What Every Restaurant Website Absolutely Must Have

When someone opens a restaurant website, they want the menu, the hours, the location, and a way to order or reserve. That is it. Everything else is decoration, and decoration that gets in the way costs you covers.

Start with the menu, and make it real text on the page — not a PDF and not a photo. PDFs are painful to read on a phone, they cannot be searched, and search engines cannot index the dishes people are actually looking for. A properly built menu, organized into sections with prices, works everywhere.

Hours need to be correct and current, including holidays and any kitchen-closes-earlier detail. Nothing generates a bad first impression faster than a customer arriving at a locked door because the website said otherwise.

Location should be one tap from directions. Embed a map, but also make the address itself open the visitor's own navigation app. Add a note about parking if it is not obvious — it is one of the most common questions restaurants answer by phone.

Photos sell the food. A handful of well-lit shots of your actual signature dishes will do more than a gallery of generic plates. Show the room, too; people want to know whether it is a date-night place or a quick lunch spot.

Then give them the action that matters most to you: order online, reserve a table, or call. One clear button, always visible, and you have covered the whole reason they visited.