Food photos for GrabFood and foodpanda menus

Why the photos matter

On a delivery app, the photo is the dish. People choose from a grid of thumbnails, often in a few seconds, and a menu item without a photo is easy to scroll past.

The platforms’ own numbers point the same way. Grab says its data shows the average order is up to 35% higher when 75% of a menu has photos. DoorDash says that photos on at least half of a menu can raise sales by 13% on average. Both are the platforms’ own figures, without the method published, so read them as a direction rather than a promise.

What GrabFood and foodpanda ask for

This is what each platform’s pages said in November 2026.

A few honest notes:

• foodpanda’s detailed rules aren’t public in the Philippines. Its partner page only says to upload menus and dish photos. The most detailed version found is an older Malaysian requirements document, hosted by a third party: landscape photos, shot from straight above or straight on, no white background, no watermarks or collages. Treat it as a hint of what foodpanda’s reviewers look for, not as the rule.
• Grab doesn’t list file types or a size limit on its Philippine pages. A large JPG straight from the phone, cropped square, is the safe choice.
• Plan for the review. Changes are checked before they go live, so upload photos for a new menu a week before it starts.

One shot for both apps

GrabFood wants a square; foodpanda’s older guidance points to landscape. Shoot wider than you need: the dish in the middle, with clear space on every side. From that one photo you can crop a square for GrabFood and a landscape version for foodpanda. Deliveroo gives the same advice for the same reason: its app crops item photos to a square, so the dish has to survive the crop.

The angle for each dish

Shoot each dish from the angle that shows what makes it good. Grab’s own guide names three:

Uber Eats, in its own photo guide, adds a trick for wraps and sandwiches: cut them and stack the halves, so the filling shows.

At 45°, a phone held close bends the plate. Digital Photography School warns that phone shots at this angle rarely work for that reason. Step back and switch to 2x instead, the same advice as in the drink guide.

Light: a window, not the kitchen

• Use a window. Uber Eats asks for indirect daylight from a window and warns against direct sun. foodpanda’s own tips say the same: soft window light, and no harsh overhead lights.
• No flash. Adobe’s food photographers note that a flash makes food look greasy and unappetising.
• Turn the kitchen lights off. Household bulbs add an orange or yellow cast that makes rice look old and greens look dull. One kind of light, from the window.
• Light from the side or behind. DPS recommends side or back light for food: it shows texture and makes sauces shine. Soften direct sun with a white curtain.

Plate it simply

• Plain plates, a simple background. Grab asks for both. Wood, ceramic or marble works; a busy tablecloth doesn’t.
• Make the dish stand out. Grab’s guide says the food shouldn’t blend into the background. White rice on a white plate on a white table disappears; on dark wood it reads.
• One dish, the whole dish. Show the full plate, centred, with space around it. Grab asks you to avoid close-ups and cropping.
• No hands, no utensils, no text. Grab rules out hands and utensils; DoorDash and Deliveroo reject text and watermarks.
• The dish as you serve it. Grab asks for natural presentation, and Uber Eats for a true representation. Garnish it the way it leaves the kitchen, at the portion you sell.

Shoot it while it’s fresh

Food changes fast. Uber Eats warns that it can start to look limp and lifeless after just a few minutes.

1. Set up with an empty plate. Get the light, the background and the framing right before the food arrives.
2. Plate it last and shoot straight away. Steam, gloss and fresh herbs fade within minutes.
3. Keep cold things cold until the moment you shoot, and add fresh garnish at the end, as DPS’s styling guide suggests.

One look for the whole menu

A menu reads as one restaurant when every photo matches: the same background, the same plate, the same angle for the same kind of dish, the same window. foodpanda’s tips name an inconsistent style as a common mistake, and over-filtered photos as another. The method is the same as for a product catalogue: see making a catalogue look consistent.

Name each file after its menu item, as Grab asks. It makes uploading a whole menu quicker and mistakes easy to spot.

Real photos only

Every platform that publishes rules asks for the real dish. DoorDash rejects stock photos and asks for a photo of each item. Deliveroo doesn’t allow AI-generated images. A photo that oversells the dish leads to disappointed customers, complaints and refunds.

Before you upload

• A square crop for GrabFood, at least 750 × 750 px, the whole dish with space around it
• A landscape crop for foodpanda from the same shot
• No hands, utensils, text or watermarks
• Shot by a window, with no flash and the kitchen lights off
• The dish as you serve it, on a background it stands out from
• Each file named after its menu item