What to put on a restaurant website

What to put on a restaurant website is a short list. The reader is usually on a phone and needs the menu, whether you are open, and how to get a table. I’m a web designer, so this checklist is about the pages and the wording.

The site I build for this kind of business is on restaurant website design. Cafés have a separate set of notes on café website design. The wider list, for any small firm, is what a small business website needs.

Put the menu in real text

A photo of the printed menu, or a PDF that has to be pinched to read, fails on a phone. Set the menu as ordinary text: starters, mains, desserts, sides and drinks, each with the price you actually charge. When a dish comes off, you change a line.

Give Sunday lunch or a set menu its own section, and name the days. Leave off anything you no longer cook. If specials change too often to stay accurate, say the board is in the restaurant. Say whether you offer collection, and give the hours.

Say when the kitchen stops

Put last orders, closed days and Sunday hours in text, on the home page and the contact page, in the same words as your Google Business Profile. Add bank holidays and Christmas when you know them. Say if you close between lunch and dinner, and if the bar stays open after the kitchen stops.

Make booking obvious, or say you take walk-ins

Link a booking system from the home page, the menu and the contact page, with the words “book a table”. I connect the system you already pay for. I don’t sell a separate booking product. If you only take walk-ins, write that in the same place.

A large group or a private room may still need a call. Put the number in real text, large enough to tap, plus an email. Use the same number on the window and the booking profile, and publish any deposit or cancellation rule you already use.

Without a booking system, a short form is enough: name, phone or email, date, time, party size, and a note. Keep the number above the form.

Help people find the door

Put the address in text, with a note on parking and on any step at the door. If you are above a shop or down a side street, describe the entrance. Mention a garden, outdoor tables, a children’s menu, dogs or an accessible toilet only when they are true of your room.

Allergens, in the kitchen’s words

In the UK, a customer can ask whether a dish contains one of the 14 allergens. Say how to ask, by phone or with the person taking the order, and mark a dish vegetarian, vegan or gluten-free only when you already do that in the restaurant.

A label on the site does not replace the kitchen. Recipes change, and a shared fryer can carry an allergen the page does not list. If a badge might be wrong, leave it off. If the site takes collection orders, put the same note there before anyone pays.

Show the room, and who cooks

Use daylight photos of your own room, plates and the people on the pass, with their permission. A short about page can say who cooks, what you serve, and how long you have been in the building. Don’t borrow reviews, star ratings or quotes. When you have Google reviews, link to that profile.

Five pages, and a job for each one

These pages cover most independent restaurants.

1. A home page that names the restaurant, the town and the food, and shows tonight’s hours plus a way to book or call.
2. The menu, in text, with prices.
3. Private dining or groups, if you have a room or a party menu.
4. A short about page, with a photo of the room.
5. Book or contact: the booking link or form, the number, the email, the address and parking.

Give each page its own title and description. “Home” is a weak title. “Evening menu at [the restaurant], [the town]” is fair when that is the page. Before the design, gather the priced menu, the hours, how you take bookings, the address, a few photos, and whether a domain is already yours. A website built from scratch can start from the restaurant’s name and those notes.

What can wait, and what it costs

A blog can wait until you will write it. Card payments can wait until you have your own Stripe account, so I can connect the links. The menu still belongs on your own site, not only in an Instagram or Facebook post.

Serve the site over HTTPS, and make the menu readable on a phone without pinching to zoom. If the current site fails that test, I build a new one, as described on make my website mobile friendly. If the old site is the wider problem, that is a website redesign. A domain in your own name costs around £5–£10 a year.

The small-business website I build is £500, the same figure as on the pricing page. A pay monthly website spreads that £500 in one of three ways: £150 up front then £50 a month for 7 months, £100 up front then £100 a month for 4 months, or three payments of £166.67, £166.67 and £166.66. Each totals £500. After payoff you choose a £10-a-month hosting and care plan, or a full handover. The care plan covers hosting and small edits, such as a changed dish or Christmas hours. Bigger projects are quoted from around £1,200.

The homepage mock-up is free. Send the restaurant name, the town and a note on the menu through the mock-up form. The portfolio shows sites I run and example designs for other businesses, so a restaurant preview should use your own name, menu and town.