Your menu is real text, not a PDF
A PDF menu forces pinch-and-zoom on a phone, is invisible to Google, and unreadable to screen readers. Your dishes should be searchable text — that's how "birria near me" finds you instead of the place down the street.
It loads in about a second on a phone
Most of your traffic is a hungry person on cell data. Every extra second of load time bleeds visitors before they ever see the menu — heavy template sites routinely take five-plus.
It takes direct orders — not just app links
Delivery apps take 15–30% of every order and keep the customer's contact info. Direct ordering on your own site costs roughly 3% in card fees, and the regular stays yours. On a $40 ticket that's the difference between netting about $28 and about $38.80.
Hours are correct — including holidays — and match Google
Nothing burns a first-timer like driving over to a closed door. Your site and your Google Business Profile should agree, and someone on your team should be able to change them in seconds.
Call and directions are one tap on mobile
On a phone, the two most common jobs are "call them" and "get me there." Both should be single thumb-taps pinned within reach — not buried in a footer.
The photos sell the food
People order with their eyes. Dark, blurry, or five-year-old photos read as a warning. Great food photography — even a tight set of eight — outsells a hundred mediocre shots.
It passes basic accessibility
Web-accessibility lawsuits hit restaurants constantly — serial plaintiffs target them because template sites fail the basics: no alt text, no keyboard navigation, unreadable contrast. Accessibility is both legal protection and more customers ordering.
You can update it yourself, tonight, from your phone
Sold out of the special at 7pm? Price change? Closing early for a private event? If the answer involves "email the web guy," your website is a liability. You should be able to 86 an item, edit a price, or flip to closed in under a minute.
It captures emails and texts
The apps keep the customer relationship; your website should win it back. A simple signup — first dibs on specials, a treat on the first order — builds the list that fills slow Tuesdays for free, forever.
Google understands it (schema + Business Profile)
Behind the scenes, your site should tell Google exactly what you are: cuisine, hours, price range, location — in structured data (schema). Paired with a claimed, linked Google Business Profile, it's how you show up in map packs and "open now" searches.
Your reviews are working for you
You earned that 4.7 — your website should flaunt it. Fresh review highlights on the site (and an easy path for happy guests to leave new ones) compound into the single biggest driver of new customers.
Reservations or waitlist actually work
If you take reservations, the request should be handled on your site in under thirty seconds — not a phone number that goes to voicemail mid-rush. If you're counter-service, the job is the same: get them to the food with zero friction.
full disclosure: we're White Apron Digital — we hand-code restaurant websites that pass all twelve. the demo restaurants on our site are fictional showcases; the checklist math (app commissions, card fees) reflects standard published rates.