If you are looking for versatile, well-loved foods to add to your restaurant's menu, pizza is definitely a good option. People of all ages enjoy it, and it can be customized quite easily. However, pizza is quite a unique food in how it is prepared and served. To ensure things go well when you add pizza to your menu, you'll want to follow these tips.

1. Start with one size

You've probably seen pizza restaurants that offer small, medium, large, and extra-large pizzas, and perhaps you've figured this is the norm. It is the norm for dedicated pizza restaurants, but it's a lot to handle if pizza is not your only menu item. It's a lot easier to start off with just one size of pizza.

A 12" pizza works well. This is large enough for two or three people to share if they are not that hungry, but not so large that someone can't order it as their sole meal and take some leftovers home. Your kitchen staff will only have to make one size of dough balls and have one set of pans, which keeps things streamlined on their end.

2. Offer a variety of toppings

While offering various sizes is hard, offering various toppings is a necessity. It's just something people have come to expect when ordering pizza, and customers won't be pleased if they can't have their favorite toppings. Keep your pizza toppings in a separate prep cooler in the kitchen so that you can easily take inventory of what you have and replace ingredients as needed.

3. Invest in raised serving trays

Serving pizza to a table is a bit difficult because the pans take up so much space. Raised serving trays — the kind that sit elevated on a sort of base — make things so much easier. They are definitely worth investing in as soon as you add pizza to the menu. If you can find the kind that has a small candle underneath to keep the pizza warm as it sits, that's even better, although this is not a necessity.

Adding pizza to your restaurant menu is a good way to round out your selection and cater to pickier eaters. If you offer one-size pizza, stock a good selection of toppings, and invest in some raised serving trays, then you should be off to a good start!

Visit a pizza restaurant, such as the Original Italian Pizza Pa, to learn more about serving pizza.