Restaurant websites have a unique problem: the people who build them care about aesthetics, and the people who use them just want the menu.
What Do Restaurant Customers Actually Want?
In this order:
- 1.The menu (77% of visitors)
- 2.Hours and location (62%)
- 3.Online ordering or reservations (38%)
The chef's story, the sourcing philosophy, the renovation details — put those on the About page. The menu, hours, and reservation button belong on the homepage.
What Are the Biggest Mistakes?
- PDF menus. 23% of restaurant sites still do this. On mobile, customers download a file, open another app, pinch-to-zoom. Most give up and check Yelp. Make your menu HTML text on the page.
- No mobile optimization. 72% of restaurant searches are on mobile.
- Wrong hours. Nothing kills trust faster than driving to a "open" restaurant that's closed.
- No online ordering. 60% of consumers order food online weekly. If you're not making it easy on your site, they're going to DoorDash — where you pay 30% commission.
- Slow loading. Restaurant sites are often bloated with high-res photos. Compress them. A fast site with smaller images beats a slow site with beautiful photography.
What Ted Builds for Restaurants
- Homepage with menu, hours, and location above the fold
- Full HTML menu organized by category
- Online ordering integration
- Reservation button (OpenTable, Resy, or direct)
- Fast-loading photo gallery
- Google Maps with directions
- Click-to-call for phone orders
- Local SEO for "[cuisine] restaurant [city]"
- Social media integration
The goal: someone's hungry, they search for your type of food in your city, they find you, they see the menu, they book or order. Every other feature is secondary.