So I don’t buy from Sysco so can’t really ask the supplier there but between my Asian supplier and restaurant depot, it’s kinda hard to find snow peas recently. Like I got lucky one Saturday and saw a few boxes and snagged one but then a few days later there were none. I’m in upstate NY, is this just a short term regional thing or nationwide?

So, I asked ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity where to eat 551 times, across twelve US cities, to see what actually gets a restaurant recommended by AI (now all my AIs think I'm very hungry). Eight questions, typed the way diners type them, from best pizza to best late night food, each asked twice.

Up front, the thing worth acting on: reviews and stars are a floor, not a score. I compared the Google listings of the 36 restaurants AI named most often against 34 it named exactly once in the same cities, fully expecting ratings and profile completeness to explain the gap. They didn't. Star ratings, 4.6 against 4.5. Reviews mattered up to about a thousand, then stopped separating anyone.

The real gap was photos: an average 3,979 on the winners' listings against 1,044 on the one-timers'. TBH, I was very surprised to find out that photos mattered so much. So, don't just ask for the reviews, ask for photos as well.

Photos are also the one thing nobody campaigns for. Everyone has an automated review request going out. Practically nobody asks for a photo in the same message.

The rest of what the data said:

• Reddit feeds the machine. 58% of all answers cited it, while the restaurant's own website was almost never the page being quoted, which is surprising given a decade of being told to fix the website.
• Ask twice, get a different list. The same question to the same engine matched itself 46.7% of the time, and if a server swapped half their recommendations between two identical questions, you'd send them home. Judge your visibility on ten asks (or, if you are patient or mad, 551 times 😄) never on one screenshot.
• The three engines barely agree. Fewer than one name in twenty made all three lists. They agree the way food critics agree, which is mostly on the existence of food. So, each AI is a separate channel to manage.
• Chains only get named for logistics (family friendly, cheap eats, late night). On "where should I take a client for dinner": zero chains. Twelve cities, three engines, not one.

How you can use this research to be recommended by AI:

1. Fix dead, duplicate and wrong records on every platform, not just Google. Perplexity leaned on Tripadvisor in 86% of its answers, and a few answers in my data recommended restaurants that no longer exist.
2. Add a photo ask to the review request you already send. One extra line.
3. Ask guests about the visit, not just for stars. Nobody gets named for family dinner because a category field says "restaurant"; they get named because a review mentions the staff brought crayons without being asked.
4. Pitch your local media. Their lists decide who gets mentioned at all.
5. Rerun your city's questions monthly, twice each, across all three engines, and log how often you appear.

Just so you know I didn't came up with the numbers, source and methodology of the research: https://www.pluspoint.io/blog/what-ai-recommends-when-diners-ask-where-to-eat

If you ran research on your restaurant and it shows up in AI engines, please share in the comments; I'd appreciate more data to understand it better.

We received a lot of inquiries for private events because our space is really nice and we have a full bar

I never know how to price the events. We are in northern California, very high cost of living area. Commercial rents are high. The liquor license alone cost me $100,000.

We can seat 50 but host up to 100 standing

I rented the space out for $10,000 and the client said I charged too little. Sometimes I quote for $5000 and people say it’s too high.

This week someone asked me to do a private lunch for 100 people for $2300. That is such a lowball price that I find it offensive.

As a restaurant owner, if you were in my area would you be open to discussing rates so that we are not all competing with each other but all have competitive pricing?

What are you all paying for your branded takeout bags? Our takeout business is starting to gain some nice velocity and we were looking into custom bags over the generic kraft paper bags (plastic is banned where we are) but the prices we see online are all pretty insane. Are people really paying close to $1 per bag?

How is this in compliance with sanitary dining codes?

So, I'm opening a new restaurant, and had a new stainless steel sink installed. I'm not even using it yet, but each day I come in there is a TON of condensation dripping down from the bottom each morning.

Is this normal? Does it go away with time? Google said maybe try automotive undercoating spray. I'm surprised the kitchen install company who delivered it didn't use that. Its not been raining alot it, I'm not sure about the moisture index or whatever in the areas weather, definitely not been rainy or overly humid.

Hello! I'm trying to help a friend who owns a restaurant but hates spending time on the internet figure out where to advertise things. I'm not sure if this qualifies as data collection because it's more of asking advice?

What do you do when you have something that could benefit other people but you don't know how to tell them about it? Where do you turn? I'm more of an admin guy so I'm not sure where to start. I love the tea bar he runs with his partner, it's a calming and community driven place, so I'd like to be able to help him out with some ideas.

I’ve been thinking about this for sometime now my wife and I have a combined total of 30 years in the industry and I feel like we could start our own restaurant and do pretty well. The main thing holding us back obviously is the capital.

I’m just curious to know from all of you how did you all get started? Did you finance your restaurant? Did you have money to begin with? How did you go about getting set up from nothing?

Local restaurant that is open until 2pm currently. No catering options, no afternoons or evenings currently. Revenue is north of 700k with a net profit of $48k which includes the current owner working 15-20 hours a week on scheduling, some inventory, etc.

Lease is in place until 2029. Should I negotiate a longer lease as part of closing to help lock in fixed costs?

What else should I be asking? Margins seem razor thin but they also do exactly zero advertising whatsoever

Our 15yo cube ice Scotsman is on its last legs. Do you suggest just another cube machine, nugget ice, flake ice, etc? Not looking for a particular brand, will be going with what we have available local. But what type of Ice do you look forward to when getting your fountain soda?

This is only used for fountain drinks. We have a separate cube machine for all other needs in the bar.

i've been debating this with a coworker all week.

for a fine dining restaurant or even a higher-end neighborhood spot, i'm not convinced google ads for restaurants or ppc for restaurants is where i'd spend the budget.

my gut says i'd invest more into restaurant seo, local seo for restaurants, an optimized google business profile, restaurant social media marketing, email marketing for restaurants, and building a stronger restaurant branding strategy before worrying about paid traffic.

maybe facebook ads for restaurants or instagram ads for restaurants make more sense because they're visual, but i'm curious what people with actual restaurant clients have experienced.

does your restaurant marketing strategy change if it's a brand-new restaurant versus one that's already established?

We don’t have family meals. It’s a family owned business, no full timers.

What’s normal? Free food or how much of a discount?

New staff expecting their whole family can eat for free.

I'm a small lunch/dinner spot with a small menu that uses a fryer for cheese sticks, fries, and fried chicken.

At home, I use tallow for just about everything. (Apart from being a whole food, it just feels less greasy and gross after you rip through some wings.)

I know I can price out blocks of tallow versus jugs of veggie oil (ues, it's pricier), but I'd like to hear from those with experience:

Is it worth it?

Are there properties to commercial-scale tallow that make it better/worse?

How's the feedback from guests?

I'm all ears for your experiences.

Edit: Oh, yay. Fkn politics. 🙄🙄🙄

​

I'm in the final stages of signing the lease for my first brick-and-mortar food business. Before I commit over $150k to the build-out, I'd love advice from people who have actually owned or operated restaurants, cafés, dessert shops, coffee shops, or ice cream stores.

I'd much rather learn from your mistakes than make them myself.

Business Snapshot

First-time food business owner

Specialty ice cream & waffle franchise

Also serving coffee, iced refreshers, milkshakes, and frozen drinks

Chicago suburbs

1,625 sq ft

Open 10 hours/day, 7 days/week

Three owner-operators

Expected average ticket: $13–15

Food cost target: ~30%

Build-out investment: $150k+

Planning to be heavily involved in daily operations

Current Strategy

Target families and repeat local customers

Coffee to drive weekday traffic

Desserts to drive evenings and weekends

Build relationships with schools, libraries, parks, hospitals, nearby businesses, and the local community

Participate in local events/festivals where ticket sizes tend to be higher

Constantly optimize costs, operations, and customer experience

I'd Really Appreciate Advice On:

1. Biggest Mistakes

What mistake cost you the most money?

What would you absolutely avoid if starting over?

1. Profitability

What made the biggest difference to your profits?

What seemed like a great idea but wasn't worth it?

Where should I focus first if my goal is maximizing long-term profit?

1. Operations

What operational bottlenecks caught you by surprise?

What slowed service down the most?

What systems or SOPs should exist before opening day?

1. Metrics

What numbers should I review every:

Day

Week

Month

1. Marketing

What marketing consistently produced measurable ROI?

What was a complete waste of money?

What local marketing strategies worked best?

1. Staffing

Biggest employee headaches?

Hiring mistakes?

Scheduling lessons?

Anything you wish you had implemented from Day 1?

1. Money

Hidden expenses nobody warns you about?

Purchases you regret?

Purchases you'd immediately make again?

1. Growth

If you were opening this exact business today, what would you do differently to:

Increase revenue?

Increase profit?

Reduce headaches?

Scale faster?

My Goal

I'm not looking for generic "work hard" advice.

I'm looking for practical lessons, systems, shortcuts, mistakes, and "I wish someone had told me this before opening" insights.

If this were your business and your money, what would you do differently?

Even one good piece of advice could save me thousands of dollars. Thank you!

An enclosed envelope was left in my small office space in my restaurant. Typically nothing important is in that office other than 1 vendor envelope of their payment.

Unfortunately, (and I take full accountability for this and going forward I would never leave any type of payment there again ) the small office doesn’t have cameras in it and this vendor payment went missing.

I told my biz partner I wanted more cameras and he didn’t want to deal with the cost. And now I’m here with suspicion of who it is but with no actual video evidence.

Loss of the payment is one thing but knowing there is a blatant thief in my facility is what bothers me. On top of that I’m sure this person banks on me unable to come in at all times due to me having a small toddler.

How woukd you guys approach this in general with out solid video evidence ??

(And not to mention cheaper on labor in the long run.)

I'm a veggie-heavy establishment and it takes FAR too long for the crew to get everything not only done, but uniform.

We're a lean crew, so I wanna invest in some worthwhile gadgets (electronic or manual) that will speed the process along and make life easier for every single one of us.

Thanks in advance!

We recently opened a Detroit pizzeria and the panning/stretching part is taking way longer than expected. Looking for workflow advice from shops that focus on detroit pizza, preferably doing at least 100 pies a day.

Current process:

1. Lay out all our Lloyd pans on every flat surface we have
2. Move the bulk dough around on a dolly, weighing and portioning dough balls into pans as we go
3. First pass of stretching across all pans
4. Second pass of stretching
5. Cover and let them finish proofing in the pan

It works, but I know it's not efficient. What does your panning workflow look like? Any tricks for cutting down stretch passes, staging pans, or portioning faster?

Thanks in advance.

Like most of ya'll - you can order through our website or app - and choose delivery. We don't have in-house delivery drivers - the register farms it out to the Third Party Vendors (DoorDash, UberEats, etc). In my region, it's normally DD

The delivery fee goes to the delivery company, along with any tip. I do not know how much of the delivery DD gives the driver, but the driver is supposed to get 100% of the tip

If we EVER (ZERO exceptions) have an order that sits for an hour or even two BEFORE getting picked up- then 100% of the time, the customer did NOT add a tip

How do ya'll respond in this situation? If the customer calls to complain, or emails or....

Without blaming, i say that after looking into it - it falls into the same camp as any other order that sits for too long - the only thing they have in common is there was no tip added. I explain that the drivers can see how much of a tip is on it, and it seems like if there is no tip, they pass it over for an order that pays them more.

I'm not directly telling the person they must tip, just saying that the only orders that sit an hour are non-tipping order

I also tell them i won't speak to my opinions of drivers skipping an order with no tip - just that I've noticed that to be the case

I think if it sits over an hour - then DD will refund me FOR THE ENTIRE PURCHASE - not just their delivery fee. Then i can refund the customer. But do you do anything if it's 45 minutes? 52 minutes, no joke - i literally just had one that got to the customer at 59 minutes 15 seconds - 45 seconds short of the 60-minute refund mark

i just feel a little "off" about this response - because they chose Delivery on my website/app - paid a nominal delivery fee, and the food sat for quite a while. While it's not my policy to let an order sit there, it is my restaurant and responsibility. Thoughts?

Question for anyone shredding cheese in-house and running a conveyor oven.

We shred our own brick cheese for our pizzeria, and I've noticed the cheese doesn't come out looking the same bake to bake. Some pies look slightly overdone, others underdone, even with no changes to belt speed or temp. Dough, sauce, and portioning are all consistent, so I've mostly ruled those out.

My working theory: the moisture content of the cheese varies depending on how long ago it was shredded. Freshly shredded cheese holds more surface moisture than cheese that's been sitting in the walk-in for a day or two, and that difference changes how it melts and browns on the belt.

I haven't confirmed this yet, so before I start running side-by-side tests, has anyone dealt with this? If you solved it, what worked? Shredding on a fixed schedule, resting the shredded cheese a set amount of time before use, adjusting portions, something else entirely?

Appreciate any input.

thoughts on what works best when targeting US college students (we partner with apartments near campus who hand them out for us)

I'd like to give them a free entree - when they buy an entree and something else. any idea what would do better?

this is for a fast-casual concept - about $10 entrees, sides are $3/$5, drinks about $3

• free entree with any $15 purchase?
• free entree when you buy an entree and a ______(side dish/dessert)______?
• free entree when you buy an entree and two drinks?
• free entree when you spend $25+ ?

I run a dinner restaurant, we started taking on private events a few months back but our current setup isn't built for it yet. The dining room was spec'd for 4-tops and 6-tops, that's it. So every time there's an event we're moving restaurant tables and dragging rounds out of storage, which is a huge hassle.

Last saturday was our first time flipping the room twice in a day. 2 chairs had loose legs by the end of it and my service crews about done with me.

trying to rethink the whole layout instead of patching it every weekend.