A website for a restaurant, cafe or food business

People look up a restaurant, cafe or bakery on their phone, usually while deciding where to go or what to order. They want four things quickly: what you serve, what it costs, when you are open and how to get there or order. A food business website succeeds if those four are obvious in a few seconds. This guide applies to restaurants, cafes, bakeries, caterers and food brands, though what each needs differs a little.

I have not built a restaurant site for a client, and I do not claim to have. This guide is general advice on what such a site needs; the Work page shows what I have built.

What visitors look for

1. The menu, as real text on the page. A photograph or a PDF of a menu is hard to read on a phone and cannot be searched. If you must offer a PDF, put the text on the page too.
2. Prices, or a clear statement of how pricing works for catering.
3. Hours, including holidays, written so they can be read at a glance.
4. Location and how to arrive: a map link, landmarks, parking.
5. How to order or reserve: a phone number and a WhatsApp link, and the delivery partners you use, if any.
6. Photographs of the food and the place that are yours, not stock images.

Pages that earn their place

• Home: what you are, where, hours, one strong photograph, call and WhatsApp.
• Menu: organised by section, with veg or non-veg marks where you use them.
• About or story: short, true and specific.
• Gallery: a limited set of good photographs.
• Contact and location: map, hours, phone, WhatsApp.
• For caterers: event types, sample menus, how a quotation works, areas you serve.
• For food brands: product pages, where to buy, ingredients and allergen information you can stand behind.

What pages a business website needs explains the principle.

Ordering and booking

• By message: the lightest route. A WhatsApp link with a pre-filled message such as “I would like to order for …” works for many small businesses. See WhatsApp on a website.
• Through a delivery partner: link to your page on that service.
• Table booking: start with call or WhatsApp. A booking tool or custom system is separate work; see appointment booking on a website.
• Your own online ordering with payment: a shop-like system that needs a backend. It is not part of my packages unless agreed in writing; see online payments on a business website.

What to leave out

• A menu only as an image that nobody can read on a phone.
• Autoplay music or video that covers the menu.
• Out-of-date prices. A wrong price is worse than none.
• Claims you cannot support, such as “best in the city” or health claims about food.
• Heavy photographs that make the page crawl on mobile data; images that load fast explains the fix.

Food-business details

If you are a food business operator in India, rules from the food safety regulator apply to how you present your licence and to what you may claim. Check the current requirements for your kind of business with the regulator or your adviser, and put the details they require where they require them. A developer cannot decide this for you.

How big a site is it

A single restaurant or cafe is usually understood in a handful of pages. A caterer or food brand with many products or event types may need more. Essential, at ₹19,999, covers 20 to 30 pages and is frontend only; it is usually enough for one restaurant, and more than enough if you keep pages honest. Website cost by type of business shows what moves the price. The pricing page lists what each package includes.

If you tell me what you serve and how customers reach you now, I will say which package fits, or whether a smaller route would serve you better. Message or call Harman.

Read next

• What pages a business website needsA page earns its place by answering a question a visitor really has. Here is the core set, the pages that depend on your business, and a test for pages you can leave out.
• How to get more enquiries from your websiteMore enquiries rarely come from one trick. They come from a clear first screen, easy contact, honest proof, fast pages and knowing which pages work. Here is the checklist.
• Appointment booking on a business websiteOnline booking can be a button, an embedded tool or a custom system. They differ hugely in cost and upkeep. Here is how to pick the lightest one that does the job.
• WhatsApp on a website: button, form or chatA WhatsApp link takes minutes; a chat widget is a project. Here are the options, what each tracks, the privacy points and the mistakes that cost enquiries.
• Images that load fast on a business sitePhotographs are usually the heaviest thing on a business page. Sizing them for the screen, reserving their space and describing them well makes a site faster and easier to use.
• What decides website cost for different businessesBusinesses are priced by scope, not by sector. This guide shows what each kind of business usually needs on its website, and which of those items push the cost up.

Where this leads

• Packages and pricesThree one-time packages from ₹19,999 to ₹34,999 plus applicable taxes: what each includes, and which costs stay separate.
• Talk to HarmanCall or message on WhatsApp, or build a short brief that opens a WhatsApp message.