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Do restaurants need a website? One page is enough.

77% of diners look at a restaurant online before they go and 68% have been put off by what they found. What they check, and what one page needs.

4 min read

People walking past lit restaurant windows on a city street at dusk
Photo by Dennis Zhang on Unsplash

Yes. But not the website you are picturing.

A restaurant needs one page online with four things on it: the menu, whether it is open, where it is, and how to reach it. That is what the customer is checking. Everything else on a restaurant website is for the owner.

What people check before they come

In 2019, a marketing agency asked 1,101 US adults about restaurant websites. 77% said they look at a restaurant's website before they eat there or order from it.

More than two thirds said a website had put them off a restaurant at least once.

68%

of diners have been put off a restaurant by its website. (MGH survey of 1,101 US adults, 2019)

What put them off? For eating in, the top reason was dishes they did not want, named by 65%. After that came a site that was hard to use, a menu that was hard to read, and a site that looked old, each named by about a third.

So people are not reading about your story or your awards. They are reading the menu, on a phone, and deciding. 56% said a site that works on a phone is very important when they order takeout or delivery.

A 2021 study of 420 people found the same thing: a menu that looks good makes people want the food, and wanting the food makes them order.

That is the whole job of the page. If it does that, it is enough.

Is Google or Instagram enough?

Almost, and that is the problem.

A Google Business Profile is free, and you should have one. It puts your hours, address, phone number and reviews on the map, which is where a lot of people find you. In Toast's 2026 survey of diners, new places were found through friends first, then map apps, search and social media.

The weak part is the menu. You can add dishes and prices to the profile, but it is a plain list that looks like every other listing, and most owners leave it as a few photos or a link. The link has to go somewhere.

Instagram is the same. It is good for being found and for showing the food. It holds one link, its hours do not update, and a menu in a grid of photos is not a menu.

So the question is not "Google or a website". It is where the link goes when someone taps it. If it goes to a PDF that opens tiny on a phone, you are in the 68%.

What the one page needs

Four things, in this order:

  1. The menu, with prices. Short, clear names, written to be read on a phone. A photo next to the dishes you most want to sell.
  2. Open or closed, right now. Not just the weekly hours. Whether the door is open at the moment they are looking.
  3. Where you are. The address and a map that opens directions in one tap.
  4. How to reach you. A phone number that dials when tapped, or a WhatsApp button.

That is the page. Not an About section, not a gallery, not a newsletter box.

A full website makes sense when you take orders online yourself, take reservations online, run catering with a form, or have several locations. If you do none of those, a full website is a bill and a chore, and the customer never sees the difference.

This week, do two things. Check that your Google profile has the right hours and phone number. Then make sure every link you have, on Google, on Instagram, on the door, goes to one page with the four things on it.

Common questions

Can a restaurant use a Google Business Profile instead of a website?
Use both. The Google profile is free and puts your hours, address, phone and reviews on the map, so set it up first. Its menu is a plain list. Your own page shows the menu with photos and prices the way you want it, and the profile can link to it.
Do small restaurants need a website?
They need one page, not a big website. The page shows the menu with prices, whether you are open right now, where you are and how to reach you. A full website with online ordering, reservations or catering forms only makes sense when you actually take those online.

Sources

  1. Survey: Nearly 70% of U.S. diners say a restaurant's website has discouraged them from visiting, MGH, survey of 1,101 US adults, PR Newswire (2019)
  2. The effect of online restaurant menus on consumers' purchase intentions during the COVID-19 pandemic, Prawannarat Brewer and Angela G. Sebby, International Journal of Hospitality Management (2021)
  3. How guests discover new restaurants, Toast, diner survey (2026)
  4. Google Business Profile, Google (2026)

· Software engineer with a finance background. Founder of 1food.menu.

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