Websites for restaurants, cafes and bars that do the only job that matters: turning hungry browsers into bookings and orders. Designed mobile-first by Gary Simmons, hospitality specialist and the eye behind Brighton Food Boy.
A restaurant website has about eight seconds to answer three questions: what's the food like, can I get a table, and where are you. Everything I design starts from those questions and removes whatever gets in their way. Pretty is required; pretty and conversion-focused is the job.
OpenTable, ResDiary, SevenRooms or simple forms: wired in properly so a booking never depends on a phone being answered.
Click-and-collect, delivery platform links and gift vouchers, connected where they earn money rather than bolted on.
Local SEO groundwork: schema for menus and opening hours, Google Business alignment and pages that rank for "near me" searches.
Nobody reads a restaurant website like a brochure. They're on a phone, often mid-conversation, deciding between you and two other tabs. Ten years of reviewing restaurants as Brighton Food Boy taught me exactly how that decision gets made, and these are the details that win it.
The main call to action stays reachable on every page, because the moment of decision doesn't wait for the homepage.
Real pages, not PDF downloads: quick to load, readable on a phone without zooming, indexable by Google, and updatable in minutes.
Your Google rating and best press where doubters will see them, not hidden on a testimonials page nobody visits.
Directions, parking, dog policy, dietary notes: the questions people actually have, answered before they have to call.
Food-first imagery, ideally from a proper food photography shoot, placed where appetite does the persuading.
Optimised images and lean code, because a site that takes six seconds on the walk to the seafront loses the table.
For hospitality websites the platform question has a refreshingly clear answer, and it depends on whether you sell products beyond the pass.
As well as a brand refresh and photoshoot over the last couple of years, Baby Bao came back to me to design and build a website for them after opening their first standalone restaurant in Kemptown.
The website works hardest when the whole package matches. Pair it with food photography shot for your pages and menu design that carries the same brand identity from table to screen. All three live under my hospitality design services.
The honest answer: less than a quiet week of empty covers. I quote fixed prices from a short brief, and most venue websites sit at the accessible end of my web design pricing because the scope is well defined. Get in touch and you’ll have a number within a day.
Please. PDF menus are slow, unreadable on phones and invisible to Google. I rebuild menus as fast, structured pages you can update in minutes, and the difference shows up in both bookings and search traffic.
Yes. OpenTable, ResDiary, SevenRooms and most of the common systems integrate cleanly. If you don’t have one yet I’ll recommend the right fit for your size and budget rather than the one with the biggest referral fee.
Yes, and it’s the single best upgrade most venue websites can buy. See the food photography service for how shoots work.
Yes. Multi-venue structures with per-location pages, menus and booking links are a solved problem, and done right each venue ranks in its own local searches.
Still have a question? Book a quick 30-minute call
Tell me about your venue and what the website needs to do better, and I’ll come back within a working day with a straight answer, a price and a timeline. If you’re local, I’ll probably already know your food.
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