Restaurant websites: what they have to do first
Opening hours, menu, booking, directions: what diners look for on your restaurant's website, and how to give it to them in seconds.
When someone’s looking for a restaurant, they’re often hungry, often on their phone, and usually comparing. Your website has a few seconds to answer their questions and make them want to come. Here’s what really matters.
1. Opening hours and phone number, straight away
The first question is nearly always: “Is it open?” Show your hours and closing day on the home page, and make your number tappable.
On the Ristorante da Lola site, a bar always shows the hours, the closing day and the number to book. On Mr. Tandoors, a live sign shows whether the restaurant is open right now.
2. The menu as text, not a PDF
A menu as a PDF or a photo is hard to read on a phone, and Google doesn’t understand it well. A menu written as text, sorted by category with prices, reads easily with one thumb and helps your restaurant show up when someone searches for a particular dish.
If your prices change, say so simply: “price to be confirmed” beats a wrong price.
3. What changes each week, up front
Dish of the day, the week’s menu, live music, big matches: these are good reasons to come back. The Wall Street pub shows its weekly menu at the top of the page and its agenda right after. The site becomes a reason to return, not just an address.
4. Booking or ordering in one tap
Depending on how you work: a button to call, a booking link, WhatsApp, or takeaway ordering. What matters is that there are only one or two, clearly visible on every page.
5. Make people hungry
Photos of your food and your dining room, a few words about your cooking and your story. On the So Good Diner site, four simple commitments (baker’s bread, butcher’s meat, homemade sauces, cooked in front of you) say in one line what makes it different.
6. Directions and languages
A directions link, your full written address, and if you welcome tourists, a version in their language. That’s often what makes up a passing visitor’s mind.
7. Fast on a phone
None of this helps if the page takes ages to load on a terrace with a patchy connection. Well-optimised images and a light page are part of the job.
In short
A good restaurant website doesn’t need to be big: it has to answer the right questions quickly and make people want to sit down. See our restaurant sites, or tell us about yours.