Last updated: Mar 25, 2026, 1:48 PM
Toast uses a hierarchical system to organize your menus into five different sections:
Menus are used to break down what you serve into separate categories. For example, you could create separate menus for Lunch, Dinner, Happy Hour, and Drinks. Within menus, you must create menu groups that contain your individual menu items. You can also create subgroups to organize your menu items further.
For a full explanation and an example of how menus can appear on the POS and your Toast Online Ordering page, see our Menu Hierarchy video below:
Overview of Toast menu hierarchy with examples.
You will create and edit your menus within Toast Web. Toast Web is Toast’s back-end platform, and is the central location for creating and managing all menu elements.
Once you’ve saved and published your menu changes in Toast Web, they will display as buttons on your Toast POS and online ordering pages. You can preview how your menus will look on your POS using the View POS Layout feature in the Menu manager or Menu builder. To learn more, see Can I preview how my menus will look on my POS?.
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There are a few different ways you can edit your menus in Toast Web, depending on what you’re trying to achieve. Select Menus from the left-hand navigation menu, and then choose one of the menu editing tools:
| If you want to… | Use this menu tool: | Resources |
| …create a new menu, menu group, or menu items | Menu manager
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| …edit your menu groups, items, or modifiers …view your whole menu at once when making changes | Advanced properties
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| …view all menu data | Items database
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Explanation of the relationship between menus in Toast Web and the POS.
Not sure which tool to use for a specific menu setting? Try searching Support Center or using the support chat in the Toast Now app to find an answer in another one of our help articles!
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You can make some changes to menu items and modifiers directly on your POS using Quick Edit mode. Simply tap and hold on any menu button and select Enter Quick Edit to see your options. Note that you cannot add, delete, or arrange your menus, groups, subgroups, or modifier groups using this feature– those changes must be done via Toast Web.
To learn more about Quick Edit functionality, see this Support Center article: Use Quick Edit Mode on the POS.
Note: You should only add a new item if you’re positive it doesn’t exist anywhere else on your menu; otherwise, you risk a cluttered menu, inaccurate reporting, and more time spent on menu maintenance. If the item already exists on your menu somewhere else, consider reusing it in your new menu by using the Add Existing option. Learn more here: Reuse or Copy Menu Groups, Items, and Modifiers.