Website for restaurants: price, pages and example

What should a website for restaurants do?

It should get the guest to book a table. Many look the restaurant up on the day they want to eat, and they want to see food, prices and free tables.

• The menu as text on a page, not as a PDF, with prices.
• Opening hours and when the kitchen closes, at the top or bottom of every page.
• A clear way to book: a link to your booking system or a phone number that can be tapped.
• The address with a map and parking, so guests can find you.
• Photos of your own dishes and the room, taken in good light.

Which pages does the website need?

Start with 6 pages. That’s enough for a customer to find the answer and get in touch, and you can always add more:

1. Home: the kitchen in one sentence, opening hours and the button to book a table.
2. Menu: the dishes with prices, including lunch and a children’s menu if you have them.
3. Table booking: a link to your booking system, or phone and a form for larger parties.
4. Parties and events: menus for celebrations, company events and private parties.
5. About the restaurant: the chef, the produce and the story behind the place.
6. Contact and directions: address, map, parking and phone.

How much does a website for restaurants cost?

A website for restaurants typically costs DKK 16,000–43,000 to have made by a freelancer and DKK 47,000–121,000 by a web agency, excluding VAT. Running costs come on top every year. Over three years, that adds up to DKK 33,000–101,000 with a freelancer and DKK 78,000–235,000 with an agency. Build it yourself in Striive and there’s no build fee: three years cost DKK 9,000–19,500.

All amounts exclude VAT and come from our website cost calculator, built on Danish hourly rates: about DKK 500–900 an hour for freelancers and DKK 900–1,400 for agencies. Running costs are hosting, a domain, licences and a service agreement. Striive is DKK 99 a month incl. VAT for the first 4 months, then DKK 249 a month incl. VAT, plus your domain. Online booking and online payments aren’t in Striive yet, so Striive’s figures include a separate booking or shop tool until they arrive.

Table booking is what raises the price most. A freelancer typically charges DKK 3,000–10,000 extra to set up a booking system, and the system itself costs DKK 1,000–4,000 a year, excl. VAT. If you already have a booking system, linking to it costs nothing. Put the menu into Striive’s CMS as dishes instead, so you change a price in one place and it changes everywhere.

What do customers search for when they need a restaurant?

Customers type what they need and where they live. Typical searches (in Danish, as they’re typed):

• restaurant [town]
• restaurant [town] centrum
• bedste restaurant [town]
• frokost [town]
• brunch [town]
• restaurant med selskabslokaler [town]
• takeaway [town]

Use the same words on your pages: the trade, the services and the towns and areas you cover. Give each page a title and a description that say it, and check how it looks in Google with our Google preview. More in how to get found on Google.

What makes customers choose you?

Trust. The customer doesn’t know you yet, so the website has to show you’re good at what you do:

• Real photos of the dishes, as they look when they’re served.
• An up-to-date menu with prices. Guests want to know whether it’s an evening for DKK 300 or DKK 900.
• Reviews from Google or Tripadvisor, and coverage in local media if you’ve had it.
• A link to your smiley report from the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration. A happy smiley is a good argument.
• The chef’s name and where the produce comes from, if that’s part of your story.

What rules apply to a website for restaurants?

The same as for every business, and a few for your trade. Every business must show its name, address, email and CVR number on its website (Danish E-commerce Act §7), have a privacy notice when it collects personal data through, say, a contact form, and get consent with a cookie banner before setting cookies for analytics or marketing. Prices for consumers must include VAT. The full list is in website requirements for businesses.

• If you sell food through the website, such as takeaway, the inspection report from the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration (the smiley) must be available on the site, typically as a link to findsmiley.dk. Check the exact requirements with Fødevarestyrelsen. Many restaurants link to it even without online sales.
• Guests are entitled to information about allergens in the dishes. If you sell food online, it must be available before the guest orders. Say on the menu how to get it, such as by asking the staff.
• Menu prices must be the prices the guest pays, including VAT.

What could the front page look like?

Here’s how the top of the front page could read. The headline says what you do and where; the text under it says why to pick you and what to do next:

“Nordic bistro in the middle of Viborg. Open Tuesday to Saturday from 5 pm.”

A menu of local produce that changes with the seasons, and a three-course menu for the whole table. See the menu and book a table online, or call 12 34 56 78 for parties of more than 10.

How do you make a website for restaurants with Striive?

You build it yourself, with AI to help. Plan on 10–21 hours for a site like this:

1. Tell Striive about your business: what you do, where, and how customers reach you. Have an old website? Type its address, and Striive builds from it.
2. The AI website builder builds your front page and up to four more pages, with text about what you actually do.
3. Edit texts, prices and photos right on the page in the visual editor, or tell the AI assistant what to change.
4. Add a contact form, and link to the booking system you use today. Online booking right in Striive is on the way.
5. Connect your own domain, check the site on your phone, and publish.

Which mistakes should you avoid?

These turn up again and again on websites for restaurants:

• The menu is a PDF that’s hard to read on a phone and hasn’t changed since last season.
• The opening hours on the website don’t match the ones on Google.
• Table booking is hidden at the bottom of the contact page.
• A big video on the front page that makes the site slow on mobile data.
• No prices on the menu. The guest moves on to the next restaurant.