The short answer: an effective restaurant website holds in six pages: the home page, the menu, the booking page, photos and atmosphere, practical information and contact. And one rule half the sector ignores: the menu is published as a real web page, not a PDF. Here is the detail, page by page.
The trade's context: everything happens on mobile
Your typical visitor looks up your restaurant in the street, on their phone, often a few hours before the meal. They want three immediate answers: is it open? what do you serve, at what price? how do I book? Every second of hesitation sends them next door. The whole site is built around those three questions.
1. The home page: open, where, book
On the first screen: the style of cooking in one sentence, today's hours, the address, and a "Book" button impossible to miss. One beautiful photo of your room or a signature dish, a real one. The classic mistake: a full-screen video that takes eight seconds to load to say what one sentence said.
2. The menu: a web page, not a PDF
The scanned PDF is the sector's mistake number one: unreadable on a phone, impossible to update without a provider, invisible to search engines and to the assistants answering "where to eat ravioli in Brussels". A web-page menu reads with one thumb, updates in five minutes in the CMS, shows the prices and follows the rhythm of your kitchen. Mention the options (vegetarian, allergens): it is a real decision criterion.
3. Booking: one click, not an expedition
If you use a booking tool, the site connects to it cleanly; otherwise, a clickable phone number does the job very well. What matters: the button is present on every page, and the booking page states time slots, group sizes and the cancellation policy. The site does not have to replace your booking tool, it must lead to it without friction.
4. Photos and atmosphere: appetite and desire
Your dishes, your room, your team: real photos, made for you. Stock images are spotted at first glance and break trust. A few excellent photos beat forty average ones.
5. Practical information: zero unanswered questions
Full hours (and up to date!), address with access and parking, terrace, groups and private events, payment methods, pets, prams. Every "just checking whether" phone call is avoidable friction for the client and for your team in the middle of service.
6. Contact: short and direct
Phone, address, map, social networks if you genuinely maintain them. The long form has no place here: nobody fills in six fields to book a table.
What should NOT be on the site
- The scanned PDF menu: unreadable, unfindable, never up to date.
- Autoplay music and heavy animations: on mobile, in the street, they are a reason to leave.
- Wrong opening hours: worse than no website. The CMS must make updating them trivial, exceptional closures included.
- Stock photos: your client eats at your place, not in an image library.
The typical structure, summarised
| Page | The question it answers |
|---|---|
| Home | Is it open, where is it, can I book? |
| Menu | What do we eat, at what price? |
| Booking | How do I get a table, now? |
| Photos / atmosphere | Does it make me want to come? |
| Practical info | Parking, terrace, groups: possible? |
| Contact | How do I reach you, fast? |
And technically?
A restaurant's visibility is local first: a complete, living Google profile, identical contact details everywhere, and a site that is fast on mobile. The web-page menu contributes directly: it is what engines and assistants read to answer "where to eat what". And every opening hour, dish and price must be editable by your team, without a provider.
We have a full page on what we do for the sector: websites for restaurants and horeca. To situate the budget, see our article on prices, and the principles of a site that produces bookings are in our 5 conversion principles. Tell us about your establishment: we will have visited your site before replying.