A restaurant website has one job: get a hungry person from "where should we eat?" to your door. That means your menu, hours, location, and a way to order or book, all readable on a phone in a few seconds. Everything else is a bonus.
Most people looking at your site are standing in a parking lot or sitting on a couch with their phone. They won't read your story first. They'll check if you're open, if the menu looks good, and how far away you are. Build for that person.
What should a restaurant website include?
Here's the checklist we use. The first six are the ones that cost you customers when they're missing.
| Must-have | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Menu as real text | Easy to read on a phone, easy to update, and readable by search engines |
| Hours, kept current | The most common question a restaurant gets |
| Address and map link | One tap should open directions |
| Tap-to-call phone number | For takeout orders, large parties, and "are you still open?" |
| Order online link | Send people to the ordering tool you already use |
| Reservation link (if you take them) | Same idea, one tap to book |
| Real food and dining room photos | People eat with their eyes first |
| Short about section | Who you are, what kind of food, what makes you different |
| Catering and private events | Often bigger tickets than a regular dinner |
| Specials or events | Gives regulars a reason to check back |
If your site has the first six and loads fast, you're ahead of a lot of restaurants in town.
The menu, done right
The menu is the page people want most, so treat it that way. Put it on a normal web page with sections (starters, mains, drinks, desserts), short descriptions, and prices. A PDF can sit next to it as a download, but it shouldn't be the only version. PDFs are slow to open on phones, you have to pinch and zoom to read them, and they're a pain to update when a price changes.
Mark common dietary notes like vegetarian, gluten-free, or spicy if you can. People with allergies or picky kids will look for them. Keep the wording simple and only claim what your kitchen can actually promise.
Hours that are actually right
Wrong hours are the fastest way to lose a customer for good. Someone drives from Katy to your place in the Heights, finds a locked door, and they don't come back. Update your website and your Google Business Profile at the same time whenever hours change, and post holiday hours ahead of time. Google has a special hours setting for holidays and one-off closures.
Ordering and reservations
You don't need a new ordering system to have a good website. Link to the one you already use, whether that's your POS's online ordering page or a delivery app. Put the "Order online" button near the top of the home page and on the menu page. If you take reservations, do the same with your booking link.
If you're paying delivery app commission on every order, it's worth having a direct ordering link on your own site too, so regulars can order from you without the middleman. Check what your POS offers before you pay for anything new.
What are the most common restaurant website mistakes?
We see the same handful over and over:
- The menu only exists as a PDF or an Instagram post. Hard to read, hard to find, and usually out of date.
- Old hours. Especially after a holiday, a seasonal change, or when you stopped doing lunch.
- No ordering link on the home page. People who wanted takeout go back to the delivery app and pick someone else.
- Autoplay video or music. It slows the page and annoys people in quiet places.
- A giant photo slideshow up top. It looks nice on a big screen and pushes your hours and menu below the fold on a phone.
- The address in tiny gray text in the footer. Put it near the top with a directions link.
- A different phone number than Google shows. Pick one and use it everywhere.
Do restaurants need a website if they're on Google and Instagram?
Yes, for most places. Your Google Business Profile is where a lot of people find you first, and Google lets you add a menu right on the profile (here's Google's help page on menus). Instagram is great for showing off dishes. But neither one is a place you fully control.
Your website is the home base. It's where your full menu, catering info, event space details, and ordering links all live together. It also gives Google more to work with when it decides which searches you show up for, like "birria tacos Montrose" or "brunch in Sugar Land." Link your profile to your site and keep the name, address, phone, and hours identical on both. Our guide to getting your business on Google walks through the profile setup step by step.
How many pages does a restaurant website need?
Most restaurants do fine with four or five:
- Home, with hours, address, phone, and an order button right at the top
- Menu
- Order and reserve (or just put those buttons on every page)
- Catering and private events
- About and contact
If you have more than one location, give each location its own page with its own hours, address, and phone number. That helps customers pick the right one, and it helps each spot show up in its own part of town, like Pearland versus The Woodlands.
What about the behind-the-scenes setup?
You don't need to understand this part, but whoever builds your site should handle it:
- A unique page title on each page that says what you serve and where, like "Vietnamese Restaurant in Bellaire | Your Name"
- Restaurant structured data, a bit of code that tells search engines your cuisine, hours, price range, and where your menu lives
- Compressed photos so the page loads fast on mobile data
- A sitemap submitted in Google Search Console so Google finds your pages
- A way for you to get menu and hours changes made quickly, either by editing it yourself or by having someone do it within a day or two
That last one gets skipped all the time. A great site with a menu from two years ago does more harm than good. You can see what we include for restaurants on our restaurant websites page.
What does a restaurant website cost?
It depends on who builds it and what it does. A simple menu, hours, and ordering-link site is a small project. Built-in online ordering, gift cards, or a loyalty program is a bigger one, and many restaurants get those features from their POS company instead.
Bayou Labs is a Houston web design studio that designs, writes, and hosts websites for local small businesses for free, restaurants included. The free build covers up to five pages, a menu page, hours, map, click-to-call, and links to the ordering and reservation tools you already use. If you want us to keep your menu, prices, and hours updated, the Care Plan is $59 a month with a 48-hour turnaround on edits. Full details are on our pricing page.
If your current site is a PDF menu and a prayer, we're happy to build you a better one. You can claim a free restaurant website here, no card needed.
Frequently asked questions
Should my restaurant menu be a PDF?
Not only a PDF. Put the menu on a regular web page so it's easy to read on a phone and easy to update, and offer the PDF as an optional download if you like.
Should I put prices on my restaurant website menu?
Yes. People want to know what dinner for four will run before they come in, and a menu without prices makes some of them pick somewhere else. Just keep the prices current.
Can my website take online orders?
It can link to the ordering system you already use, which is the simplest option. Built-in ordering on the site itself is possible but is a bigger project, so check what your POS already offers first.
How often should I update my restaurant website?
Any time your menu, prices, or hours change, and before every holiday. Update your Google Business Profile at the same time so the two never disagree.