Websites for restaurants
Restaurant website that fills the tables
People choosing where to eat want to see the menu and the food, then book in a tap. A great site tempts them and takes the booking directly, so you keep the table and skip the platform's cut.
From £297, live in 7 days, on your own domain.
Restaurant websites
Tempt them, then take the booking
Choosing where to eat is an appetite-driven, visual decision, and a restaurant website has to work with that. Someone deciding where to have dinner, whether tonight or for a special occasion, wants to see two things above all: the menu and the food. They want to know what you serve, what it looks like, roughly what it costs, and whether it appeals, and then, if it does, they want to book a table quickly. So the site’s job is to tempt and then convert: to make a hungry decider want to eat at your restaurant, and then let them reserve a table in a tap. Get both right, the temptation and the easy booking, and the site fills tables. Everything about it should serve that flow, from the mouth-watering photos that create the desire to the simple booking that captures it while the diner is still keen.
That combination of appetite and action is what shapes a good restaurant site. It is not a place for clever branding at the expense of the basics, it is a place to make people hungry and make booking effortless. A visitor who lands on your site should come away thinking that looks delicious, I want to eat there, and should be able to act on that thought immediately. The site that most tempts the diner and most easily takes the booking is the one that wins the table, so both halves matter and both should be done well.
Book direct, keep the value
An important, often overlooked point is where the booking happens. Third-party booking platforms are convenient, but they charge commission and own the customer relationship, so every booking through them costs you money and loyalty, and the diner ends up belonging to the platform rather than to you. Taking bookings directly through your own site keeps the full value of the table and builds a direct relationship with a diner who chose you, not an app. So while the platforms have their uses, the site should make direct booking easy and appealing, encouraging diners to reserve with you rather than through a service that takes a cut. Over time, building the habit of direct booking protects both your margins and your customer relationships, which is a genuine, lasting benefit of having your own strong site rather than relying on the platforms for every reservation.
Make the food look irresistible
People eat with their eyes, and they choose a restaurant partly on how the food looks, so appetising photography is one of the most persuasive things on the site. Genuine, mouth-watering images of your actual dishes and your dining space tempt a hungry decider far more effectively than any description, making them imagine the meal and want to book. This is a visual decision, so the site should lead with images that create appetite and convey the atmosphere of eating with you. Good photography of your real food and space, not generic stock, is what turns a browsing visitor into someone determined to eat there. So the site should invest in showing the food at its most tempting, because in a decision made largely on appetite, the images do a great deal of the selling.
Make the menu instantly accessible
The menu is the first thing most people want to see, so it has to be easy to find and easy to read. Diners deciding where to eat check your menu before booking, wanting to see the dishes, the style and the prices, so a menu that is hidden, buried in a slow PDF, or awkward to read on a phone frustrates people at exactly the crucial moment and loses them. Making the menu instantly accessible, clear, current and appetising is one of the simplest yet most important things a restaurant site does. A visitor should be able to see what you serve within a moment of arriving, presented in a way that tempts rather than tests their patience. Getting the menu right, easy to reach and a pleasure to read, removes a common and costly friction and keeps the hungry visitor moving towards a booking.
A straight price, and getting found
I build restaurant websites from £297, on spec and live within seven days on your own domain, so you see the finished site before you pay. Getting found comes down to a tempting, easy-to-read menu, mouth-watering photos, easy direct booking that skips the commission, and being findable when people search for somewhere to eat. Do that and you fill your tables while keeping the bookings your own, which is exactly what a restaurant website is for.
How it works
From message to live in four steps.
- 01
Message me
Tell me your trade and your town on WhatsApp. No forms to wade through, no call to book.
- 02
£99 to start
A £99 deposit gets your build going and comes off your quote. It covers some of the build time.
- 03
I build it, you see it
I build the whole site, framed around your work, and send it to you finished to look at.
- 04
Pay the rest, go live
Happy with it? You pay the balance, it goes live on your own domain, and it is yours to keep.
What you get
What a restaurant site from me includes.
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Built on spec
I build it first and send it finished. You see the real thing before you decide, not a mock-up.
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Live in 7 days
From the go-ahead, your site is live within a week. No months of back and forth.
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On your own domain
It goes live in your name. You own the site and everything on it, with no lock-in.
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Genuinely fast
Static pages, no WordPress. Fast pages rank better and turn more visitors into calls.
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Found on Google
Built to be found in local search, with the plumbing done properly from day one.
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Looked after
Someone looks after it and changes it when you need. Two small edits a month, your listing kept current.
What it costs
A straight price.
From £297 to build it, first three months of Care included, then £49 a month.
You own the site outright and can stop the monthly plan whenever you like. Hosting is part of Care and Grow, so one of those keeps it online after the first three months, or you host it yourself. See the full pricing.
Common questions
Questions I get asked.
What makes a good restaurant website?
A tempting menu, mouth-watering photos, and easy direct booking. People choosing where to eat want to see what you serve and what it looks like, then book a table simply, so the site should show your menu clearly, present appetising photos of your food and space, and make booking direct and easy. Doing so tempts diners and lets you take the booking yourself rather than paying a platform's commission. Appetite plus easy direct booking is what fills the tables.
Why take bookings directly rather than through a platform?
Because direct bookings keep the customer and skip the commission. Third-party booking platforms charge fees and own the customer relationship, so every booking through them costs you money and loyalty. Taking bookings through your own site keeps the full value of the table and builds a direct relationship with the diner, who came to you, not a platform. So while platforms have their place, encouraging direct booking through your site protects your margins and your customer relationships, which is why the site should make direct booking easy and appealing.
How important are food photos?
Very, because people eat with their eyes and choose a restaurant partly on how the food looks. Appetising photos of your dishes and your dining space tempt a hungry decider far more than words, making them want to eat there. Good, genuine photography of your actual food and atmosphere is one of the most persuasive things on the site, because choosing a restaurant is an appetite-driven, visual decision. So the site should show mouth-watering images that make a visitor imagine the meal and want to book a table.
Should the menu be easy to find and read?
Absolutely, because the menu is the first thing most people want to see, and a hard-to-find or awkward one loses them. Diners deciding where to eat want to check your menu, dishes, style, prices, before booking, so it should be clear, current and easy to read on a phone. A menu hidden in a slow PDF or hard to navigate frustrates people at the crucial moment. Making the menu instantly accessible and appetising is one of the simplest, most important things a restaurant site does.
Do restaurants get bookings from a website?
Yes, because people search for places to eat and choose on the menu, photos and ease of booking. Someone deciding where to eat, for tonight or an occasion, searches, looks at menus and photos, and books somewhere that tempts them and is easy to reserve. A site with a tempting menu, great photos and easy direct booking reaches those diners and wins them, while keeping the booking commission-free. For a visual, appetite-driven local choice, a strong site is central to filling tables.
How quickly can my restaurant website be live?
I build it on spec and have it live within seven days, on your own domain, so you see the finished site before you pay anything. From £297.
Tell me your town and I'll build you a restaurant site on spec, so you can see it before you pay. Or read Website examples, see the full pricing, or get in touch.