Restaurant websites: menus, reservations & ordering

A restaurant website has one job above all others: make it easy for someone who is hungry right now to choose you, find out what you serve, and take action — reserve a table, place an order, or get directions.

This guide covers what a restaurant website needs, the compliance rules around food and allergen information, and the integrations that make it all work smoothly.

What restaurant websites need to do

People visit a restaurant website in a moment of intent. They are already thinking about food. Your site should:

• Show your menu (and keep it current — outdated menus are a trust killer)
• Make it easy to book a table or place an order
• Communicate your vibe, location, and hours instantly
• Show real photos of your actual food

Everything else — the story, the chef's bio, the press mentions — is valuable, but secondary to those four things.

Typical website goals

Compliance & legal considerations

Menu labeling and allergen disclosure

If your restaurant has 20 or more locations under the same brand name, the FDA requires calorie labeling on your menus, including your website. Smaller independent restaurants are not subject to the federal rule — but several states and cities have their own requirements.

Even if you are not legally required to disclose allergens, we strongly recommend including them. The eight major allergens (milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans) are worth noting for dishes that contain them. This protects your customers and reduces your liability.

Online ordering and third-party delivery

If you use a third-party delivery platform (DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub), those platforms have their own terms of service and commission structures. A direct ordering system on your own website — where you own the customer relationship and avoid third-party commissions — is often worth the upfront investment.

We are honest about the tradeoff: third-party platforms bring discovery traffic. Direct ordering saves money per order but requires you to drive the traffic yourself.

Payment and tip handling

Any online payment you collect is subject to PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) compliance — this means using a certified payment processor, not storing card numbers yourself, and using HTTPS on every page. See PCI compliance basics for more detail.

Accessibility

Menus posted as image files or PDFs are not accessible to screen reader users, who may include customers with visual impairments. The ADA has been interpreted to require that restaurant websites be accessible to people with disabilities. We build menus as styled web pages, not image uploads, so they are readable by all users and searchable by Google.

Alcohol sales and delivery

If you sell alcohol online for delivery or pickup, you must comply with your state's alcohol licensing laws and verify customer age at the point of delivery. Website-level age gates are not sufficient on their own — your fulfillment process needs to verify ID. We can build the age verification prompts; you are responsible for the fulfillment side.

Recommended features

Tech & integrations we use

Common pitfalls

• An outdated menu. Nothing loses a customer faster than arriving for a dish that is no longer served. We can set up a menu that your team updates easily — no developer needed.
• A menu as a PDF or image. PDFs are hard to read on phones, can't be indexed by Google, and are inaccessible to screen readers. We build menus as proper web pages.
• No mobile-friendly reservation flow. Most restaurant searches happen on a phone. If the reservation button opens a broken widget on mobile, you are losing bookings.
• Beautiful photography that is too slow to load. We optimize all images so your site looks stunning and loads fast.
• Not owning your customer data. If all your orders go through DoorDash, you don't know who your customers are. A direct ordering flow — even alongside third-party platforms — lets you build a relationship with your regulars.

Common questions

Related guides

• Accepting payments online
• PCI compliance basics
• Local SEO basics
• Image basics for your website
• Web accessibility basics

Learn more

• FDA: Menu Labeling Requirements — the federal rule on calorie labeling for restaurant chains
• FDA: Food Allergen Labeling — the major food allergens and disclosure guidance