AI receptionist for restaurants

The rush is when the phone matters and when nobody can hold it. A host with a waitlist in one hand is not going to leave the door for a two-minute hours question. If the line rings into the dining room, the caller hears plates and a half sentence. An assistant that answers on its own line keeps that conversation off the floor.

Hours are the high-volume part, and they are easy to get wrong. Door time, kitchen close, brunch, and the bar can all differ, so the assistant should read one list a manager updates. A holiday week and a Monday closed for a buyout need a dated note. Last year left in the prompt will fill the book with guests you cannot seat.

Walk-in rooms and reservation rooms should not pretend to check a table in the same way. If you do not take reservations, the assistant says that early and does not invent a hold. If you do, it offers a time the book has, or it takes a request when the book cannot be seen. A wait is spoken only when a host has updated the number and the clock time on that update.

A reservation is a hold on a time, a party size, and sometimes a table type. Patio, a high chair, and a booth are honored only when the book tracks them. The assistant repeats the name, the count, and the time, and it states the cancel window if you have one. It does not promise a quiet corner the book does not mark.

Large parties are a policy. Many rooms stop phone reservations at six or eight covers and send anything bigger to a manager, and the assistant should use your number rather than a generic one. It collects the date, time, count, name, and phone, then hands the request to the person who approves it. It does not split a twelve-top into two reservations to dodge the cutoff.

A few dates ignore the ordinary grid. A May brunch holiday, the last night of the year, and a graduation Saturday may be prepaid, a set menu, or closed to regular reservations. Those rules belong on a dated sheet the assistant can read. If the sheet is blank, the assistant takes a callback instead of confirming a table you meant to hold.

• Hours from one manager-updated list, including kitchen close
• Reservation times the book actually shows
• A plain statement when the room is walk-in only
• Wait times only when a host has just updated them
• A party-size cutoff with a manager handoff above it
• Dated rules for holidays and buyout nights

Allergen and ingredient questions go to a person. The assistant does not say a dish is free of nuts, gluten, shellfish, or dairy, and it does not guess from a menu description. It records the dish and the allergy in the words the caller used and flags the kitchen or a manager. A note about a shared fryer, even one a chef typed earlier, stays unconfirmed until a person says it is still true.

The menu the assistant knows is the menu you entered. It does not recite a special nobody wrote down, a wine that might be on the list, or an item marked unavailable during service. It does not promise a substitution. Price questions use the published menu, and a private-event minimum comes from the events sheet or it is not quoted.

The floor does not get a fake manager transfer. If nobody can step off service, the assistant takes the name, number, and topic instead of ringing a handset that will be ignored. It does not quote a table in ten minutes to calm a caller down. It does not tell a guest the kitchen will handle an allergy without a problem.

• Any claim that a dish is safe for an allergy
• Specials, removed items, or substitutions nobody entered
• A wait quote that is not live
• A table the reservation book does not have
• A buyout price that is not on the events sheet
• A promise that a manager is free while the floor is in service

Private dining and buyouts are a different sale from a Saturday at 7. The assistant can ask for the date, the headcount, the rough time, and whether they want a full buyout or a side room, then stop. The minimum, the menu, and the contract belong to the coordinator. If you do not host events, the assistant says so and does not collect a lead you will never call.

Online ordering should be spoken as words a person can write, then spelled where the address is awkward, then offered as a text if the caller agrees to a text. Say whether the link is pickup, delivery, or both, based on what you run today. If delivery is a third party, name that party, and do not send a guest to a marketplace account you abandoned.

Small policies cause real arguments when the phone improvises them. Corkage, a cake fee, and whether you seat an incomplete party should be short lines on the house list or absent from the script. Gift-card balances are looked up only when the system can do it. Otherwise the assistant explains how the host stand checks a card in person.

Friday below is an illustration of one service. It is labelled as an example so it is not mistaken for a case study or a client result. Picture a 70-seat room that takes reservations up to six covers, with larger parties going to the manager. The assistant answers from late afternoon until close because the host is at the door.

A couple wants half past 7 for two, the book has it, and the assistant reserves it and repeats the hold. A caller with twelve guests on Saturday is not split into smaller tables. The details go to the manager. A third caller asks whether the pesto is safe for a tree-nut allergy, and the assistant records the question for the kitchen instead of answering from the menu wording.

A fourth caller cannot find the pickup page, so the assistant speaks the link, spells the awkward part, and texts it after the caller agrees. During the late push, two manager requests become callbacks because nobody can leave the floor. The next morning the manager reads one reservation, one large-party lead, one allergen flag, one ordering text, and two callbacks. Nothing in that list is a measured result.