Beer Garden has plenty of exciting menu items, but their Pumpkin Keg takes the cake! Guests here can order a pumpkin, served directly to their table carved, tapped, and filled with Southern Tier Imperial Pumpkin Ale.

Image source

This season they also feature over the top Fall Decor, Pumpkin Spice Cold Brew Martinis, Bourbon Hot Cider and so much more.

Cozy fall dinners loading...

As the leaves change, so should your menu! By embracing seasonal ingredients like pumpkin, apple, squash, and all things spiced, you’re giving your guests a reason to love your fall menu. Need help updating your menu? Check out our Menu Engineering Worksheet, complete with helpful menu engineering formulas to determine areas of strength and weakness in your restaurant's menu.

Get ready to incorporate dishes that make your customers fall head over heels (pun intended).