[ 01 ]
The platform specs (as of early 2026)
Each delivery platform has its own image requirements. Get any of them wrong and the platform's auto-compression makes it worse, not better. Specs below are current at time of writing — confirm against each platform's restaurant partner documentation before publishing if you're reading this six months later.
Uber Eats: 800×800 pixels minimum, 1:1 square aspect ratio, white or light neutral background recommended, under 2MB, JPG. Square is non-negotiable — the platform crops anything else.
DoorDash: 1000×1000 pixels recommended, 1:1 square, white background preferred, under 5MB, JPG or PNG. DoorDash is slightly more forgiving on colour but penalises low resolution harder.
Menulog: 800×600 pixels minimum, 4:3 aspect ratio (note: NOT square), flexible background, under 2MB, JPG. Menulog still uses landscape thumbnails — one of the only delivery apps that does — so a square-only library will look cropped on the platform.
[ 02 ]
Why this matters more than your shoot budget
Uber Eats' own restaurant partner data consistently shows that listings with professional photos outperform those without — in some categories by more than 20% in click-through rate. The same platform also publicly reports that menus with photos on every item receive significantly more orders than menus that photograph only the headline dishes.
Translation: an under-photographed Uber Eats menu loses orders every day it's live, even if your kitchen output is excellent. The customer makes the entire decision in the 0.5 seconds it takes to scroll past a thumbnail at 100×100px.
[ 03 ]
What makes a thumbnail fail
Dish photographed on the restaurant's actual table surface. Dark wood grain, marble veining, or any patterned surface pulls attention from the food. At thumbnail size, the customer's eye reads pattern before plate.
Shot taken from eye level. Food looks flat. Overhead (90°) or 45-degree angles reveal texture, depth and ingredient layering. Eye-level shots work for editorial hero plates on a website, not delivery-app thumbnails.
No separation between dish and background. A dark curry in a dark bowl on a dark surface is invisible at thumbnail size. The bowl, the food and the surface need contrast — usually achieved with a white or off-white background.
Multiple items in one shot. On a small mobile screen, a crowded shot reads as a single blob of colour. One dish per thumbnail. Always.
[ 04 ]
What makes a thumbnail win
Clean white or off-white background. The dish is the only thing competing for attention. Off-white (cream, very light grey) often works better than pure white because it doesn't blow out under Uber Eats' compression.
Hero angle chosen for the specific dish type. Overhead (90°) for flat dishes — pizza, naan, bowls of pho, biryani in a thali. 45-degree for tall dishes — burgers, towering stacks, layered desserts. 0° (straight-on) for cross-section shots — a sandwich showing the layers, a sliced cake.
Garnish and sauce placed intentionally. Not just drizzled. A drop of sauce on the rim, a single basil leaf at 10 o'clock, a wedge of lime placed (not dropped) on the edge. These micro-decisions are what separate a professional menu shot from a phone snap.
Shot at thumbnail size. Every dish should be visually recognisable when zoomed out to 100×100px in editing. If you can't tell it's a butter chicken at 100×100, the customer scrolling on a phone won't either.
[ 05 ]
How often to refresh your Uber Eats menu
Every 12 months at minimum, even if your menu hasn't changed. The platform's algorithm rewards fresh imagery and customers respond to seasonal styling cues (warmer tones in winter, brighter on summer salads).
Reshoot sooner if: you've added 5+ new dishes, your overall menu rank has dropped, you've rebranded, or you're entering a new suburb / opening a second venue.
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