£495 fixed, or $625 in the US, gets a restaurant, cafe or takeaway a custom website of one to five pages, typically live in about seven days. That covers the pages hungry people actually open: the menu, opening hours, how to find you and a big button to book or order. If your menu changes every week and you want to edit it yourself, or you want customers paying on your own site, that belongs in our Business package at £1,495 ($1,895), which adds a CMS you can edit and Stripe payments.
What is the best website for a restaurant?
The best restaurant site is one a customer can use one-handed on a pavement. Most visits exist to settle three things: are you open, what does it cost, and can I get a table or a delivery tonight. So we put the menu in as real text with prices, never a scanned PDF that needs pinching and zooming. Hours sit near the top and match your Google Business Profile word for word. The phone number dials when tapped. Photographs show your actual plates and your actual room, because a stock picture of a latte says nothing about your cafe.
Should I use a website builder for my restaurant or takeaway?
A builder works if you have spare evenings and enjoy tinkering, and plenty of small cafes get by on one. The usual weak spots are slow loading on a phone, menus built as images that search engines and AI assistants cannot read, and a monthly subscription that never ends. Our Starter build is a fixed price agreed in writing before work begins, and the menu is coded as text so Google, Bing and the AI tools that lean on them can read every dish and price.
Do I have to show my food hygiene rating on my website?
No, not in England, though the rules change at the border. The Food Standards Agency’s Food Hygiene Rating Scheme guidance (checked October 2026) says businesses in England do not have to display their rating at the premises but are encouraged to. In Wales and Northern Ireland, display at the premises is a legal requirement, and Welsh takeaways must also print a bilingual statement on menu leaflets and flyers telling customers how to look the rating up. The guidance is silent on websites, so online it is your call. If you hold a 5, we put it on the home page: it costs nothing and answers a question diners genuinely ask.
What allergen information does a restaurant or takeaway website need?
14 allergens are regulated, and for food sold loose you must be able to tell customers which of them each dish contains. The FSA’s allergen guidance for food businesses (checked October 2026) names them: celery, cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, lupin, milk, molluscs, mustard, peanuts, sesame, soybeans, sulphur dioxide and sulphites above ten parts per million, and tree nuts. In a dining room you may give the information verbally, as long as a written notice in a visible spot tells customers how to ask. Remote orders carry an extra duty: for distance selling, the guidance says allergen information must be provided before the purchase is completed and again when the food is delivered. If your website takes orders, the tidiest way to meet the first stage is an allergen line beside every dish, seen before anyone pays.
Can customers book a table or order food from my restaurant website?
Yes, and the route depends on what you already use. If you have a reservations system or a delivery app, the Starter site sends people straight to it with a Book or Order button on every page. If you want customers paying you directly, so the order never passes through an app, simple pay-online ordering through Stripe fits the Business package. A full ordering system tied into your till or kitchen screens is a Premium build, quoted from £3,995 ($4,995).
On delivery commission, we have no reliable number to give you. Deliveroo’s merchant FAQ (checked October 2026) points restaurants to their account manager to discuss pricing rather than publishing a rate, and app commission varies from deal to deal. What is certain is that a customer who orders through your own site is a customer whose bill you are not sharing.
What should a cafe website home page show?
- Today’s hours, including bank holiday changes, above the fold.
- The menu, one tap away, with prices.
- The things people filter by. Searches like “dog friendly”, “gluten free”, “vegan” and “halal” sit in the questions we track, so if any of those apply, say so in plain words on the first screen.
- Where you are, with a map and a note on parking or the nearest bus stop.
- One honest photo of the room, because people choose a cafe partly on whether they can picture themselves sitting in it.
How do I create a website for a small restaurant?
With us, it takes four steps. Send your menu, a handful of photos, your hours and any booking or ordering links. We design the site around your food and your room, not a template. You review it and ask for changes. It goes live, typically about seven days after we have your content on the Starter package, or two to three weeks for a Business site with a CMS. Unsure which you need? Ask for a free website review of your current site, or send us a message about the place you run.