We design and build custom websites for US restaurants, cafés and bars. A typical site has a home page, an HTML menu, a page for booking or ordering, an about page with your story, a visit page with hours and directions, and a contact page. We plan for six to nine weeks from the first call to launch.
What a restaurant website has to do
A guest who lands on your site has a small number of questions, and the order matters. They want to know what you serve, whether it fits their budget, whether you are open when they want to come, and how to get a table or an order. Everything else on the site, from the photography to the story of the chef, supports those answers.
That is the brief we design to. The home page puts the menu, the hours and the booking button within the first screen on a phone. The menu is real text, not a photo of a printed page. The visit page answers the practical questions before someone has to call: parking, accessibility of the entrance, whether you take walk-ins, and how large groups should book.
What is included
| Part of the site | What you get |
|---|---|
| Home page | A first screen with your name, a line about the food, and clear buttons for the menu and for booking or ordering |
| Menu pages | HTML menus by service (lunch, dinner, drinks, brunch) that you can edit yourself |
| Booking or ordering | Your reservation or ordering tool placed on the home page, the menu and the visit page |
| About page | Your story, your team and your approach to food, written with you |
| Visit page | Hours, address, map link, parking, entrance access, private dining or group notes |
| Contact page | A short form and your email, with clear notes on what to send |
| Search basics | Page titles, descriptions, structured data and location details that match your Google profile |
| Accessibility | Design and code checked against WCAG 2.2 level AA [1] |
Optional extras include private dining and events pages, gift card links, careers pages, catering menus and a news or specials section.
How the design comes together
We start from your brand rather than a template. If you already have a logo, colors and printed menus, the site extends them. If you do not, we propose a small set of type, color and layout choices that fit the room and the price point. A wine bar with candlelit tables should not look like a counter-service burger shop, and the website can be the first place a guest forms that impression.
Photography carries a lot of weight on restaurant sites, so we plan layouts around the photos you have or the ones you plan to commission. If the photos are not ready, we design with clearly marked placeholders and tell you which shots each page needs. You can see three of our design directions on the concepts page.
Writing the pages
We write the copy with you. That usually means a call about the concept, a look at the menus and any press or reviews you are proud of, and a first draft for you to correct. The aim is pages that sound like your restaurant, use the names of real dishes and avoid generic phrases a guest has read a hundred times.
If you prefer to write everything yourself, we will edit for length and clarity and make sure headings and links work well for search engines and screen readers.
Booking, ordering and the tools you already use
If you already use a reservation platform, an ordering system or both, we connect those tools rather than replacing them, and we place the buttons where guests expect them. If you are choosing a tool for the first time, we can lay out the trade-offs, but we do not resell software or take referral fees. Our reservations and ordering page covers that work in more detail.
Speed and phones
Restaurant pages are image-heavy, which makes them easy to slow down. We size and compress every image for the space it fills, load fonts from your own server and keep scripts to a minimum. Then we measure the result with Core Web Vitals, Google's speed and stability yardstick, and aim for its good range: main content visible within 2.5 seconds, responses to a tap within 200 milliseconds and a layout shift score of 0.1 or less, at the 75th percentile of page loads [2].
Accessibility
Restaurants are businesses open to the public, and the US Department of Justice says the ADA's requirements apply to the goods and services such businesses offer on the web [3]. We build to WCAG 2.2 level AA as our standard: real text menus, descriptive image text, enough color contrast, visible focus and forms that work with a keyboard. Our guide to the ADA and restaurant websites explains the background.
How a project runs
We plan for six to nine weeks for a single-location site. The process page breaks this into stages, but in short: a discovery call and brief, a design for the home page and menu, a full build, your review, and launch. Content that arrives early is the biggest factor in keeping to that plan.
What it costs
We quote each project after a short discovery call, because the number of pages, menus, locations and integrations changes the work a lot. Our pricing page explains what goes into a quote, and our cost guide sets out the price ranges US publishers report for restaurant websites.
Frequently asked questions
Do you build on a website builder or write custom code?
We build hand-coded sites, or sites on a mainstream content system if you need one, depending on how often you plan to edit and who will do it. We explain the choice before the project starts.
Can I update the menu and hours myself?
Yes. Our sites are set up so you can change menus, prices, hours and specials without calling us, and the handover guide shows you how.
Do you take photos?
No. We design layouts for photos and tell you which shots each page needs, and you can hire a photographer you trust.
Will the site work with my reservation platform?
Reservation platforms generally offer a booking link or widget. We place the platform's booking link or widget on the pages where guests look for it and test it on phones.
Sources
Checked on October 29, 2026.
- W3C, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2. Primary source
- web.dev, Web Vitals. Primary source
- U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Guidance on Web Accessibility and the ADA. Published March 18, 2022. Primary source
