Restaurants
Start with the calls you miss during service.
Start with Front Desk, an AI receptionist that answers the calls nobody can get to during service, books tables where your reservation system allows and passes catering inquiries to a person. It comes first because a call that rings out at 7pm is usually someone ready to book or order right then.
30 minutes, no cost. You’ll leave knowing your first step.
Sound familiar?
- “Saturday at seven, the phone at the host stand rings nonstop while my host is walking a six-top to their table.”
- “A two-star review about a 40-minute wait has been sitting there for three weeks without an answer.”
- “Our POS says we had 2,000 first-time guests last quarter, and not one of them has heard from us since.”
In a restaurant, the leaks happen while everyone is busy with the guests in front of them. The phone rings in the middle of the rush and nobody can get to it. Reviews pile up unanswered, and the next guest reads them before booking. First-time guests leave, and most never hear from you again, even though their details are in your POS. A catering inquiry worth more than a night of takeout waits in the events inbox until Monday. Your POS and reservation system may already include AI features, so part of every step is setting up and checking what you already pay for before adding anything. I put the phone first because it’s the quickest step to set up. Then come the reviews that decide whether new guests walk in, a reason for them to come back, and fast replies to the catering inquiries the phone now passes along.
If you’re a counter-service café or bar that rarely gets phone calls, start with Review Desk at /solutions/review-desk and Regulars Return at /solutions/regulars-return instead.
If that’s your week, here’s where to start.
Start here
Step 1 · Consideration
Answer the phone during service
Solution Front Desk
Start here, not with marketing or reviews, because missed calls are the one leak you can count exactly, and each one was a guest who wanted a table or an order that night. Nothing gets built from scratch: I help you choose a phone product made for restaurants, or the voice option your POS or reservation platform already offers if it fits, and most of the work is writing down what it’s allowed to say. That covers your hours, parking, corkage, large-party policy and the menu. On allergens it never guesses: it reads from your approved allergen sheet or passes the call to a person. It starts on overflow and after-hours calls, and you read the transcripts every week for the first month.
See how Front Desk worksWhat it looks like
It’s 7:20 on a Friday and the host is seating a party of six when the phone rings. The assistant answers, says it’s an AI assistant and that the call is recorded, and books a table for four at 8:45 in your reservation system. The next caller asks whether the pesto has pine nuts. It reads the answer from your allergen sheet, and when she says her son has a severe nut allergy, it passes the call to the manager on duty. A caller planning a rehearsal dinner for 40 is passed to the manager as a text with the date and headcount, and you get a summary of every call.
$23k
a year in orders and bookings that rang out during service
Illustration: 150 calls a week, 1 in 5 of them unanswered during service, and a third of those a takeout order or booking worth $45 on average. That’s 10 lost sales a week, or about $23k over 52 weeks, before counting a single catering call. Your phone provider’s call log and your average check will give you your own number.
Every figure here is an illustration. On the call, I run it with your hours, your rates and your deal sizes.
Then add these, in this order
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Advocacy
Answer every review within a day
Solution Review Desk
Second, because once the phone is answered, reviews decide whether the next guest books with you at all, and they read your replies as closely as the stars. Review Desk drafts a reply to every new Google, Yelp, OpenTable or Tripadvisor review in your voice, written from 10 replies you’re proud of. You approve every draft for the first two weeks. After that, 4- and 5-star replies can post on their own where the platform allows, and anything 3 stars or below always waits for you. It’s about a week to set up, and the weekly digest gives the kitchen and the floor the themes guests keep raising. It answers reviews and never writes them, and its one review request goes to every guest, links to Google only and offers nothing in return.
What it looks like
On Monday morning there are 14 new reviews from the weekend. Eleven are 4 or 5 stars, each with a drafted thank-you that mentions what that guest wrote about, like the short rib or the patio. A two-star review says the server forgot a birthday dessert they’d called ahead about. The draft apologizes, names the miss and offers to make it right, and it waits for you. The digest notes that three reviews mentioned slow Saturday service, with the quotes, and that one server was praised by name twice.
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Retention
Bring first-time guests back
Solution Regulars Return
Third, because by now the phone and the reviews are bringing new guests in, and most of them are already in your POS, online ordering or reservation system. Regulars Return first checks how many you can actually reach with consent, then sets up three moments: an invitation a few days after a first visit, a note when a regular passes their usual gap, and one occasion message such as a birthday. Each message is about something real, like the new fall menu or Tuesday’s wine night, and it goes out through the tool you already pay for, such as Toast Marketing, Square Marketing or SevenRooms. One guest in ten is held back, so after 60 days you see how many came back because of the messages. If fewer than about 500 guests can be reached, this step starts with collecting contacts properly.
What it looks like
A couple who came in for the first time on a Thursday gets an email four days later about the tasting menu that starts next week, written the way you’d say it. A regular who usually comes in every five weeks and hasn’t been in for seven gets a short note that the patio is open again. Two months later you see the return rate for guests who got the messages next to the one in ten who didn’t.
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Consideration
Win more catering and private events
Solution First Responder
Last, because catering and private events are your biggest tickets, and by now Front Desk is already passing those calls to a person with the date and headcount captured. First Responder drafts a specific reply to every catering form, events inbox email or lead the phone passes along within minutes: it answers the question, pulls from your package menus and photos of past events, and suggests a next step such as a tasting or a call. Nothing goes out until you approve it, and it runs from your inbox or alongside Tripleseat where Tripleseat allows. It pays off most for restaurants that already take events every month. If you rarely do, the first three steps are the route.
What it looks like
On a Wednesday afternoon an office manager fills in your catering form for a lunch for 35 next Thursday and asks about vegetarian options. Minutes later a draft is waiting that confirms the date, suggests the package that fits the headcount, lists the vegetarian dishes from your catering menu and asks whether pickup or delivery works better. Your events manager checks the minimum, adds a line and sends it before the dinner rush.
Works with what you already use
Existing tools first. Custom software only when nothing simpler will work.
Toast
POS, online ordering and Toast Marketing, with its own AI features under the Toast IQ name. Several restaurant phone products connect to it for orders, and its built-in marketing tools are checked and set up before anything new is added.
Square
POS, online ordering, Square Marketing and Square Loyalty. Square offers its own AI phone ordering, so if you’re already on Square, that’s one of the first Front Desk options I compare.
Clover
POS used by many independents. Restaurant phone products connect to it where they support it, so phone orders can land as tickets instead of notes on a pad.
OpenTable and Resy
Reservations and guest profiles. Bookings from the phone go into them where the phone product connects, and OpenTable review replies are drafted where OpenTable allows.
SevenRooms
Reservations, guest data and email marketing. It sells its own Voice AI for calls and bookings, so it’s the first phone option to check if you’re on SevenRooms, and its email tools can send the Regulars Return messages.
Tripleseat
Event and private dining sales. Catering leads and reply drafts fit alongside it where it allows, and some restaurant phone products can send an event lead straight into it.
Google Business Profile
Where most guests check your hours, menu and reviews before they call. Review replies are drafted for it, and the hours the phone gives out are checked against it.
7shifts and MarginEdge
Scheduling, and invoices and food cost. Both already do their own jobs well, so nothing on this route replaces them. If you have them, the first step is making sure what you pay for is switched on.
Leave these for later
- AI scheduling and sales forecasting. 7shifts and similar tools already sell auto-scheduling, and forecasting needs months of clean sales history. If you have a scheduling tool, set up what it already does before buying anything else.
- Building your own invoice processing or food-cost alerts. MarginEdge and similar back-office tools already read supplier invoices and flag price changes, so if food cost is the pain, it’s a software choice rather than a project.
- AI-written social posts. Toast’s marketing assistant can already draft them, restaurant social is mostly photos and video, and the effect is hard to measure. Being named when someone asks ChatGPT for the best brunch nearby is the better later step, and that’s what /solutions/found-by-ai covers.
Guest data, texts and recordings
Call recordings, transcripts and your guest list hold names, phone numbers and sometimes allergy notes, so before anything is connected I review what each tool stores, whether the provider uses it to train models, and who can see it. Marketing texts generally need a guest’s prior express written consent under the TCPA, and marketing email needs a working unsubscribe link under the CAN-SPAM Act, so Regulars Return only messages guests who opted in and honors opt-outs right away. Recording disclosures follow your state’s rules. All of this is reviewed during setup, and none of it is legal advice.
Questions about AI for restaurants
Where should a small restaurant start with AI?
Start with the phone, because the guests calling during service want a table or dinner that night, and nobody on the floor has a hand free to answer. Once every call is answered, reply to every review, bring first-time guests back, and speed up your catering replies.
Can AI answer my restaurant’s phone and take reservations?
Yes, restaurant phone products can answer every call and book tables in OpenTable, Resy or SevenRooms, and many can take takeout orders into Toast, Square or Clover, where the product connects to your system. Where it doesn’t, the assistant takes the details and sends them to you. Square and SevenRooms offer their own voice options, and several independent products are built only for restaurants, so I compare them against your POS and your call volume before you choose.
What happens when a caller asks about food allergies?
It reads only from the allergen information you’ve approved, and anything that isn’t on that sheet goes to a person. It never guesses, and questions about cross-contact or a severe allergy go to a person too. Writing that sheet with your kitchen is part of setup, and it’s often the first time the answers are written down in one place.
Do I have to tell callers they’re talking to AI and being recorded?
Tell them both, and the setup does it in the assistant’s first sentence on every call, because some states require every caller’s consent to record. California (Penal Code 632) is one of them, for confidential calls. Texts to callers, such as a booking confirmation, are covered by the TCPA, so the assistant asks before sending one. This is reviewed during setup, and it isn’t legal advice.
How should I respond to a bad review of my restaurant?
Reply calmly within a day or two, acknowledge the specific problem and offer a way to talk it through offline, without arguing with the guest. A defensive reply posted fast does more damage than a calm one posted the next morning. Review Desk drafts that reply in your voice, and anything 3 stars or below always waits for your approval.
Do I need new software, or can I use what Toast or Square already has?
Start with what you already pay for, because Toast, Square, SevenRooms and OpenTable all include AI or automation features that often sit switched off or unchecked. Part of each step is checking those first, like the automatic welcome and win-back emails in your marketing tool or the voice option your platform offers. New tools only come in for work that crosses systems, like the phone, reviews and the guest list, or where what you have can’t do the job.
What does it cost to get started?
It depends on where you start and how much setup that step needs. Each step is a one-time setup plus optional ongoing care, and you get a fixed quote before anything starts. I don’t publish prices, but on the free call I’ll tell you honestly whether the first step is worth it for your numbers.
Pull last Friday’s call log from your phone provider. I’ll show you how many calls rang out during service and what answering them is worth.
30 minutes, no cost, no pressure.