Almost everyone who visits a restaurant website arrives with one practical question. Can I see the menu? Are you open now? Where exactly are you? Can I book? A good restaurant website answers whichever one they came with in a few seconds — usually on a phone, often while they’re standing on a footpath deciding where to eat.
Design for the phone first
Most restaurant visits happen on a phone, so start there. Text should be readable without zooming, buttons big enough to tap with a thumb, and the most important information — hours, menu, location, booking — reachable within one or two taps of the homepage. A desktop layout matters too, but it’s rarely where the decision is made.
The menu, as real text
Put the menu on the page as real text rather than a photo or PDF of the printed one. Text is faster to load, easier to read on a small screen, can be found by Google, and is simple to update when a dish or price changes. A downloadable PDF is fine as an optional extra for people who want to print it.
Reservations and ordering
If you take bookings through a reservation platform, or orders through Just Eat, Deliveroo or similar, the website should send people straight there with clear, well-placed buttons. Building a custom booking or ordering system adds cost and maintenance, and customers already know and trust the big platforms. The website’s job is to get them to the right button quickly. If you’re still choosing a platform, see online booking systems for Irish restaurants.
Opening hours people can trust
Show your hours in one obvious place — ideally visible on the homepage without scrolling far — with kitchen times, bank holidays and seasonal changes stated plainly. Out-of-date hours are one of the quickest ways to lose trust, so keep them in sync with your Google Business Profile.
Location, Google Maps and contact buttons
- Address written out in full, with a link that opens straight into the visitor’s maps app.
- A click-to-call button for questions, large groups and allergies.
- Parking or access notes if they genuinely help — for example a nearby car park or step-free entrance.
Food photography: real beats perfect
Good photos of your actual food and your actual room sell far better than stock images, which visitors spot instantly. You don’t need a professional shoot to start: well-lit phone photos of your most popular dishes, taken near a window, are often enough. What matters is that people see what they’ll really get.
Accessibility
An accessible site works for more of your customers. In practice that means readable text sizes and contrast, descriptive alt text on images, buttons that work with a keyboard and screen reader, and important information (like allergens or hours) written as text rather than hidden inside images.
Performance
Someone checking whether you’re open won’t wait for a heavy page over patchy mobile data. Optimised images, lean code and no autoplaying video keep a site fast. Speed also feeds into how Google judges the page experience.
Search visibility
Clear page titles and descriptions, your address and hours as text, structured data that describes your business, and a link from your Google Business Profile all help search engines understand your restaurant. Nobody can guarantee rankings, but a well-built site makes it easier for the right people to find you.
What you can usually leave out
- Long “about us” essays. A few warm sentences about who you are and what you cook is plenty.
- Autoplaying video with sound. It slows the page down and annoys people in public places.
- Pop-ups before the menu. If you run a newsletter or offer, show it after people have found what they came for.
Keeping it current
Decide before launch how menu and price changes will be handled. With menus as real text you simply send the change and it’s updated — see the menu update prices for what that costs with UWRH Digital.
A quick checklist
- Menu readable on a phone, as real text
- Opening hours visible without scrolling far
- Address with a one-tap directions link
- Book, order or call buttons that go to the right place
- Real photos of your food and space
- Readable, accessible text and buttons
- Loads quickly on mobile data
- Your Google Business Profile links to the website
If you’d like a website built around these, see restaurant website design.
Need a hand?
UWRH Digital builds custom websites for Irish businesses: €800 one-time, with managed hosting & care at €30/month.