How to take iftar pre-orders, suhoor delivery and Eid sweet orders

Open iftar box pre-orders 14 days before Ramadan, offer pickup and delivery slots that finish before sunset, and stop taking Eid sweet orders three to four days before Eid. For 2027 that means opening around Monday 25 January for a first iftar expected on Monday 8 February, and an Eid sweets cut-off around Friday 5 March. Below: dates by country, a timeline, a slot plan that keeps up with sunset, suhoor hours, offers that work at checkout and WhatsApp broadcast costs.

Writing the menu itself? Start with our iftar menu templates.

Create your free ordering pagePrint an Eid order form

Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr dates by country

Gulf dates are UAE astronomers' projections (The National, Gulf News); Malaysia's and Indonesia's come from their 2027 holiday lists. Each country confirms the month after its own crescent sighting, so the first fast and Eid can land a day apart in neighboring markets.

Pre-order timeline for Ramadan 2027

Pickup and delivery slots that finish before sunset

An iftar box that arrives after sunset has missed its moment. In Menuthere, pickup and delivery slots are fixed time ranges that you set yourself; they don't follow sunset. Sunset moves a little every day and differs by city, so take this week's time from your local official prayer timetable and move your slots once a week, say every Sunday.

A simple rule, with S as this week's sunset; the clock times are an example for a 6:15 PM sunset:

The last slot ends half an hour before sunset, so a delivery running late still arrives in time. Slots are cut to your working hours and to your delivery and takeaway hours, so those must cover every slot.

Notice and volume. Menuthere has no limit on orders per slot. Control volume with the Earliest booking time (for example 1 day, so you know tomorrow's total tonight), a Book up to window of 14 days (enough to reach 8 February from launch day), and a Date range of 8 February to 9 March. When a day is full, mark the box out of stock; that stops it for every day, so switch it back on next morning. The Prebookings tab and its Prepare now box show what's due next.

Suhoor delivery: make your hours cover the window

Suhoor orders come late, often after midnight. Working hours can run past midnight (for example 6:00 PM to 3:00 AM), and delivery hours must sit inside them. Time the suhoor dishes to the same window (Free) and stop orders early enough that food arrives well before dawn. If you close in the daytime, Take pre-orders while closed (Lite) lets customers order iftar boxes for later while you're shut.

Eid sweets and hamper orders

Maamoul, date boxes, kuih raya and kue lebaran need days of notice; Indonesian bakers call it an "open PO".

• Under Applies to, choose Specific items and tick only the Eid boxes and hampers. Your iftar boxes keep their own notice.
• Set Earliest booking time to 3 days and Only made on to the days you bake.
• A basket that mixes an Eid box with everyday dishes is asked to split the order, so say so in the item description.
• After the cut-off on Friday 5 March, mark the Eid items out of stock.
• For walk-in and phone orders, print the Eid preset of the holiday order form.

Ramadan offers that work at checkout

Discount codes (Lite) take a % or flat amount, a minimum order, a maximum discount, order types, all or selected items, Days (weekdays), Start and end dates, total uses and uses per customer. A code cannot be limited to iftar hours or any other time of day; that control doesn't exist.

Item offers (Lite) put a new price on chosen dishes for a custom start and end. Buy X get Y and loyalty points are on Pro; for a paper version, try the loyalty card maker. Design a Ramadan poster with the festival poster maker.

WhatsApp broadcasts for Ramadan (Pro)

A broadcast sends one approved marketing template to customers who opted in. Meta charges each delivered marketing message to your own WhatsApp Business account; Menuthere adds nothing. Rates from 1 October 2026:

Worked example. A Dubai restaurant has 1,500 opted-in customers with UAE numbers. One broadcast costs 1,500 × AED 0.2115 = AED 317.25. Four across the month (launch, first week, last ten nights, Eid sweets cut-off) cost AED 1,269.00. Meta bills only delivered messages, so that is the most you pay. Check other list sizes in the WhatsApp cost calculator.

Submit templates days before 25 January, because approval can take up to 24 hours. Meta caps how many messages a number sends per day; a bigger list goes in batches at 6 PM store time each day, close to iftar in the Gulf, so start a large send a day early. Anyone who replies STOP goes on your Blocklist automatically. More in how to run a Ramadan offer on WhatsApp.

Broadcast messages to copy

Ramadan ordering set-up in Menuthere, plan by plan

1. Free: create your ordering page, add the iftar boxes and Eid sweets with halal mark and allergens, and time the suhoor dishes.
2. Lite, prebooking: in Settings → Ordering → Prebooking settings, switch on Enable Prebooking for Takeaway & Delivery. Choose Make prebooking optional so normal orders still work, Date & time, Fixed time ranges for your pre-sunset slots, then Earliest booking time, Book up to and the Date range. See prebooking settings.
3. Lite, Eid items: Specific items with Earliest booking time and Only made on, as above.
4. Lite, payment: turn on Stripe so orders are paid in full at checkout. A part-payment deposit isn't a checkout option.
5. Lite, offers and banners: create the codes (see days and validity), a pop-up banner from 25 January, and a one-line announcement bar.
6. Pro, WhatsApp: submit templates, upload or pick your opted-in customers, and schedule each broadcast for a date and time. See broadcasts.
7. Branded App: regulars who installed your own branded app get a push notification, for example "Iftar boxes now open for pre-order".

Lite is US$17 a month and Pro US$39, each with a 7-day free trial that needs a card to start but charges nothing until it ends. The Branded App plan is US$99 a month. There's no commission on any order. Compare plans on pricing, or see the country pages for the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Malaysia and Indonesia.

then try Lite free for 7 days to switch on Ramadan pre-orders.

Create your free ordering page

For the rest of the year's dates, see the restaurant marketing calendar.