To choose a website for your restaurant, start from the question the customer asks before coming: can I see the menu, find the hours and book, in under thirty seconds, on my phone, standing in the street? A restaurant website that answers yes to all three fills tables. The rest is decoration.
Here is how to decide, in order.
1. The three functions you can never get wrong
- The menu, readable and current. As text, not a PDF, editable by you, with allergens and prices. It is the most visited page of the site, far ahead of the home page.
- The practical information. Address, today’s hours, a tappable phone number, how to get there. Matching your Google profile, otherwise Google doubts both.
- Booking. In two taps, to your own tool, from any page.
2. The phone first, genuinely
More than three quarters of visits to a restaurant website come from a phone, often less than a kilometre from the address and less than an hour before arriving. Judge every mock-up on a phone screen, not a large one. If the menu takes three pinches to read, the site has failed, however beautiful it is.
3. Ready-to-wear or bespoke
| Ready-to-wear | Bespoke | |
|---|---|---|
| Lead time | one week | four to six weeks |
| Price | €990 excl. VAT | from €2,500 excl. VAT |
| Photography | yours, or a pack | dedicated shoot |
| Good for | café, bakery, first address | a house with an identity, several addresses, franchise |
The ready-to-wear restaurant websites are drawn by type of venue, from the bistro to the coffee shop: twenty-one designs to view with your own name before you pay.
4. What makes the difference six months later
- A Google profile kept up. Recent photos, exact hours, reviews you answer. It brings more people than the website alone.
- Real photographs. Stock images are spotted, and they tell the customer the place has nothing to show.
- Copy about the place. Who cooks, where the produce comes from, what changes with the season. That is what customers read and what AI tools quote.
- Analytics. Without them there is no way to know whether the site fills anything.
5. The most common traps
- A PDF menu: invisible to Google, unreadable on a phone.
- Music or video that starts on its own: the visitor closes the tab.
- A home-made booking form that sends nothing: test it every month.
- Hours that differ between the site, the Google profile and the door.
- A site rebuilt without telling Google: old URLs must be redirected, or the rankings fall.
To go further, our article on the six essentials of a restaurant website covers each point, and the one on local SEO for a restaurant explains how the Google profile and the website work together.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need one website per address?
No, one website with one page per address, each with its own Google profile, hours and photographs. A single site keeps the brand’s authority.
Who updates the menu?
You do, from the admin, in two minutes. If the supplier does not plan for it, the menu will be out of date within six months.
Should the website show prices?
Yes. A customer who cannot find prices assumes the worst and looks elsewhere.
How long does it take to rebuild a restaurant website?
One week ready-to-wear, four to six weeks bespoke, photography included if it has to be produced.
Further reading
- ready-to-wear websites for restaurants: 21 designs by type of venue, to view with your own name.
- the communication agency for restaurants: brand, identity, website and local visibility.
- what a restaurant website costs: the ranges and what moves them.
- the catalogue of restaurant website templates: 21 examples to view with your own name and colours.
