The menu, in plain HTML and current
A menu in a PDF is a menu nobody reads on a phone and search engines cannot use. Put the dishes as text, with prices, and change them when the kitchen changes: the dish that is no longer served costs you a table.
If the menu moves with the season, say so and date it. “Menu of the week, updated on Tuesday” is worth more than a perfect PDF from last summer.
Booking: one tap, no apps
Four fields, at most: day, time, how many and a phone number. WhatsApp next to it for whoever prefers to write. And an answer, even if it is automatic, so nobody is left wondering whether the table exists.
The details people look up at nine at night
- Real hours, including the days you close and holidays.
- Address with a map and a phone that dials on a tap.
- Whether there is a terrace, whether it is covered, whether there is shade at midday.
- Whether you take cards, and which ones.
- Children, pets, groups: the rules that avoid a bad evening.
Photos of the plate and of the place
The same rule as a villa: real photos, the light of the place, the tables full at dusk. Stock photos of a dish that is not yours are the fastest way to lose the trust of someone who is choosing between three restaurants.
Google is half your website
For a restaurant, the listing matters as much as the site: hours, photos, reviews and the menu, all inside Google. Keep the two in sync, mark up the opening hours as structured data, and answer every review.
And keep both pointing at the same phone number. A guest who calls a number that nobody answers does not call twice.
It all happens on a phone, standing up
Your visitor is walking, using one hand, sometimes with a weak signal. The site has to open in two seconds, the phone number has to dial on a tap and the map has to open in the maps app, not as a picture. If any of that fails, the restaurant on the corner gets the table.
- Under two seconds on mobile data, measured away from the restaurant.
- Phone, WhatsApp and address one tap away, with no hunting.
- A menu you can read without zooming in.