# What does a restaurant website actually need?

*Updated October 8, 2026 — Lukáš Březina, WebSmoothly*

Five things a hungry person checks on their phone: **the menu as real text, today's hours, where you are, a phone number they can tap, and a way to book or order.** Everything else is nice to have. And if you already sell through Toast or Square, you may have most of this already — this page says when that's enough.

## The five things, in the order people look

- **The menu, with prices.** Typed out, not a photo of the printed one. More on why below.
- **Hours, including the exceptions.** "Closed Mondays", "kitchen closes at 9", "closed Thanksgiving Day". Wrong holiday hours cost you more goodwill than having no website.
- **Where you are.** The address, a map, and the one sentence locals know: "entrance on 5th Street", "parking behind the building".
- **A phone number you can tap.** Plenty of people still call to ask if you have a table for six.
- **One clear button to book or order.** To whatever you already use — OpenTable, Resy, Toast, Square, DoorDash. Not five logos fighting for attention.

After that come the things that make someone choose you over the place next door: a few honest photos of the food and the room, two sentences about who you are, and a way to ask about catering or a private party.

Build your website: https://www.websmoothly.com/get-started — paste your Instagram or Google Maps link. Free to look at, $59 a year if you keep it.

## Why shouldn't my menu be a PDF or a photo?

Because most people read it on a phone, standing on a sidewalk. A PDF opens as a tiny page they have to pinch and zoom, sometimes as a download. A photo of the printed menu is worse: it's blurry, it's out of date the day you change a price, and the words in it are just pixels.

Text on the page is different. It fits the screen. Google can match it when someone searches "birria tacos near me". And when someone asks ChatGPT or Google's assistant "is there a place downtown with vegan breakfast?", the assistant can only answer from what it can read — a menu written out as text is the easiest thing for it to quote correctly. Google can technically read a text-based PDF too, but a photographed menu is close to invisible.

So when we build your site, the menu goes on the page as real text: sections, dishes, prices, and the little notes like "GF" or "ask about today's soup". Send us the PDF or a photo and we'll type it out from that.

## Should people order through my website or through DoorDash?

Both, for different people — but it's worth knowing what each costs you. As of October 2026, DoorDash's own merchant page lists Marketplace delivery commissions of **15% (Basic), 25% (Plus) or 30% (Premier)** of the order, and 6% on pickup orders. On a $50 order that's $7.50 to $15.00.

Ordering that runs through your own link is usually far cheaper. **Toast** and **Square** both market their online ordering as commission-free — you pay card processing and, with Toast, a monthly fee for the ordering product. DoorDash also offers **Storefront**, a commission-free ordering page of your own, where you pay only card processing.

The practical setup most small places land on: keep DoorDash or Uber Eats for people who browse the apps, and put your own ordering link behind the big "Order online" button on your website, your Google profile and your Instagram bio. Regulars who know you will use it, and you keep the commission. We don't run the ordering ourselves — we put the button on the site and point it at whichever system you already use.

## Do I need a website if I already use Toast or Square?

Maybe not. Square Online has a free plan that gives you an ordering page for pickup and delivery. Toast sells Toast Websites, which builds a site whose menu stays in sync with your register. If you're mostly takeout and that page already shows your menu, hours and address, **that's enough — keep your $59.** Here's how the options compare:

| | Google profile | Toast / Square site | WebSmoothly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | Square: free plan. Toast: paid add-on | **$59/yr with a .com** |
| Menu | You type it into Google | Synced from your register | Real text, written for you |
| Ordering | "Order" button via partners | Built in, commission-free | Button to the system you use |
| Who builds it | You | You, from their templates | We do, from your description |
| Best at | Being found on Maps | Taking orders | Telling people who you are |

Your own site earns its keep when you're more than a checkout: a sit-down place where the room and the story matter, a café with events, a bakery that takes cake orders by inquiry, a spot that does catering and private parties. An ordering page is built to sell tonight's dinner. It's not built to make someone pick you for their rehearsal dinner.

Whatever you choose, set up your free **Google Business Profile** first. It's what shows up on Maps, and Google lets you add your menu, an "Order" button through supported ordering partners, and table booking through Reserve with Google partners. A website doesn't replace it; the profile links to the website for everything the profile can't hold.

## How do reservations work on a small restaurant's site?

If you already use **OpenTable, Resy or a Reserve with Google partner**, we add a "Book a table" button that opens your booking page. One thing worth knowing about OpenTable: it charges a monthly subscription plus a per-guest fee on bookings that come through its own network — third-party price guides put that at $1.00–$1.50 per guest depending on the plan, while bookings that start on your own website cost less or nothing. Sending people from your site to your booking link is cheaper than letting them find you inside the app.

If you take bookings by phone, keep it that way: a big tap-to-call button does the job. In between, a simple request form works well for larger tables — date, time, number of people, a note — and it lands in your inbox. You confirm by reply. For bigger events, we can also set up a [free online booking calendar](https://www.websmoothly.com/guides/online-booking-on-your-website).

## What about daily specials and food-truck schedules?

This is where we have to be straight with you. Your plan includes **30 edits a year**. One edit is one change, described in plain words — in the WebSmoothly chat or from [ChatGPT or Claude](https://www.websmoothly.com/chatgpt-and-claude) — which you check in a preview and then publish. That's plenty for a new menu each season, holiday hours, a price update and new photos. It is not enough for a lunch special that changes every day or a truck that parks somewhere new every week; 30 more edits cost $9.99, but you'd burn through them.

What works instead: put the stable things on the website — the menu, the regular weekly rotation ("Tuesdays at the brewery on Elm, Fridays at the farmers market"), how to book the truck for an event — and post today's special or this week's surprise stop on Instagram, with a clear "Where we are today" link to it from the site. Changing your website every morning isn't what it's for.

## Example: what a one-page site for a small café could look like

*An illustrative outline, not a real customer. Yours would follow your own business.*

1. **Top:** "Corner Cup — coffee and morning pastries on Main Street since 2019." Open now until 3 pm. Buttons: Order ahead · Call.
2. **Menu:** coffee, tea, pastries, breakfast sandwiches — as text, with prices and "oat milk +$0.75".
3. **Hours:** the weekly table, plus "Closed Dec 25 and Jan 1".
4. **Photos:** six — the counter, the window seat, three plates, the owner.
5. **Catering:** "Coffee for your office meeting" with a short inquiry form.
6. **Find us:** map, address, "free parking behind the bank after 5", Instagram link.

## Where we're weaker

Our menu doesn't sync with your register. If you're on Toast or Square and change prices often, their own site updates itself and ours needs an edit — for a menu that changes weekly, theirs is the better tool. We also don't take orders or payments for food ourselves; we link to the system that does. And we build one strong page, not a multi-location restaurant group site with a page per location.

## Questions restaurant owners ask

**How much does a restaurant website cost?**
With us, $59 a year: the .com in your name, hosting, and 30 edits. The draft is free, and you only pay when you go live. For what the other routes cost, see [how much a website costs](https://www.websmoothly.com/how-much-does-a-website-cost).

**How long does it take?**
A first working version is ready in about ten minutes from your description and links. Getting it really right — the menu checked, good photos, the domain — usually takes about two hours of back-and-forth, spread over however many days suit you.

**Can customers order food directly on the site?**
They tap "Order online" and land on your Toast, Square, DoorDash Storefront or other ordering page. Where the ordering system offers a button or widget, we can put it on the page when you ask.

**I only have a Facebook page. Is that enough?**
It's a start, but your hours and menu get buried under posts, and not everyone has or wants Facebook. See [do I need a website?](https://www.websmoothly.com/do-i-need-a-website) for the honest version.

## How we checked

Checked October 8, 2026. DoorDash's commissions are from its Marketplace page for US merchants; Storefront's commission-free terms from DoorDash's merchant announcement. Square Online's free ordering page and Toast's commission-free ordering and Toast Websites come from their own product pages and independent reviews. OpenTable doesn't publish one clear price list and independent sources disagree on the monthly fees, so we've only quoted the per-guest range they agree on. Google Business Profile features are from Google's own help pages. Prices change — check at checkout, and if you spot something out of date, write to hello@websmoothly.com and we'll fix the page.

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Tell us about your place — paste your Google Maps or Instagram link, or send a photo of the menu. You'll see a working draft in about ten minutes, and looking costs nothing.

Build your website: https://www.websmoothly.com/get-started

Related: [How much does a small business website cost in 2026?](https://www.websmoothly.com/how-much-does-a-website-cost) · [Online booking on your website](https://www.websmoothly.com/guides/online-booking-on-your-website) · [Website for salons](https://www.websmoothly.com/website-for-salons)