A restaurant website has one primary job: get people through the door or ordering online. Diners visit your website to check the menu, make a reservation, find your location, or order delivery. If any of those tasks takes more than a few seconds, they leave and choose a competitor.
Essential Design Elements
Menu Presentation
The menu page is the most visited page on any restaurant website:
- HTML text, not a PDF — PDFs are slow to load, hard to read on mobile, and invisible to search engines
- Organized by section — appetizers, mains, desserts, drinks, with clear headings
- Prices included — always display prices. Hidden prices cause distrust.
- Dietary labels — vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free icons or labels
- Descriptions — brief, appetizing descriptions of each dish
- Seasonal notes — indicate items that rotate or are available limited-time
- Photography — professional food photos for signature dishes (not every item)
Reservation System
- Inline booking widget — OpenTable, Resy, Tock, or Yelp Reservations embedded directly on the site
- Prominent placement — "Reserve a Table" button in the header on every page
- Party size, date, time — simple three-step selection
- Confirmation — immediate confirmation with cancellation policy
- Private dining — separate inquiry form for large parties and events
Online Ordering
- Direct ordering preferred — your own online ordering system (Toast, Square, ChowNow) keeps more revenue than third-party apps
- Integration with kitchen — orders flow directly to the kitchen display system
- Menu customization — modifications, special instructions, allergen notes
- Delivery and pickup options — clear distinction and estimated times
- Minimum orders and delivery zones — clearly communicated before checkout
Location and Hours
- Address with embedded map — Google Maps integration
- Hours — including holiday hours, happy hour times, brunch hours
- Parking — valet, lot, street parking, nearby garages
- Transit — nearest subway/bus stops
- Dress code — if applicable
Design Best Practices
Visual Design
- Food photography is everything — invest in professional food photography. Bad food photos actively hurt conversions.
- Dark/moody themes for fine dining — dark backgrounds let the food photography shine
- Bright/clean themes for casual dining — lighter designs convey approachability
- Minimal text — let the images tell the story
- Full-width images — hero-sized food and interior photography
- Handwritten or script fonts — used sparingly for section headers or the restaurant name
Mobile Optimization
Over 80% of restaurant website visits come from mobile:
- Three-second rule — if menu, phone, and reservation are not accessible within 3 seconds on mobile, you lose the customer
- Click-to-call — tap-to-call phone number
- Directions link — one-tap navigation
- Simplified menu — accordion or tabbed menu sections for mobile
- Bottom navigation — call, reserve, order, directions as fixed bottom actions
Performance
- Image optimization — compress food photos without quality loss (WebP format)
- Lazy loading — load images as the visitor scrolls
- No autoplay video with sound — ambient video backgrounds are fine, but no sound
- Minimal dependencies — avoid heavy JavaScript frameworks for a simple restaurant site
Pages to Include
- Homepage — hero image, concept statement, featured dishes, reservation CTA
- Menu — full menu in HTML text with professional photos
- About — chef bio, restaurant story, philosophy, sourcing
- Private events — capacity, menu options, inquiry form
- Gallery — food, interior, events, team
- Gift cards — online gift card purchase
- Contact — phone, address, hours, map, social links
Common Design Mistakes
- Menu as a PDF download (the single most common and damaging mistake)
- No mobile optimization (diners searching "restaurants near me" are on their phones)
- Autoplay music or video with sound (immediately drives visitors away)
- Stock food photos (customers can tell — and they feel deceived)
- Hiding the reservation button (it should be visible on every page)
- No online ordering (leaving revenue to third-party delivery apps that take 15-30% commission)
What It Costs
- Template-based: $1,500-$4,000
- Custom design: $5,000-$20,000
- Multi-location with ordering: $15,000-$40,000
Conclusion
A great restaurant website loads fast, shows your menu in readable HTML text, looks stunning on mobile, and gets customers to a reservation or online order within seconds. Invest in professional food photography, ditch the PDF menu, and make your reservation button impossible to miss.
Need a website for your restaurant? Contact RCB Software for a free consultation, or learn more about our web design services.