Spring Menu Ideas for Restaurants (2025 Examples)

Customer cravings change with the season, just like the freshest ingredients. As the cold winter gives way to spring blossoms, there’s a vibrant growing season for fruits and vegetables that any restaurant owner should take advantage of. With a thoughtfully curated spring dinner or lunch menu, you can capitalize on the freshest ingredients to create exciting, delicious dishes that will keep your customers coming back for more.

Here, we’ll explore some of the top spring ingredients and offer inspiration to help you develop the best spring menu ideas for your restaurant. From soups and salads to desserts (and, of course, plenty of hearty mains in between), these 15 spring menu ideas could give your restaurant a springtime edge.

Key takeaways:

• Seasonal ingredients allow you to offer fresher, richer dishes that capitalize on local flavors and trending tastes.

• Some of the top ingredients for spring include veggies like artichokes, asparagus, and spinach, fruits like strawberries and pineapple, and heartier flavors from the land and ocean.

• Our 15 best spring menu ideas include inspirations from Italian, Greek, Chinese, and more global cuisines.

Why using seasonal ingredients will elevate your spring menu

Spring is one of the best seasons for fresh ingredients. Farms across the country can grow more on their land and deliver a greater diversity of spring produce. Between increased production and variety, you’ll have greater opportunities to source locally-grown ingredients, which can reduce food costs and make customers feel better about what they’re eating — no matter where your restaurant is located.

Fruits and veggies are at their best when they’re harvested in peak season, and menu items are more popular when they align with seasonal tastes. Customers are probably more drawn to gingerbread in the winter than in the summer and lobster in the summer than in the winter. Utilizing fresh ingredients in your dishes will not only make them taste better, but they may create excitement for your customers who crave certain tastes in the springtime and want to know where their food is grown.

This spring, consider incorporating these ingredients into your dishes throughout the season.

March seasonal ingredients

• Artichokes: Artichokes are prominent in both fall and spring, but in the transition time between winter and spring, they can be both a hearty snack or an ingredient in tasty spring staples like spinach and artichoke dip.

• Broccoli and broccolini: Both broccoli and broccolini are superfoods for their nutrition, but also for their culinary versatility. Pastas, soups, frittatas, you name it! Broccoli is in season year-round, but its best time is right at the end of winter and the start of spring.

• Watercress, arugula, and mustard greens: These naturally peppery greens are a great way to jazz up soups, salads, or mains.

• Green garlic, spring onion, and leeks: Root greens from garlic, onions, and leeks make great garnishes and can be grilled, roasted, or even used as a flavor substitute for onion.

• Spinach, kale, and chard: These cool-weather leafy greens are available year-round, but they’re excellent at the end of winter and make great foundations for spring salads.

• Green beans: Like broccoli and spinach, this is one more green that thrives in the transition time from winter to spring.

April seasonal ingredients

• Asparagus: A staple of many fine restaurants, asparagus comes into full force in April and is one of the most versatile vegetables you’ll find. You can bake, roast, steam, boil, or grill them and feature them as their own side or appetizer, or incorporate them into soups, frittatas, pastas, and more.

• Fennel: Raw or cooked, it doesn’t matter, fennel in April makes a great addition to salads or soups, or even as its own appetizer.

May seasonal ingredients

• Strawberries: In the height of spring, strawberries begin to thrive, bringing a fruity punch to brunch and dessert menus. From a simple fruit salad to decadent desserts, there’s just so much you can do with this beloved fruit.

• Rhubarb: A common pairing with strawberries in desserts, it’s no coincidence that rhubarb comes into season right around the same time.

• Pineapple: Pineapples are sweetest the moment they’re picked. Unless you’re in Hawaii, you’re probably not getting perfect pineapples, but May is the time to find them at their ripest. You can always tell by smelling the bottom — if it smells like juice, it’s ripe.

• Mushrooms: Like broccoli, you can find varieties of mushrooms year-round, but the drier conditions of May after a rainy April are a great time to go out and harvest your own. You’ll also notice more variety at local markets and produce shops.

Early June seasonal ingredients

• Cherries: Just before summer is a great time to start introducing cherry pies, cherry salads, or even just a little sundae with a cherry on top.

• Apricots: This deeply versatile, almost savory fruit is a creative chef’s delight. Try it in salads, as an accompaniment for meat or fish, in sauces, or even dried out as a free snack as guests wait for their food.

The top 15 spring menu ideas

We’ve covered some of the best ingredients to use throughout the spring, so now let’s go a step further with the inspiration. We’ve curated some specific spring menu ideas, including real options from Toast partner restaurants, to help you get inspired.

Kale salad

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Salads are a staple of any menu, but early spring greens like kale and spinach make great foundations for your creativity to shine. You don’t have to load up a salad with vegetables and healthy flavors. Take a hint from New York City’s Westville, which serves up a savory Southwest BBQ Ranch Kale Salad that even the anti-salad crowd may love.

Clam chowder

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Sure, it may be a little more of a summer tradition, but there are plenty of people who will be craving this seafood classic before the summer months. Liven up your chowder with seasonal greens like watercress or green onions, or go all out like Union River Lobster Pot in Ellsworth, ME by adding some juicy hunks of lobster on top. 

Cucumber salad with mint and feta

Simple yet delicious, this Greek salad-adjacent menu item allows you to capitalize on fresh spring flavors. Take it up a notch with some steamed artichoke leaves mixed in or add some snap with fennel. It’s a nice way to offer an alternative healthy option for people who aren’t wild about lettuce or spinach. Toss in some ripe tomatoes or seasonal fruits like strawberries or cherries for a sweet kick.

Mexican street corn

Elote is a classic Mexican street food that slathers a mayo cream sauce, chili powder, cheese, and lime on a grilled corn on the cob. The classic version is delicious, but there’s so much you can do to offer something different, especially if you put it in a basket like they do at Elotes de la Plaza in Los Angeles. Their spring special adds multiple spring veggies to the mix, including broccoli and carrots, as well as garbanzo beans and potatoes.

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Prosciutto-wrapped asparagus

We mentioned asparagus is versatile. Well, try wrapping it in meat and grilling or roasting it. Prosciutto- or bacon-wrapped asparagus is an excellent spring appetizer or could be treated as a shareable dish at a tapas or family-style restaurant. Fresh asparagus could be the foundation for many delicious appetizers, but wrapping it in a delicious meat is a pretty easy win.

Lasagna, burrata, and ricotta

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Italian food is ripe for spring experimentation. With so many leafy greens and pasta accouterments like broccoli, spinach, asparagus, and mushrooms in season, there’s a lot you can do on the pasta front (see our next listing). But the cheesy staples of lasagna, burrata, and ricotta can all be elevated with spring ingredients like spinach, artichokes, and herbs. Capri’s Lasagneria in Burlingame, CA gives their burrata a spring flavor by leveraging the classic Caprese style.

Spring pastas

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Pasta is an inherently creative dish that can be adjusted based on the season. You likely have some year-round staples, but spring is a great time to offer specials featuring spring veggies like peas, asparagus, and mushrooms. Or, you could look to the Mediterranean, like Capo Boston does with its decadent Dungeness crab fra Diavolo.

Crispy duck

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Sumiao Hunan Kitchen, the only restaurant in the Boston area specializing in Hunan Chinese cuisine, utilizes seasonal herbs and spices (alongside its signature barbecue sauce) for one of its most popular dishes: the House Crispy Duck

Sweet and sour chicken

A year-round staple at most Chinese restaurants, spring is a great time for any restaurant to try its hand at this beloved, genre-defying dish. Seasonal fruits like pineapple and rhubarb, or veggies like broccoli or asparagus can give it a spring twist.

Apricot chicken

Apricots are tough to cook with, but when you get it right, it can be something special. A simple start is frying apricot, chicken, and some oil together to infuse some of that apricot tang into the chicken. Add seasonal herbs and serve with rice and broccoli and you’ve got a hearty, solid bowl that will keep customers coming back.

Low country boil

A South Carolina seafood classic, this is another one that’s a bit more associated with summer, but summer starts early down South. It can start early anywhere if you’re ready to harness the season’s ingredients. Just ask Boston’s Lincoln Tavern, which offers a low country boil special featuring andouille sausage, potatoes, corn, artichoke hearts, and crab.

Cherry pie

Cherries come into season in late spring, and a fresh cherry pie is a great way to introduce your customers to summer flavors. A classic cherry pie creates a beautiful bridge from the late spring to the summer and can shore up your dessert menu for several months.

Lemon blueberry pound cake

After a long, cold winter, people want light, refreshing flavors. But, you know, they still want cake. Who doesn’t want cake? A lemon blueberry pound cake takes advantage of late spring flavors but isn’t so rich as to worry customers about the impact on their summer bodies. It’s a sweet tooth compromise!

Strawberry shortcake

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Okay, so some people won’t want to compromise. And who can blame them when strawberry shortcake is on the menu? This fluffy classic is too delicious to resist, especially when it comes with homemade strawberry ice cream, fresh strawberries, and a dollop of whipped cream, as it does at Egger’s Ice Cream Parlor on Staten Island.

Strawberry rhubarb pie

Strawberry and rhubarb go together like peanut butter and jelly. Just maybe not quite as famously. But the spring is the start of fruit pie season and strawberry rhubarb is an absolute classic. A great mid-day treat or a spring dinner dessert, strawberry rhubarb pie highlights two excellent spring ingredients in a special dessert you don’t see on menus as often as you might think.

Spring is blooming…

When they say spring has sprung, they very well may be referring to the abundance of natural culinary ingredients sprouting from the earth! Springtime is a great time of year to try new recipes featuring seasonal ingredients ranging from green veggies to citrusy fruits to treats from the sea.

Creating a seasonal menu is not only a great way to highlight the freshest and richest ingredients of the season, but it could help you reduce your food costs and carbon footprint by sourcing from local producers. That’s a win not only for your food but for your bottom line as 90% of consumers say that sustainability matters to them. 

As people come out of their winter cocoons, your menu can showcase the tastes they’ve been missing while reflecting their values and priorities when choosing a place to dine. These spring menu ideas can help create a memorable experience that they’ll keep on coming back for.