Alt text examples › Food & menu photos
Food photos sell with detail: what the dish is, what is on the plate, how it is served. For restaurants and recipe blogs, good alt text reads like a short menu description, and for recipe step photos it describes the state the reader should reach.
| # | The image | Bad alt | Good alt | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Overhead photo of a margherita pizza on a wooden board | pizza | Margherita pizza with blistered crust, fresh basil and mozzarella on a wooden board | Name the dish and the visible details that make it appetising. |
| 2 | Photo of a printed menu taped to a window | menu | (short alt "Dinner menu, also listed below" plus the menu as HTML text) | A menu in an image is an image of text: prices and dishes must be real text. |
| 3 | Recipe step: dough after the first rise | step 3 | Dough doubled in size in a glass bowl after the first rise | Step photos show the target state. Describe it so the reader can compare. |
| 4 | Cocktail in a coupe glass with an orange twist | delicious drink!!! | Negroni in a coupe glass with an orange peel twist | Enthusiasm is not description. |
| 5 | Restaurant interior at dinner time | restaurant | Dining room with candlelit wooden tables and an open kitchen at the back | Interior shots answer "what is it like?": atmosphere and layout. |
| 6 | Plate of vegan curry with a small leaf icon in the corner | curry | Chickpea and spinach curry with rice, marked vegan | Dietary markers in the image are information that matters for choosing. |
| 7 | Bakery product grid photo: 6 types of croissant | croissants | Six croissants: plain, almond, chocolate, pistachio, ham and cheese, raspberry | List the varieties when the photo exists to show the range. |
| 8 | Chef's hands slicing salmon, used on an "About us" page | hands | Our head chef slicing fresh salmon for sashimi | Context: on an About page the photo shows craft and freshness. |
WCAG 1.1.1 Non-text Content (Level A); WCAG 1.4.5 Images of Text (Level AA): a menu published only as a photo or PDF scan must also exist as real text, or customers using screen readers cannot read prices. The full requirement is explained in our guide to WCAG 1.1.1 alt text requirements.
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