How to create a restaurant website: from online menu to first booking

1. Make the site the restaurant's source of truth

Google listing, Instagram account, page on a booking platform: the day the platform shows the old lunch menu and Instagram announces a closure the listing doesn't mention, guests call to check, or don't come.

Decide that the site will be the reference: the menu, opening hours, booking terms and group offers are updated there first, then you carry the changes elsewhere. A restaurant showcase site can also lead to direct bookings; any fees then depend on the tool you use.

This step is also about gathering material: up-to-date menus, meat origins, allergens per dish, recent photos, special opening hours on public holidays, booking terms. The list of information guests look for first on a restaurant website helps you forget nothing before moving on to design.

2. Set the venue's pages and visual identity

A restaurant's site structure fits in a few pages: home, menu, book, groups and private hire if you offer them, practical info (address, directions, opening hours), legal notice.

On the visual side, the gap shows quickly: stock-photo wine glasses, a dish dropped from the menu a year ago on the home page, typography unrelated to the venue. Guests arrive and don't recognise the place they chose. Plan a photo shoot of the dining room during service, the team and the dishes actually served, to be renewed when the menu changes. If the venue doesn't have a distinctive mark yet, a logo design gives the site, the printed menu and social media the same visual cue. Finally, compress images so the home page loads quickly on a mobile network.

3. Publish a text menu that follows the display rules

On mobile, a PDF forces people to zoom, it is rarely updated and both Google and AI assistants read it less well than a text page. The QR code in the dining room inherits the problem when it points to that file.

Publish an online menu as text, on a site page you edit yourself from the back office. Set menus state whether drinks are included and specify when they are served if only at certain times ("weekday lunch"). Update this page the day the specials board changes; the PDF remains as a printable extra.

The temptation to embellish exists too: "foie gras" for a terrine block, a "homemade" logo in the header when desserts are bought in, meat origin shown in the dining room but missing online, "allergens: please ask". Yet Service Public Entreprendre (the French government business portal) states that the display rules that apply to restaurants, including meat origin, apply to every type of food service (dine-in, takeaway, delivery) and to all communication with consumers, remote or on site. Your online menu must therefore give the same information as the one on the table.

For meals served on site, allergen information must be available in writing and easy to consult in the dining room (Articles R412-12 et seq. of the French Consumer Code). As soon as the site takes orders, the EU FIC regulation also requires information for distance selling: have what must appear before purchase and on delivery checked. If your pages promote wines or tasting evenings, also have the wording reviewed, as alcohol advertising is regulated by the French Public Health Code.

4. Design booking for the phone

A button pushed to the bottom of the page, a widget too narrow on a phone, a link to a platform that shows other restaurants nearby: some bookings go elsewhere.

Keep a sticky "Book" button and a phone number that can be called with one tap. Embed the booking tool you already use rather than switching, then test the journey in real conditions: book a table for two on a Friday evening, for six on a Sunday lunchtime, change it, then cancel.

Also write down your terms: cancellation deadline, card guarantee or deposit, accepted lateness. With no right of withdrawal for a table booked for a specific date (Article L221-28 of the French Consumer Code), these terms are what count, hence the value of making them readable before confirmation. Copy, photos and the order of information then help to make guests want to book a table from the site.

5. Plan for groups, private hire and takeaway

"For groups, contact us": the request arrives with no date or number of covers, and it takes several emails before you can reply. Meanwhile, the company planning its end-of-year dinner has signed elsewhere. Instead, create one page per use (business lunch, birthday, full or partial private hire), with seated and standing capacity, group menus and their prices, and how the deposit works. The form asks for the date, time slot, number of people and type of event; the free-text field covers the rest.

For takeaway, a standard shop module knows nothing about the rush or stock-outs: dishes can still be ordered at 3 pm when the kitchen is closed, and confirmations are sent by hand during service. A click and collect journey manages time slots and pickup options, disables a sold-out dish and automatically confirms the order to both the customer and the kitchen. Payment goes through a payment provider, never through a card number received in a form or by email. Show allergens on each product page, as distance-selling rules require, and state in your terms that perishable goods carry no right of withdrawal, another exception under Article L221-28.

6. Prepare local SEO and readability for AI

Different opening hours on the site and the Google listing, a menu in images, "Italian restaurant + town" pages duplicated for ten towns: search engines receive contradictory signals, and AI assistants answering "where to eat tonight near the station" struggle to cite you.

Keep your name, address, phone number and opening hours identical everywhere, including special hours on public holidays. Add Restaurant structured data (cuisine type, link to the menu, reservations accepted). For several locations, create a real page per venue rather than artificial city pages. On an existing site, a technical SEO audit identifies before the redesign the pages that get visits or links, those that will need redirecting and any indexing blocks. Neighbourhood levers (reviews, events, partners) then help you attract local customers through the site.

7. Choose the technical solution

The choice depends on who will update the menu, the tools to integrate (booking, ordering, reviews) and ownership of the domain and content, which must stay in the restaurant's name.

A free website builder lets you publish a few pages, but with limits that quickly get in the way for a restaurant: the address often stays the tool's, booking and ordering are limited or paid, and the site can't always be exported. A WordPress site or another CMS gives you a back office where the team edits the menu, opening hours and current specials itself, and accepts the widgets of booking tools already in use. Custom development is justified when the journey goes beyond the standard, for example takeaway ordering with time slots or several locations in two languages.

8. Price the site and the tools around it

Two quotes for a restaurant website are hard to compare if you forget what surrounds them: the booking software subscription, commissions per cover or per order, the till system, delivery logistics, translations for foreign guests. At Gemeos, the cost of a restaurant website depends on the scenario:

Two further cases complete this table at Gemeos: adding a groups and private hire journey to an existing site (4 pages, 2 forms) costs €1,200 to €3,500, excl. VAT and migrating a 30-URL site to another CMS while keeping its design costs €7,000 to €21,500, excl. VAT with licences and editorial overhaul extra. On group and private hire pages, conversion-focused copywriting matters as much as the form, because this is often the text the organiser forwards to their team.

The timeline depends on the scope, the time needed to gather menus, photos and copy, and how quickly approvals come back. Ask for a step-by-step schedule.

9. Go live outside the rush, then track bookings

Schedule the launch outside your busy periods, before the terrace opens or the festive season rather than in the middle of it. Before switching over, check:

• The legal notice and the consumer mediator's details (name, address, website), mandatory on the site of any business selling to consumers in France (Articles L616-1 and R616-1 of the Consumer Code). The mediator depends on the business: check which one you belong to.
• Displayed reviews: if the site publishes them, state their date and how they are published and checked (Article L111-7-2), without silently filtering them.
• Booking and group forms: only ask for what is useful. Details of an allergy can be health data; limit this field and don't reuse it for a newsletter.
• Cookie consent, including for third-party widgets (booking, reviews, interactive map).
• Operations: HTTPS, regular backups, named admin accounts, domain name and content in the restaurant's name.

During a redesign, if page URLs change without redirects, links from food guides or the tourist office can lead to error pages. Or the booking widget isn't reconnected, and nobody notices before Saturday night. Plan a redirect for every URL that gets visits or links, recheck booking and external ordering, and make a test booking on launch day. Update the Google listing the same day.

Once live, track clicks on the phone number, on directions and on the "Book" button, confirmed bookings when your tool passes this information on, private hire requests and orders, then compare sources (Google listing, Instagram, searches for the restaurant's name). For a seasonal highlight, such as the festive menu or the terrace opening, a custom landing page brings the information and booking together on a single page.

Gemeos designs restaurant websites from the real menu and the tools already in use at the venue. Design, copy, local SEO and booking measurement are handled by a single team, which checks the site keeps up when the menu or booking tool changes.

FAQ

How much does a restaurant website cost?

At Gemeos, creating a restaurant website costs €5,500 to €13,000 excl. VAT depending on the scenario. Subscriptions and commissions for booking, ordering or delivery tools come on top of this budget.

Can you create your restaurant's website for free?

Yes, a free website builder lets you publish a few pages, but with limits that quickly get in the way for a restaurant. The address often stays the tool's, booking and ordering are limited or paid, and the site can't always be exported.

Does a restaurant need a website if it is already on Google and booking platforms?

Yes, as soon as you want direct bookings and information you own. You only partly control the Google listing and the platforms, some of which take a commission per cover. Custom web design also lets you place the menu and booking button where guests look for them on their phone.

Should you put the restaurant menu on the site as a PDF?

Not as the only version: the menu must first be readable as text on a site page, with the PDF as a downloadable extra.

Which notices must appear on a restaurant's website?

The legal notice, the consumer mediator's details and, on the online menu, the same information as on the menu displayed in the dining room: prices, whether service is included, whether drinks are included in set menus, meat origin. If the site displays reviews, it also states their date and how they are checked.

Can a guest withdraw after booking a table online?

No, the 14-day right of withdrawal does not apply to a restaurant booking for a specific date (Article L221-28 of the French Consumer Code). Your cancellation, deposit or card guarantee terms apply instead, provided they are clearly shown before the booking is confirmed.