A website for restaurants.
The price, the sitting, and the cancellation, before anyone books.
A diner who has already decided to come out still needs the price, how long the table is theirs, and what happens if they cancel. We design and build the site around those facts, then look after it for a monthly fee.
From £15/mo, plus a one-off build pack from £29.
The slate names the night, the chairs, the sitting and the price. The book button comes after them.
A live example of our work. Hollow is not a customer. Opened 6 October 2026, the next service on the slate was Wednesday 7 October.Before they book
Four lines, then the way to book.
They have a night, a number of people, and a budget. The site has to meet them there. A button that arrives first makes them agree to a table they have not been shown.
- PriceThe menu price, or a price beside each plate. A fee charged every time belongs in that figure. If a service charge is optional, say optional.
- SittingHow long the table is held, and the largest party you will actually seat. Two and a half hours is a different promise from turning the table when the room needs it.
- CancellationThe notice, and the amount kept. "Please give us notice" is not a rule a guest can accept or walk away from.
- AllergensHow a guest tells you before they arrive, and what the kitchen cannot promise. Do not write allergen-free unless you can stand behind it.
- ThenThe way to book. Not before the price, the sitting, the cancellation and the allergens.
250
of 304 front pages offered online booking.
That is 82.2% of the sites we read. Seven of them, 2.3%, named a booking product such as OpenTable or ResDiary. The button is usually the restaurant's own route, not a brand a diner would recognise.
Front pages only, 25 to 27 August 2026. Sit-down restaurants, gastropubs and bistros. Pubs that are not restaurants, hotels, cafes, takeaways and caterers were left out. 78 pages, 25.7%, had a £ figure somewhere in the words. That is a different count from the 63 prices our read could extract. 196 pages had a weekday near a digit, 64.5%, and that pattern also catches a priced Sunday lunch, so it is not a count of published hours. A specific hours phrase was on 116, 38.2%.
From the same read
Four front pages that print the rule.
Real UK sites. Regions only. The prices are theirs. Copy the habit of printing the rule, not a number you do not charge.
Edinburgh · plates from £10 · held 2.5 hours
Plates with a price, and two and a half hours.
An independent sharing restaurant puts the plates on the front page, from about £10 to £32, and a lunch set menu at £30 a person. Bookings run 12 to 2.30pm and 5.30 to 9pm, with the kitchen closed between 4.30 and 5.30. Every table is held for two and a half hours. Eight is the maximum. Seven or eight people are offered a set menu at £50 a head. Cancel with 24 hours' notice for one to four, 48 hours for five to eight, or pay £50 a head. It will meet up to two dietary needs a person, and it says those allergens are used in the kitchen.
Near Hythe, Kent · five courses £110 · 48 hours
The tasting price, and a fee that is not discretionary.
Five courses are £110 and eight courses are £145, with wine pairings priced beside them. A three-course menu at £65 is pre-order only, Tuesday to Thursday. Children under twelve are lunch only, at £55 for three courses, with no children's menu and no high chairs. Less than 48 hours' notice, or a reduction in numbers, is £75 a person, and the page says that fee is not discretionary. A 12.5% hospitality charge is described as discretionary. Lunch is Wednesday to Saturday. Dinner is Tuesday to Saturday. One step at the door, then flat. Dogs are not allowed.
Edge of Bradford-on-Avon · lunch £17.50 · two clocks
Two clocks: the bar, and the kitchen.
A family gastropub publishes both, day by day. Midweek, food stops at 2pm and again at 8.30pm while the bar runs later. Saturday food runs through to 9. Sunday food stops at 6 and the room stays open until 8. Two courses at lunch, Monday to Friday, are £17.50. A reservation inside twelve hours has to be a phone call. Sunday lunch is a sample menu, without a price in the text we captured. Dogs are welcome. There is a car park, and step-free access to the bar, the restaurant and the toilets.
Redruth · £3 booking fee · 50% inside 24 hours
A booking fee in the figure, and a 24-hour rule.
A neighbourhood restaurant prices a few dishes on the front page, from £8.95 to £14.95, and states a £3 booking fee unless the guest has a membership the restaurant recognises. Bookings are taken from twelve hours out. Inside that, the guest is told to contact the restaurant. Cancellation inside 24 hours is 50%. Hours are printed, and they differ at the weekend. Allergens are a link rather than a list. The ordering template still contains placeholder text. The booking rule is the part worth keeping.
Two example builds
One sitting with a published price, and a gastropub that still owes the clock.
Both are fictional. Hollow is the shape for a single sitting. The Copper Fox, from an earlier build, shows priced plates and a private room, and also shows what is still missing.
Checked 6 Oct 2026
The rules that sit under the menu.
Official pages only. Nothing here is a fee, a grant or a date we could not read. A website line does not replace the record you keep for staff.
Hygiene, by country.
England, Wales and Northern Ireland use a rating from 0 to 5. The sticker at or near each customer entrance is a legal requirement in Wales and Northern Ireland. In England, display at the premises is encouraged. Scotland uses Pass or Improvement Required, not a score out of five, and display there is a choice because the result is published. Putting a rating on your own website is encouraged in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It is not stated as a legal duty in England. Change the artwork when the rating changes. Do not type "five-star hygiene" into a footer. A Welsh takeaway leaflet that shows food, a price and a way to order without visiting also needs a bilingual statement pointing to the ratings site. Hygiene language was on 4 of the 304 front pages, 1.3%.
The 14 allergens.
Tell guests if any of the 14 is in the food. For a meal you serve, that can be written, or given verbally if a written notice says how to ask. The guidance prefers the written list, kept accurate, covering all 14, with someone able to talk it through. They are celery, cereals containing gluten (wheat, rye, barley and oats), crustaceans, eggs, fish, lupin, milk, molluscs, mustard, peanuts, sesame, soybeans, sulphur dioxide and sulphites at more than ten parts per million, and the tree nuts almond, hazelnut, walnut, cashew, pecan, Brazil, pistachio and macadamia. Allergen language was on 41 of 304 front pages, 13.5%. One used nut-free or allergen-free.
Calories, for large businesses in England.
From 6 April 2022, a business with 250 or more employees selling food ready to eat shows kilocalories, the portion, and the statement that adults need around 2000 kcal a day, including on the website. Drinks over 1.2% ABV are exempt, and so is food on the menu for fewer than 30 consecutive days and fewer than 30 days in a year. A smaller restaurant does not have that duty. Two of the 304 front pages mentioned calorie or kcal. Do not print numbers you have not calculated.
Tips, deposits, and the full price.
Since 1 October 2024, employers in England, Scotland and Wales must pass tips and service charges to workers without deductions other than cases such as tax. The official page does not extend that to Northern Ireland. A record is kept for three years, and the money goes out by the end of the month after the customer paid. The code is not optional. Where you set out a dish and its price, key information includes the full price, unless it is already obvious. Those changes came into force on 6 April 2025. A mandatory booking fee belongs in the price the guest sees when they decide. Ten of the 304 front pages mentioned a service charge, a tip or a gratuity. Two of the 63 priced sites mentioned VAT in the price. Say whether yours includes it. Do not invent a rate here.
Checked 6 Oct 2026 against gov.uk on displaying a hygiene rating, the Food Standards Agency, Food Standards Scotland, allergen guidance, best practice for non-prepacked food, calorie labelling, the tips code and unfair commercial practices.
The build
A template can hold a menu. It will not decide the order.
People search for restaurant website templates and for a website builder for restaurants. A template is a fair start if you will write the menu, the hours and the cancellation yourself, and keep them current. It will not decide that the button comes after the price. The till and the booking tool are not the page that explains a two-and-a-half-hour sitting.
Keep the menu in text. If a dish is off, say off. A Google profile that says open until 11, while the kitchen closed at 9, is how a table arrives to a dark pass.
We write a brief with you, design and build the site in about half an hour, then look after it for a monthly fee. You see the work before it goes live. Hollow is one published price and one sitting. The Copper Fox is priced plates and a private room, and it still owes clock times, one capacity, a privacy page, and no invented praise.
118 of the 304 sites, 38.8%, credited someone else with building the website. Ask whether you can change tonight's list without raising a ticket.
What you pay.
A monthly plan to keep the site, and a one-off pack for the build. Prices from the pricing page. No setup fee, no minimum term, no annual contract.
Monthly plans
Edits with your assistant use credits. Bought credits do not expire.
One-off build packs
1 page
3 pages
5 pages
Each includes 30 days of Forge edits after the build, a custom domain, hosting, SSL and backups, and is paired with your first month on a plan. Add pages any time, priced per page. You see the price before you pay.
Cancellation takes two clicks from your account. The site keeps running until the end of the billing period. Your domain stays yours, and if you leave we send a static snapshot for another host. Failed builds are not charged. There is no introductory rate. The price you sign up at is the price you pay, and we give at least 30 days' notice before any change.
Get startedQuestions owners ask
Before the site is built.
What should the front page show before the booking button?
The price, or an honest range. How long the table is held. The cancellation rule, including any fee. Whether a service charge is optional. When the kitchen stops. How allergies are declared. Of the 304 front pages we read, 250 offered online booking and 63 had a price in the prices field.
Can the menu and the booking live on one page?
Yes, when the list is short enough to read. Hollow does that: the month's courses, the £95, and the sitting are on the same page. A gastropub with lunch, dinner, Sunday and a private room will usually want the menu and the room on their own pages. Add a page when the explanation needs it. You see the price before you pay.
Do I have to show a food hygiene rating on the website?
In England, displaying the sticker at the premises is encouraged, and displaying it online is encouraged. It is a legal duty to display the sticker at or near each customer entrance in Wales and in Northern Ireland. Scotland uses Pass or Improvement Required, and display there is a choice, because the result is published. Do not invent a score, and do not give a Scottish Pass as a number out of five.
Where do allergens go?
Tell guests if any of the 14 allergens is in the food. For a meal you serve, that can be written on the menu, or given verbally if a written notice says how to ask. Written, for all 14, kept up to date, is the version the guidance prefers. If you take requirements at booking and change the menu before service, say that, and do not also imply the kitchen is free of those allergens.
Who has to print calories?
In England, a business with 250 or more employees, for food and drink sold ready to eat, with the exemptions in the regulations, including drinks over 1.2% alcohol and short-run specials. An independent restaurant under that size does not have the duty.
What do I pay, and how do I leave?
Starter is £15/mo for one live site. Business is £39/mo for three. The build is a pack: £29, £59 or £89 for one, three or five pages, with 30 days of edits after the build, a custom domain, hosting, SSL and backups, paired with the first month. Cancel from your account in two clicks. The domain stays yours. If you leave, you get a static snapshot. There is no introductory rate. The price you sign up at is the price you pay, with at least 30 days' notice before any change. A failed build is not charged.