Nobody browses a restaurant site. They check the menu, the hours, whether they can book, and where you are — usually on a phone, often while standing outside.
Ember & Oak is a family owned coffee shop. We serve coffee, tea, muffins and more. Come visit us today!! Click here to see our prices. We are open Mon-Sat.
Designing for the four questions people actually have
Restaurant sites are unusual in how narrow and predictable their use is. That's an advantage: the design brief writes itself, and most sites still get it wrong.
The menu must be text on a page
The most common and most damaging fault is a menu published as a PDF. On a phone that means a download, a pinch-zoom and a lot of horizontal scrolling — and it's invisible to search, so nobody finds you by searching for a dish.
A menu as HTML, with sections and prices as real text, is the single highest-value change on most restaurant sites. It's also the change most owners have been told is difficult and isn't.
Hours, before anything else
"Are they open?" is the most frequent question a restaurant site answers, and it's often answered in the footer in small grey text, or only in an image.
Hours belong near the top, as text, with any exceptions stated plainly. Keep your Google Business Profile in step, since a lot of people will never reach the site at all.
Booking and location, one tap each
If you take reservations through a platform, that button should be visible without scrolling. If you take them by phone, the number should be tappable rather than typed out as text.
Address with a map link, and mention nearby parking or the correct entrance if it's not obvious. These are small details that decide whether someone arrives.
Common questions
Why is a PDF menu a problem?
It's hard to read on a phone and search engines can't index the dishes, so you lose both usability and the searches that would have found you.
Do I need online ordering?
Only if you do takeaway. If you use a third-party platform, link to it clearly rather than rebuilding it.
Should photos of food lead the page?
One or two good ones set expectations. A gallery of thirty pushes the practical information down, which is what people came for.
How much does mobile matter here?
More than for almost any other category. Design for the phone and let the desktop version follow.
Put your menu on the page as text and your hours above the fold — that's most of the win.