Sometimes, when creating tab leaders, you’ll want a symbol size that’s different from the type size that you have in the rest of the list you’re creating. You can do this by styling each line of tab leaders one by one, but that could become tedious.
A level of automation is achievable by using nested styles. Create your list, putting each menu/TOC item on a separate paragraph (separate them with hard-returns, not forced line breaks). Set your tab spec and tab leader as needed, then create this as a Paragraph Style. Next, open this style for editing, and style the tab leaders as appropriate, with an eye toward adjusting leading if the point size is increased, and create a Character style from the styled tab leader. Now, edit the Paragraph Style, using the Character Style as a Nested Style.