The website for your restaurant or pizzeria: what really matters.

Why a restaurant website is a special case

People looking for a restaurant are not “browsing”: they are hungry, often already out on the street, and they decide in under a minute, almost always on their phone. In Palermo it is a daily scene: the tourist standing between two places in the old town comparing menus on Google, or the family searching for “pizzeria open for lunch” on a Sunday morning. At that moment your website does not need to tell the story of the place since 1962: it has to answer four questions in three seconds — what is on the menu, how much it costs, where you are, and whether you are open right now.

Everything else (the “about us” page, the dining-room gallery, the reviews) is useful, but it comes second. If the menu cannot be read on a phone, the visitor has already opened your competitor’s website.

What you cannot do without

1. An always up-to-date menu — not a PDF

It is by far the most common mistake: the menu uploaded as a PDF. On a phone it opens slowly, forces people to zoom and drag, sometimes starts a download, and Google struggles to read it. Worse still: since updating it is a hassle, it sits there with prices from two years ago — and the customer at the table notices.

The solution is a digital menu: a real web page, readable on any screen, organised by category, that the owner updates on their own in two minutes (dish sold out? hide it; new price? change it). The same menu connects to the QR codes on the tables and can be translated automatically. A concrete example: this digital menu demo for an imaginary grill house.

2. Real photos of your dishes

Stock photos are recognisable at first glance — the “perfect” margherita shot in an American studio convinces nobody, and it sets expectations the dining room will then contradict. Ten real photos, taken even with a good smartphone in natural light near a window, beat fifty purchased images. Authentic photos also perform better on Google Maps and on social media: they are the ones that make people say “I want that”.

3. Opening hours, map and phone within thumb’s reach

The phone number must be tappable (one tap and the call starts), the address must open Google Maps with a touch, and the opening hours must be up to date — public holidays included. They sound like trivial details, but they are the three most searched-for pieces of information of all: if people have to dig through the footer to find them, the website is working against you.

4. Multilingual, at least English

If your place is in a tourist area — and in Palermo that means half the city, from Via Maqueda to Mondello — a menu in Italian only is a real obstacle. You do not need the whole site translated into five languages: a well-made English version of the menu and the practical information is enough. Modern digital menus can even be translated automatically, with human review of the dish names (“stigghiole” is not translated, it is explained).

What it costs: average market prices

These are average market prices in Italy for work done by a professional, not my price list. They are meant to give you an order of magnitude for judging the quotes you receive.

These are indicative averages (2026): every project is a story of its own. A 120-dish menu in three languages does not cost the same as a 30-dish one, and a booking system with deposits and cover management is a different trade from a simple request form.

The most common (and most expensive) mistakes

• The PDF menu. We have covered it: unreadable on mobile and almost always out of date. Fixing it is the single improvement with the best cost/benefit ratio.
• Stock photos. Dishes that do not exist in your restaurant: they promise one thing and serve another. Better no photo than a fake one.
• The website stuck in 2019. Old opening hours, dishes long gone, the greetings banner from a Christmas past. An abandoned website communicates neglect — and at the table, neglect scares people away.
• A phone number you cannot tap. Forcing someone to copy a number by hand in 2026 means losing bookings.
• Ignoring your Google listing. Website and Google Business Profile work together: if opening hours and photos do not match, users trust both of them less.

An example you can try for yourself

To see how these principles turn into real pages, I have prepared a complete demo for an imaginary grill house: there is the showcase site with opening hours, map and phone number front and centre, and the digital menu ready to be linked to the QR codes on the tables. They are demos, but the level of care is what I believe a restaurant should demand. You will find more examples from other industries among my projects.

Frequently asked questions

Is a Facebook or Instagram page enough?

They are great channels, but they do not replace a website: posts scroll away, the menu gets lost among the photos, and people without the app see a crippled page. Above all, social profiles do not show up well when someone searches Google for “pizzeria + neighbourhood”. The right combination: the website as your stable base, social media for the day-to-day relationship.

Does Google Maps not matter more?

Your Google listing (Business Profile) is essential, often the very first point of contact — take care of it even before the website. But on its own it is not enough: you cannot structure a real menu on it, you do not manage bookings the way you want, and Google makes the rules. Listing and website reinforce each other: the listing brings the visitor in, the website wins them over. And a well-kept website with consistent data also helps the listing rank in local searches.

How long does it take?

For a showcase site with a digital menu, on average 2–4 weeks from the moment the materials are ready. The real variable is not the technology: it is the content. Photos of the dishes, menu texts, final opening hours — if they arrive right away, the schedule holds; if they arrive in instalments, it stretches. Practical advice: before contacting anyone, get an up-to-date menu and about twenty decent photos ready.

Does the digital menu work with just the QR code, without a website?

Yes: the digital menu is a standalone page, and you can link it to the QR codes on the tables even if the full website comes later. It is a good first step when the budget is tight — and when the website does get built, the menu is already there, ready to plug in.