Restaurant Design Help Needed

Hey all Web Designers!

Tomorrow night I go to an appointment with a restaurant about their website.

I'm looking for a few creative ideas from people that have built websites for restaurants.

I'm sure I can land the deal if I throw in some creative ideas that they haven't heard of before.

One idea I'm going to offer is to have their entire menu on the website, and people can order from the site at home, and it will print out in the restaurant so that when they get there it will be entirely prepared for them.

Has anyone ever built a website for a restaurant? Does anyone out there have any suggestions/creative ideas for me?

Thanks!

I'd think about that a bit before you offered that suggestion. Unless you want to bill the customers for the meal before the order can be finalized, I don't think the owner is going to like it much when kids start getting onto the site and ordering meals they never show up for. Just something to think about.

Hmm good point. thanks.

I would still definitely put the entire menu on the site, and maybe consider call-in orders instead. People will be much less likely to prank if they have to call in the order. Apple Bees does it and I love it!

I did *help* with a catering site once and we pretty much just had pictures of food at a few events and then the menu. We couldn't think of anything else to put on the site, so any ideas that you come up with would greatly benefit me too!

Sure, I'll post whatever we end up doing when the project is along it's way.

Lots of yummy food pics and also those faded out/slightly blurred moving images of within resteraunts are also good too.
Menu on the website is a good idea, I agree with Geekettes suggestion. If I am doing a website for a service area I havent done before I take a look at some other websites out there who have done it well.

generally in a resteraunts case there are some things you want on there:

address & phone number
map of locality
business hours
any specials for catering rooms etc
other things in the area of interest - if the resteraunt is near picture theatres or entertainment facilities etc
information about the resteraunt and the people running it
menu's / specials page (print coupons are also good too)


Just some ideas. Good luck with your project.

My parents love when they go to a site and see a map.

That was sparked by musik's comment

yeah it makes it a lot easier, generally most people know how to get to the actual suburb/town the place is in but visual assistance always helps as well as landmarks

don't forget specials -- whether daily, weekly, or monthly. the
couple sites I did for restaurants and bars had an interface
in php where they could go to the form, fill out the day's
specials, click enter, and voila -> site updated. They were all
very happy with that.

Just another idea....