Guides for restaurant owners
Plain answers for independent restaurants, cafés, bakeries and food trucks: what your website needs, how to take orders online without a cut of every order, and how to show up on Google. Real prices, with sources.
Your website
- How to make a restaurant website for freeSix free routes and the catch in each, eight steps from your menu to a live site, and free ordering.
- Do restaurants need websites?What diners check, what Google, Instagram and the apps can't do, what going without costs, and the smallest site.
- Restaurant website examplesFour real sites walked through, five live samples by kind of place, and a checklist for yours.
- Restaurant website builders with online orderingEleven options, their fee per order, and what each costs on 100, 300 and 800 orders.
- What a restaurant website costsFree builders to $5,988 a year, the fee on every order, and what a takeout place needs.
- What a restaurant website must showSix things a hungry visitor looks for.
- Bakery website: what to put on it, orders, costToday's bakes, pre-orders with a cutoff, a cake order form, allergens, and what it costs.
- Pizza website: what it needsOpen now and Order first, sizes and toppings as text, ordering costs on a $28 order, delivery and party orders.
- Cafe website: what to put on itOpen now and the drinks menu first, pickup orders with no fee per order, examples, and what Wix, Square and Toast cost.
- Food truck website: what it needsToday's spot at the top, a menu people read in line, order-ahead with no commission, and what it costs.
- Restaurant website About Us pageThe six parts, a template to fill in, six samples to adapt, what to write with no big story, and the words to cut.
Online ordering
- Commission-free online ordering: what it really costsThe fees that remain, eight options with real prices, a worked month, and how to move regulars off the apps.
- Free online ordering systems for restaurantsWhich systems cost $0 a month, the limit on each free plan, what you still pay per order, and a month worked out.
- Benefits of online ordering for restaurantsNine benefits, what each is worth, which come only from your own page, the downsides, and who should wait.
- How to set up online ordering for your restaurantFour ways to take orders and the cost on a $25 order, kitchen settings, five test orders, and how to tell regulars.
- Square online ordering for restaurantsPlan fees, when Plus pays for itself, delivery cost per trip, setup, and when Square fits.
- Clover online ordering for restaurantsNo commission, about $0.98 on a $25 order, plans, DoorDash delivery, Google orders, and setup in 9 steps.
- Toast online orderingNo commission, 3.5% + 15¢ a card and the add-on, a $25 order and a month, Toast Local, delivery fees, setup.
- GloriaFood is shutting down: what to doWhat stops on April 30, 2027, what to save, the options and their prices, and how to switch with no gap.
Delivery apps
- DoorDash commission fee for restaurants15%, 25% or 30% by plan, what you keep on a $25 order, when Plus or Premier pays, and how to pay less.
- Uber Eats commission for restaurants20%, 25% or 30% by plan after the 2026 rise, 7% or 10% on pickup, what you keep on a $25 order, and how to pay less.
- Grubhub commission fee for restaurants5%, 15% or 20% plus 10% for delivery, what you keep on a $25 order, the pickup catch, and when a higher plan pays.
- DoorDash Storefront feesNo commission, 2.9% + $0.30 on Starter, what Boost and Pro cost, a month worked out, and how to set it up.
- Does DoorDash charge commission on pickup orders?6% on every plan, what it covers, one pickup order through every app, a month worked out, and how to move pickups to 0%.
- DoorDash vs Uber Eats for restaurantsEvery 2026 fee side by side, a $25 order and a month on each, which app is bigger in your town, and a test to choose.
- DoorDash self-delivery commission15% with your own drivers, $6 a Dasher hand-off, a $30 order six ways, a driver's cost per trip, and when it beats Plus.
- Does DoorDash mark up prices?Who sets app prices, a real order split by line, the markup that covers each plan, and what it costs in sales.
- How to get your restaurant on Google MapsClaim the free profile, every way to verify and how long it takes, and why a listing won't show up.
- Google Business Profile for restaurantsEvery field to fill in, your menu on Google, the Order button set to your own page, and reviews within the rules.
- How to add a menu to your Google Business ProfileThe menu editor, menu link and photos, steps on a computer and phone, and how to fix a wrong menu.
- Google online ordering for restaurantsGoogle stopped taking orders in 2024: what the Order button links to now, the cost per route, and how to put yours first.
- Restaurant Google review replies, with examplesGoogle's reply rules and steps, 18 replies for good, mixed and bad reviews, and how to report fake ones.
- Google review QR code for restaurantsMake it free in Google, the rules on asking, print sizes, the wording, and where to put it.
- SEO for a restaurant websiteWhat diners search and which page answers it, titles, a text menu, restaurant code to copy, speed, links and a 4-week plan.
- How Google reads your menuWhy the menu belongs in the page, not in a photo.
Your menu online
- Free QR code menu from your menu photoA real menu page and a QR that never changes, with a print kit. How to make one in a minute.
- How to create a restaurant menu online for freePrinted or online, free menu makers and what their free plans leave out, step by step for each.
- How to price a menu itemThe formula, a worked plate cost with yield, food cost targets, and prices for delivery apps.
- How to calculate food cost percentageThe formula, a worked month, what to leave out, a spreadsheet to copy, and actual vs ideal food cost.
- Menu pricing psychologyDollar signs, price endings, anchors and the middle option, with the evidence for each, and the myths.
- Menu engineeringStars, Plowhorses, Puzzles and Dogs: an 8-item menu worked out, the 70% rule, a worksheet to copy, and what to change.
- How to write a restaurant menuWhat to cut, sections, names, a description formula with 12 rewrites, prices, allergens and the US rules.
- PDF menu to QR codeA free static code that never expires, three ways step by step, swapping the PDF without reprinting, and print sizes.