Restaurant Websites, According to The Oatmeal.

For anyone not familiar, The Oatmeal is an online comic. This is one of the more recent entries. It's funny because it's true!

abe_froeman wrote:For anyone not familiar, The Oatmeal is an online comic. This is one of the more recent entries. It's funny because it's true!

My restaurant web site wish list is simple. Phone number, address and hours near the top of the page easily readable/accessible by mobile device. Is that asking too much? Apparently.

A link to their location on Google maps should be a must. I'm always mystified at why restaurants think a long Flash into with music is a good idea, the rest of the world seems to have figured out that isn't what people want, but restaurants just can't seem to let it go.

It's really funny that that was posted today - I just got an email request from restaurant today asking for ways they can "manage all the PDF menus" on theri site. I'm pushing for HTML menus on the site (that can be downloaded as PDFs following whatever template they want for printing), hopefully they'll see the benefits. Based on past experience with restaurants I'm not going to hold my breath.

G Wiv wrote:

abe_froeman wrote:For anyone not familiar, The Oatmeal is an online comic. This is one of the more recent entries. It's funny because it's true!

My restaurant web site wish list is simple. Phone number, address and hours...

Correct hours!

xkcd posted something similar with regard to university websites:

Websites that the home page is made of contrasting colors and impossible to read. No clue if there is any music, I keep my sound off.

http://www.table38restaurant.com/

I laughed when I saw this because it's dead on: So many restaurant websites are just horrific!

The "download menu" always makes me laugh. How many people really want to download a menu? I just want to freakin' read it, not download, not print it, not anything else!

chgoeditor wrote:How many people really want to download a menu?

Not many. However, I'll give one specific example where it comes in handy: Hopleaf. They never have enough beer lists on hand, and then act huffy and impatient when your group of 6 hasn't decided on the first round while sharing one sodden brochure illuminated only by candles and phosphorescent clock dials. That's why I always bring my own menu.

In my pre-LTH days, I had one well-worn copy marked up with BeerAdvocate ratings and my own notes from many tastings; it also allowed me to give them crap for ceasing to carry initial favorites. Then somebody dropped an open-face CB&J on it. I wept bitterly into my Left Hand Milk Stout.

chgoeditor wrote:The "download menu" always makes me laugh. How many people really want to download a menu? I just want to freakin' read it, not download, not print it, not anything else!

I'm enjoying this thread.

But I'll give you another use for downloading the menu besides Santander's. If I want to convince my wife, "See, honey, this place has stuff you can eat!," it sometimes helps to be able to show her a printout.

riddlemay wrote:

chgoeditor wrote:The "download menu" always makes me laugh. How many people really want to download a menu? I just want to freakin' read it, not download, not print it, not anything else!

I'm enjoying this thread.

But I'll give you another use for downloading the menu besides Santander's. If I want to convince my wife, "See, honey, this place has stuff you can eat!," it sometimes helps to be able to show her a printout.

I do think the download menu option (or, more accurately, a print-optimized menu) is great for a place that does a lot of takeout/delivery business. Particularly if you're ordering for the office or dinner for the family, it's not always convenient to have everyone gathered around the computer. And the Hopleaf example is a good one. (Alas, this is never happened to me at Hopleaf, which is proof that I don't get there enough.)

Tonight I added Ing to my list of absolutely loathed restaurant websites - what the hell are they thinking? Oh, sorry, what the hell are they thinkIng. I'm sure the info I need is there somewhere, but finding it isn't easy. Blech.

I was considering checking it out soon, and I'm sure I'll go someday, but the website alone has delayed my plans to visit it.

Attrill wrote:Tonight I added Ing to my list of absolutely loathed restaurant websites - what the hell are they thinking? Oh, sorry, what the hell are they thinkIng. I'm sure the info I need is there somewhere, but finding it isn't easy. Blech.

I was considering checking it out soon, and I'm sure I'll go someday, but the website alone has delayed my plans to visit it.

Here's a link to another resto web site abomination, which was sent to me earlier today by a friend. Ugh...wtf are these people thinking?! Apparently, when it comes to restaurant web sites, form has completely supplanted function.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:Here's a link to another resto web site abomination, which was sent to me earlier today by a friend. Ugh...wtf are these people thinking?! Apparently, when it comes to restaurant web sites, form has completely supplanted function.

=R=

The restaurant itself is no better...we were looking for dinner in the neighborhood the other day, I walked up to the door (not immediately obvious where that was, first of all) and found no information on it whatsoever other than a "out fishing" or somesuch sign indicating that the fact that the lights were off and the chairs were up on the tables wasn't just coincidence. No hours, no menu, no nothing. Unless there was indeed another door where that information was hiding...

Seriously - if you can't get the website right, can y'all work on signage?

Any nominations for Best Restaurant Website?

teatpuller wrote:Any nominations for Best Restaurant Website?

This one.

Yeah, no prices. But no one is perfect.

ronnie_suburban wrote:Here's a link to another resto web site abomination, which was sent to me earlier today by a friend. Ugh...wtf are these people thinking?! Apparently, when it comes to restaurant web sites, form has completely supplanted function.

=R=

Wow. Of course you should never leave the house for dinner without knowing the wind speed in the Chesapeake Bay.

teatpuller wrote:Any nominations for Best Restaurant Website?

Weber Grill is an example of one that's pretty good (other than the sizzle sound on load). They have a crazy navigation with links like "Menus" (not PDFs), "Locations" (with links to maps and directions), and "Reservations".

In defense of Fish Bar (to which I have never been), I think the webcam showing available seating is potentially useful.

The issue seems to be that the web designers are given free rein to do whatever they think is cool, because restaurateurs are not web savvy enough to know any better. They mostly don't use the net themselves; they just know they have to have a web site.

Restaurant web sites make me nuts.

I do not want to wait for the popcorn to stop popping before I can find out your address and if you are open on Mondays!

I do not want to have to chase things around the page with my mouse before I can click on them!

If you put an e-mail address on your page (and you should), make sure there's somebody who actually reads and responds to e-mail in a timely manner.

Put your street address and phone number on every page -- but most importantly the front page -- not buried in some "contact us" or "directions" or "reservations" spot several links down. And do not make it an image or a flash thing I can't cut and paste into my address book or e-mail to my dining companions.

No f-ing flash!!!!! Especially not those tiny little scroll windows.

Do not play music. Period.

LAZ wrote:The issue seems to be that the web designers are given free rein to do whatever they think is cool, because restaurateurs are not web savvy enough to know any better. They mostly don't use the net themselves; they just know they have to have a web site.

I promise you it is NOT that web designers are given free rein. Most web designers hate that type of website more than anyone else on this thread.

There is only one reason for a restaurant to have a flash intro and sound playing and whatnot:

The restaurateur wanted it like that.

gleam wrote:I promise you it is NOT that web designers are given free rein. Most web designers hate that type of website more than anyone else on this thread.

OK, I didn't mean to dis all professional web designers. Make it: "the restaurateur's nephew who said, 'I can make you a web site.'"

Found this thread through a friend, funny stuff.

I actually design restaurant websites, so it's always nice seeing what you guys want. Beyond the actual design though, what I find most important these days is actually being connected, i.e. in particular Yelp (35% of their users do it through their mobiles, looking for somewhere to eat, shop, etc.) and Foursquare. Facebook & Twitter are great for your regulars, but the former two is where a lot of the new business is at. Pretty websites are great, if people actually see them

Another restaurant-related post from The Oatmeal today.

abe_froeman wrote:Another restaurant-related post from The Oatmeal today.

Eerie; it's as if he is channeling Big Star.

Aaaargh!

I was choosing between Curio and Watershed for drinks on Friday. I chose Watershed because I couldn't stand the Gilt Bar's website. "HALLO, HALLO, HALLO, Oh My Word, Moo"

Mhays wrote:Aaaargh!

Oh, that's horrible! (Yet, it still made me crave one of their sandwiches.)

I stumbled across this website while getting some information for an upcoming trip to Boston. Do not click the link unless you're prepared to become seasick.

It's a great restaurant, why did they go and do something dumb like that?

Attrill wrote:I stumbled across this website while getting some information for an upcoming trip to Boston. Do not click the link unless you're prepared to become seasick.

It's a great restaurant, why did they go and do something dumb like that?

Yikes. That was ill-advised.

A restaurant website practice that I might find even more offensive than all of the above, and I don't know if this is a national or local (to Phoenix) phenomenon, is the listing of hours like 5:00 PM - Close. Is this secret code for something? Am I supposed to guess? And we're not talking about places that might actually have a variable closing time. You call, you ask, they say we stop seating at X:XX. So what possible thought process goes behind that? The rest I can kind of write off as a maddening degree of ignorance about what people want to see in a website. But what possesses somebody to write down their hours for the web designer and think, "You know what? We'll put down when we open, but I'm not going to tell them when we close!"

Dmnkly wrote:A restaurant website practice that I might find even more offensive than all of the above, and I don't know if this is a national or local (to Phoenix) phenomenon, is the listing of hours like 5:00 PM - Close. Is this secret code for something? Am I supposed to guess? And we're not talking about places that might actually have a variable closing time. You call, you ask, they say we stop seating at X:XX. So what possible thought process goes behind that? The rest I can kind of write off as a maddening degree of ignorance about what people want to see in a website. But what possesses somebody to write down their hours for the web designer and think, "You know what? We'll put down when we open, but I'm not going to tell them when we close!"

Agree wholeheartedly! It's definitely not limited to Phoenix.

I suppose it's better than putting down a closing time they don't keep to. I guess that's why they do it -- they don't want to revise the website every time they change their hours.