SiteSmith

What a restaurant website needs: pages, words and photos

SiteSmith · · 4 min read

A restaurant website needs very little, done carefully: today's hours, the menu, where you are and how to park, how to book or order, a few honest photos, and a phone number that dials when tapped. Almost everyone who visits is deciding where to eat in the next few hours. The site is there to answer them quickly, not to tell the whole story of the restaurant.

What a hungry visitor is trying to find out

Picture someone on a phone at 5:30 pm, choosing between three places for dinner. In order, they want:

  1. Are you open tonight, and until when?
  2. What is on the menu, and is it the kind of food we want?
  3. Roughly what will it cost?
  4. Where exactly are you, and is there parking?
  5. Can we book a table, or order pickup?
  6. What does the place look like: casual, nice, family-friendly?

Your home page should answer the first, fourth and fifth without any scrolling, and link straight to the menu for the second and third. Everything else can sit below.

The pages to have

  • Home. Name, kind of food, neighborhood, today's hours, address, phone, and buttons for Menu, Reserve and Order.
  • Menu. As text on the page, kept current.
  • About. Who runs the place and the idea behind it, briefly.
  • Private events or catering, if you offer them.
  • Contact and location. Address, map, parking, transit, phone, email.

That is enough for most restaurants. Add a gift card page if you sell them, a jobs page if you are often hiring, and an events page only if you keep it current. How to lay out the menu itself for phones, with allergens and ordering links, is covered in restaurant menus online: what diners need on their phone.

The top of the home page

The first screen on a phone is the most valuable space you have. Use it for facts, not a slow video:

  • The restaurant name and one line: "Neighborhood Italian in Old Town, homemade pasta and a wood oven."
  • "Open today until 10 pm" (most website builders can show today's hours; if yours cannot, show the week's hours in a short list)
  • The address as a link that opens maps
  • The phone number as a link that dials
  • Buttons: "See the menu", "Book a table", "Order pickup"

A large, beautiful photo is welcome right below those, not instead of them. Hours that are wrong cost you more than any design flaw; see business hours on your website for keeping them in step with your Google listing, holidays included.

Photos that make people want to come

Diners decide with their eyes, but they are also checking the vibe. Show:

  • Your best dishes, shot close in daylight or under even light, the way they actually come out of the kitchen
  • The dining room with people in it, so it feels alive (with their permission)
  • The bar or patio, if you have one people come for
  • The front of the restaurant from the street, especially if the entrance is easy to miss
  • The kitchen team or the owner, which makes a place feel personal

Skip stock photos of wine glasses and generic pasta. Diners can tell, and it makes them wonder what you are hiding. If you have no good photos yet, take a few at lunch by the window with a phone; they will do more good than stock shots. Using your own photos instead of stock photos explains why.

A short about page

Two or three short paragraphs are plenty: who you are, what kind of food you cook and why, how long you have been there, and something true that makes the place yours. "Chef Ana grew up in Oaxaca and makes our mole from her grandmother's recipe, every Thursday" is more memorable than "a passion for authentic flavors". Add a photo of the people.

What to leave off

  • A splash page, intro video or music before the site opens
  • A menu only as a PDF or a photo of the printed menu
  • Last year's holiday hours and a New Year's Eve menu in March
  • Pages about events you stopped running
  • Long reviews pasted from other sites at the top of the home page
  • Pop-ups asking for an email address before anyone has seen the menu

The contact path: call, book, order, find

Restaurants get more phone calls than most businesses: "Do you have a table for six at 7?", "Is the patio open?", "Do you have gluten-free pasta?". Make the phone easy:

  • The phone number on every page, tappable, at the top
  • Say when someone answers if the line is not staffed all day
  • A separate email or form for private events and catering, so those inquiries do not get lost
  • Reservation and ordering buttons that go straight to your booking or ordering service, on the right page, without extra steps

Also make sure the address on the website matches your Google Business Profile exactly; name, address and phone: why they must match everywhere explains why it matters.

What to do this week

  • Put today's hours, address, phone and the three main buttons at the top of the home page.
  • Replace any PDF menu with a text menu on the page.
  • Take five photos: two signature dishes, the dining room, the entrance, the team.
  • Remove anything seasonal that has passed.
  • Walk the booking and ordering path on your own phone.

If your restaurant's site is slow, has a PDF menu or looks dated on a phone, you can see your site rebuilt first with your real menu and photos.

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