Restaurant AEO: How to Get Your Restaurant Recommended by AI Search

Why AI Is Changing How People Choose Restaurants

Choosing where to eat is one of the most common decisions people make — and one of the first categories where AI search is replacing traditional search. Think about it. When someone is hungry, visiting a new city, planning a date night, or looking for a restaurant that can accommodate allergies, they no longer want to scroll through pages of Yelp reviews or Google Maps results. They want a direct answer. And AI gives them one.

The shift is already massive. ChatGPT has over 400 million weekly active users. Perplexity handles millions of searches daily. Google's AI Overviews now appear on a growing percentage of local search results. And restaurant queries are among the highest-volume categories across all of these platforms. Diners are asking questions like:

• "Best Italian restaurant near me"
• "Restaurants with outdoor seating in Austin"
• "Gluten-free friendly restaurants in downtown Denver"
• "Where to eat with kids in Brooklyn"
• "Best sushi restaurant for a date night in San Francisco"
• "Farm-to-table restaurants with a tasting menu near me"
• "Restaurants open late night in Nashville"
• "Best brunch spot with vegan options in Portland"

And AI gives them a direct answer. Not a Yelp page with 200 listings. Not a Google Maps grid with pins everywhere. A specific, curated recommendation with restaurant names, cuisine types, standout dishes, price ranges, atmosphere descriptions, and often a direct link to make a reservation. For the diner, this is a dramatically better experience. For the restaurant that gets recommended, it is the most valuable marketing channel emerging today.

Think about what this means for your restaurant. When someone asks ChatGPT for the best Italian restaurant in their neighborhood and AI recommends three places by name, those three restaurants are going to get the reservation. The other 50 Italian restaurants in that area? They never entered the conversation. This is fundamentally different from traditional search, where appearing on page one still meant competing with nine other results plus a map pack. In AI search, the recommendation is the result. You are either in the answer or you do not exist.

This is where Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) meets restaurant marketing. AEO is the practice of optimizing your online presence so AI search engines recommend you. For restaurants, it means structuring your menu, hours, cuisine type, reviews, and technical signals so that when a hungry diner asks AI where to eat, you are in the answer. This guide gives you the complete playbook.

The window of opportunity is wide open. The vast majority of restaurants have done zero AEO work. Their websites are basic template sites with PDF menus AI cannot read, no structured data, outdated hours, and no strategy for AI visibility. Many do not even have a real website — just a Facebook page or a listing on a third-party platform. If you implement even half the steps in this guide, you will be years ahead of your competition.

7 Steps to Get Your Restaurant Recommended by AI

Step 1: Implement Restaurant Schema (JSON-LD)

Restaurant schema is the single most impactful technical change you can make for restaurant AEO. This structured data markup tells AI search engines the exact details of your restaurant — cuisine type, menu items, hours of operation, price range, address, reservation options, dietary accommodations, and more — all in a machine-readable format that AI models prioritize over unstructured text.

Most restaurant websites display information in human-readable formats: a pretty homepage with photos, a PDF menu, and a Google Maps embed. That is fine for human visitors, but AI cannot reliably extract structured data from visual layouts or PDF files. It needs machine-readable markup that explicitly declares each data point. Without Restaurant schema, AI has to guess your details from page content — and it frequently gets hours wrong, misidentifies your cuisine type, misses dietary options, or skips your restaurant entirely.

Here is a complete Restaurant schema for a restaurant:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Restaurant",
  "name": "Bella Cucina Italian Kitchen",
  "url": "https://www.bellacucinaaustin.com",
  "description": "Authentic Italian restaurant in downtown Austin serving handmade pasta, wood-fired pizza, and seasonal dishes made with locally sourced ingredients. Outdoor patio dining available. Vegetarian and gluten-free options on every course.",
  "telephone": "+1-512-555-0187",
  "email": "reservations@bellacucinaaustin.com",
  "image": "https://www.bellacucinaaustin.com/images/restaurant-exterior.jpg",
  "servesCuisine": ["Italian", "Mediterranean"],
  "priceRange": "$$",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "streetAddress": "412 Congress Avenue",
    "addressLocality": "Austin",
    "addressRegion": "TX",
    "postalCode": "78701",
    "addressCountry": "US"
  },
  "geo": {
    "@type": "GeoCoordinates",
    "latitude": 30.2672,
    "longitude": -97.7431
  },
  "openingHoursSpecification": [
    {
      "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
      "dayOfWeek": ["Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday"],
      "opens": "11:00",
      "closes": "22:00"
    },
    {
      "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
      "dayOfWeek": ["Friday", "Saturday"],
      "opens": "11:00",
      "closes": "23:00"
    },
    {
      "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
      "dayOfWeek": "Sunday",
      "opens": "10:00",
      "closes": "21:00"
    }
  ],
  "menu": "https://www.bellacucinaaustin.com/menu",
  "acceptsReservations": "True",
  "hasMenu": {
    "@type": "Menu",
    "name": "Dinner Menu",
    "hasMenuSection": [
      {
        "@type": "MenuSection",
        "name": "Handmade Pasta",
        "hasMenuItem": [
          {
            "@type": "MenuItem",
            "name": "Cacio e Pepe",
            "description": "Tonnarelli pasta with aged Pecorino Romano and black pepper. Our signature dish.",
            "offers": {
              "@type": "Offer",
              "price": "22.00",
              "priceCurrency": "USD"
            },
            "suitableForDiet": [
              "https://schema.org/VegetarianDiet"
            ]
          },
          {
            "@type": "MenuItem",
            "name": "Bolognese",
            "description": "Pappardelle with slow-cooked beef and pork ragu, San Marzano tomatoes, fresh herbs.",
            "offers": {
              "@type": "Offer",
              "price": "26.00",
              "priceCurrency": "USD"
            }
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "@type": "MenuSection",
        "name": "Wood-Fired Pizza",
        "hasMenuItem": [
          {
            "@type": "MenuItem",
            "name": "Margherita",
            "description": "San Marzano tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil, extra virgin olive oil. Neapolitan style.",
            "offers": {
              "@type": "Offer",
              "price": "18.00",
              "priceCurrency": "USD"
            },
            "suitableForDiet": [
              "https://schema.org/VegetarianDiet"
            ]
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  "aggregateRating": {
    "@type": "AggregateRating",
    "ratingValue": "4.7",
    "reviewCount": "842",
    "bestRating": "5"
  },
  "areaServed": [
    { "@type": "City", "name": "Austin" },
    { "@type": "State", "name": "Texas" }
  ],
  "sameAs": [
    "https://www.yelp.com/biz/bella-cucina-austin",
    "https://www.tripadvisor.com/bella-cucina-austin",
    "https://www.opentable.com/bella-cucina-austin",
    "https://www.instagram.com/bellacucinaatx",
    "https://www.facebook.com/bellacucinaaustin"
  ]
}

The key fields AI relies on most heavily are servesCuisine (cuisine type), hasMenu with structured menu items and dietary information, openingHoursSpecification (exact hours by day), priceRange, aggregateRating, and address with geocoordinates. The suitableForDiet field on individual menu items is particularly powerful — it lets AI directly answer dietary-specific queries like "vegetarian restaurants near me" with confidence. You can generate your schema with our free schema generator tool.

The openingHoursSpecification field deserves special attention. AI frequently gets restaurant hours wrong because most restaurants only display hours as text on a contact page — or worse, only on their Google Business Profile. Structured hours in your schema give AI exact, machine-readable data for every day of the week. This is critical for queries like "restaurants open late night near me" or "brunch spots open on Sunday." If your schema says you are open, AI can confidently recommend you.

Step 2: Structure Your Menu for AI

Your menu is your restaurant's most important content — and for most restaurants, AI cannot read it at all. If your menu is a PDF, an image, embedded in an iframe from a third-party service, or locked behind a JavaScript widget that requires user interaction, AI crawlers cannot extract the information. Your Wagyu burger, your vegan tasting menu, your award-winning wine list — all invisible to AI.

The solution is straightforward: put your menu on your website as structured HTML content, not as a PDF or image. This does not mean your menu cannot look beautiful. It means the underlying content needs to be machine-readable text that AI can parse, index, and cite.

Create individual dish descriptions. Every signature dish should have a real description — not just a name and price. "Cacio e Pepe — $22" tells AI almost nothing. "Cacio e Pepe — Tonnarelli pasta tossed with aged Pecorino Romano, Tellicherry black pepper, and pasta water, finished tableside. Our most popular dish. Vegetarian. $22" tells AI everything it needs to recommend this dish when someone asks for "best pasta dishes in Austin" or "vegetarian Italian food near me."

Include dietary labels prominently. Dietary accommodations are one of the fastest-growing categories of restaurant AI queries. Diners ask AI for "gluten-free restaurants," "vegan-friendly dining," "nut-free options for kids," and "keto-friendly restaurants." If your menu clearly labels which items are vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, or keto-friendly — both in visible text and in Menu schema with suitableForDiet — AI can confidently recommend you for these queries. Missing dietary labels means missing dietary-specific diners.

Show prices. AI frequently needs to recommend restaurants within specific price ranges. Queries like "affordable date night restaurants in Denver" or "best high-end steakhouse near me" require AI to understand your pricing. If your prices are not visible on your website (or are locked in an unreadable PDF), AI cannot match you to price-conscious queries. Display prices in HTML text and include them in your Menu schema.

Organize by meal period and section. Structure your online menu the way your physical menu is organized: appetizers, salads, entrees, desserts — and by meal period if your lunch and dinner menus differ. Use clear headings that include relevant keywords: "Lunch Menu," "Dinner Entrees," "Weekend Brunch," "Dessert and After-Dinner." This helps AI understand your full offering and match specific courses to diner queries.

Update your menu when it changes. If your menu is seasonal, update your website and schema when the menu changes. Outdated menu information erodes AI confidence and leads to bad recommendations. Set a calendar reminder for every menu change to update your website, schema, and Google Business Profile simultaneously. Consistency across all platforms is essential.

Step 3: Build a Review Powerhouse

Reviews are disproportionately important for restaurant AEO because they are the primary signal diners use — and the primary signal AI uses — to evaluate restaurant quality. Unlike many industries where reviews are one factor among many, in the restaurant industry reviews are often the deciding factor. AI knows this and weighs review data accordingly.

The key is not just having reviews. It is having a strategic, multi-platform review presence with volume, recency, and specificity.

Google Business Profile reviews. Google reviews carry the highest weight for local AI recommendations. They are the first source AI checks for restaurant quality signals. Implement a systematic review collection process: include a direct link to your Google review page on receipts, table tent cards, and post-visit emails. Train your staff to mention reviews to satisfied diners: "We are glad you loved the cacio e pepe — if you have a moment, a Google review really helps us." Specific mentions of dishes in reviews are gold for AI matching.

Yelp reviews. Yelp remains a major data source for AI restaurant recommendations. Claim your Yelp Business Page, ensure all information is accurate, upload high-quality photos, and respond to every review. Yelp's review filter is strict, so focus on genuine reviews from established users.

TripAdvisor and OpenTable reviews. TripAdvisor is critical for restaurants in tourist areas — AI frequently references it when recommending restaurants to travelers (see our travel and tourism AEO guide for more on how AI handles destination-based recommendations). Claim your listing, add your full menu, and actively collect reviews. If you accept reservations through OpenTable or Resy, those reviews become additional data sources AI mines. OpenTable reviews often include specific details about food quality, noise level, and ambiance that AI uses to match diner preferences.

Respond to every review on every platform. AI considers review responses as an engagement signal. Thank positive reviewers, reference specific details from their visit, and address negative reviews professionally. Never argue — it damages both your reputation and AI credibility.

The goal is a comprehensive review presence: 200+ Google reviews, 100+ Yelp reviews, TripAdvisor presence for tourist markets, and OpenTable reviews for reservation-taking restaurants. A restaurant rated 4.5+ across Google, Yelp, and TripAdvisor sends a much stronger signal than 5.0 on one platform and nothing on the others.

Step 4: Optimize Location and Hours

Restaurant queries are inherently local. People need to eat nearby, and they need to eat now — or at a specific time they are planning for. This makes location and hours optimization critical for restaurant AEO, and it goes beyond basic local SEO into AI-specific strategies.

Google Business Profile optimization. Your Google Business Profile is the single most important data source AI uses for local restaurant recommendations. Optimize it with: a detailed business description mentioning your cuisine type, signature dishes, and dining experience; complete and accurate category listings (Primary: "Italian Restaurant," Additional: "Pizza Restaurant," "Pasta Restaurant," "Wine Bar"); accurate service options (dine-in, takeout, delivery, outdoor seating); professional photos of food, interior, exterior, and menu items; and regular Google Posts about specials, events, seasonal menu changes, and chef features.

NAP consistency across all platforms. Your Name, Address, and Phone number must be identical across your website, Google Business Profile, Yelp, TripAdvisor, OpenTable, DoorDash, Uber Eats, Instagram, Facebook, and every other platform where your restaurant appears. AI cross-references these sources, and inconsistencies — even small ones like "412 Congress Ave" versus "412 Congress Avenue" — reduce AI confidence in your information and decrease recommendation likelihood. Do a comprehensive audit of every platform where your restaurant is listed and ensure exact consistency.

Hours accuracy is critical. Incorrect hours are one of the fastest ways to lose AI trust. If AI recommends your restaurant for a late-night dining query and the diner shows up to find you closed, that creates a negative signal that compounds. Keep your hours current across every platform simultaneously. Update for seasonal changes, holiday hours, special closures, and any temporary modifications. UseopeningHoursSpecification in your schema for exact machine-readable hours, and update your Google Business Profile hours within the same day any change takes effect.

Seasonal and holiday hours. Create a dedicated "Hours and Holidays" page listing regular hours, upcoming holiday closures, and seasonal changes. Update proactively — before the holiday, not after. AI crawlers index periodically, and accurate future hours published in advance help AI make correct recommendations during busy periods.

Multiple locations. Each location needs its own Google Business Profile, its own website page with unique content, and its own Restaurant schema with specific address, hours, and menu variations. AI treats each location as a distinct entity. Describe what makes each location special rather than duplicating the same generic description.

Step 5: Create Food Content AI Wants to Cite

Beyond your menu and basic restaurant information, creating rich food content positions your restaurant as a culinary authority that AI actively wants to cite. This is where restaurants have a huge untapped advantage — you have stories, expertise, and knowledge that AI is hungry for (pun intended).

Chef profiles and stories. Your chef is your restaurant's most powerful authority signal. Create a detailed chef profile page that goes beyond a headshot and a paragraph. Include their culinary background, training, philosophy, notable career highlights, awards, and their approach to your restaurant's cuisine. When AI is asked "best restaurants with award-winning chefs in Austin" or "restaurants with classically trained Italian chefs," a detailed chef profile gives AI the information it needs to recommend you. Link the chef profile to your restaurant's structured data using the employee field.

Sourcing and ingredient stories. Farm-to-table, locally sourced, sustainable — these are not just marketing buzzwords. They are specific search queries diners ask AI about. "Farm-to-table restaurants near me," "restaurants that source locally," and "sustainable seafood restaurants" are real queries AI needs content to answer. Create a page about where your ingredients come from. Name your farms, fisheries, and suppliers. Describe your sourcing philosophy. This content gives AI concrete, citable information about your restaurant's food quality and values.

Dietary guides and allergen information. Create a comprehensive dietary guide page: "Dining Gluten-Free at Bella Cucina," "Our Vegan and Vegetarian Menu Options," "Allergen Information and Our Kitchen Protocols." These pages directly answer the questions diners ask AI most frequently about dietary needs. A dedicated page about your gluten-free options — describing your kitchen protocols, listing every gluten-free dish, and explaining how you handle cross-contamination — is far more powerful than a small "GF" icon next to a few menu items.

Recipes and cooking content. Sharing a signature recipe may seem counterintuitive, but it is incredibly powerful for AEO. When someone asks AI "how to make cacio e pepe" and your restaurant's recipe page is cited as the source, you have just established your restaurant as the authority on that dish in your city. Recipe content also brings massive organic search traffic. Include Recipe schema markup on any recipes you publish — it is one of the most AI-friendly schema types.

Blog content about food and dining. A restaurant blog covering seasonal menus, wine pairings, behind-the-scenes stories, and local food commentary creates a content library AI references. Topics like "Best Wine Pairings for Italian Pasta" or "A Guide to Austin's Italian Food Scene" position you as a culinary authority that AI cites.

Step 6: Add Event and Catering Pages

Private dining, catering, and events represent significant revenue for restaurants — and they are a growing category of AI queries. When someone asks AI "restaurants with private dining in Austin" or "best catering for a corporate event in Denver," AI needs to find structured information about your event offerings. Most restaurants bury this information in a single paragraph on their about page or do not mention it online at all.

Private dining page. Create a dedicated page for private dining that includes: room descriptions and capacities, photos of each private and semi-private space, menu options for private events (prix fixe options, family-style, custom menus), pricing structure or starting price ranges, AV capabilities and setup options, and a contact form or booking link. Add Event schema markup to this page. When AI is asked about private dining options in your city, this page gives it everything it needs to recommend your restaurant.

Catering page. If you offer catering, create a comprehensive catering page with: your catering menu (separate from your dining menu), minimum order sizes and pricing, delivery radius and setup options, event types you cater (corporate, weddings, parties, holiday events), dietary accommodation options, and testimonials from past catering clients. Use FoodService schema on your catering page. Catering queries to AI are often high-value — someone planning a 200-person corporate event represents significant revenue, and AI recommendations drive these bookings.

Event spaces and special programming. Document event spaces with square footage, seating configurations, photos, and unique features. Add Event schema. Wine dinners, chef's table experiences, cooking classes, and holiday prix fixe menus should each have their own page with Event schema including name, date, description, price, and booking link. AI increasingly recommends specific events, not just restaurants — a well-structured wine dinner page gets you recommended for "wine events this weekend in Austin."

Step 7: Technical Foundations

The technical infrastructure of your restaurant website determines whether AI can even access and index your content. Many restaurant websites have technical issues that block AI crawlers entirely — making all your schema, menu content, and review work invisible to AI search engines.

Check your robots.txt. Many restaurant website platforms, especially template-based builders and WordPress security plugins, block AI crawlers by default. Check your robots.txt file to ensure you are not blocking GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, or other AI user agents. If you want AI to recommend your restaurant, AI must be able to crawl your site. Add explicit allow rules:

User-agent: GPTBot
Allow: /

User-agent: ClaudeBot
Allow: /

User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /

User-agent: GoogleOther
Allow: /

Create an llms.txt file. The llms.txt file is a guide specifically for AI language model crawlers. Place it in your website's root directory to tell AI what your restaurant is about and where to find your most important content:

# Bella Cucina Italian Kitchen
> Authentic Italian restaurant in downtown Austin. Handmade pasta, wood-fired pizza, seasonal dishes. Locally sourced ingredients. Outdoor patio dining. Vegetarian and gluten-free options available.

## About
- [About Us](https://www.bellacucinaaustin.com/about): Our story, chef profile, and culinary philosophy
- [Chef Marco Rossi](https://www.bellacucinaaustin.com/chef): Head chef background, training, and awards

## Menus
- [Dinner Menu](https://www.bellacucinaaustin.com/menu/dinner): Full dinner menu with pricing and dietary labels
- [Lunch Menu](https://www.bellacucinaaustin.com/menu/lunch): Weekday lunch menu
- [Weekend Brunch](https://www.bellacucinaaustin.com/menu/brunch): Saturday and Sunday brunch menu
- [Wine List](https://www.bellacucinaaustin.com/menu/wine): Italian and domestic wine selections
- [Dietary Guide](https://www.bellacucinaaustin.com/dietary): Gluten-free, vegan, and allergen information

## Private Events & Catering
- [Private Dining](https://www.bellacucinaaustin.com/private-dining): Private room details, capacities, and event menus
- [Catering](https://www.bellacucinaaustin.com/catering): Catering menu, pricing, and delivery area

## Reservations & Contact
- [Reservations](https://www.bellacucinaaustin.com/reservations): Book a table via OpenTable
- [Contact](https://www.bellacucinaaustin.com/contact): Hours, location, parking, and directions

Optimize for mobile speed and images. Diners search on their phones while hungry and impatient. Target under 3 seconds for page load. The biggest restaurant website speed killers are unoptimized food photography and embedded third-party widgets. Use modern image formats (WebP or AVIF), serve appropriately sized images per device, implement lazy loading, and add descriptive alt text to every photo. Alt text like "Handmade cacio e pepe pasta at Bella Cucina Austin" is far better than "IMG_4521.jpg" — it helps AI understand and associate the image with your restaurant.

Sitemap, HTTPS, and clean URLs. Submit a comprehensive XML sitemap including menu pages, chef profile, dietary guide, event pages, and blog content to Google Search Console. Use HTTPS and clean, descriptive URLs like /menu/dinner rather than /page?id=47. Clean URLs help AI understand your site structure and improve accurate indexing.

What AI Engines Look for in Restaurant Recommendations

Understanding how AI decides which restaurants to recommend helps you prioritize your AEO efforts. AI is not randomly pulling names from a directory. It is evaluating multiple signals to determine which restaurants are the most relevant, trustworthy, and best-matched for a specific diner query. Here is what matters most:

Cuisine and dish specificity. When a diner asks about a specific type of food, AI looks for the restaurant whose content most precisely matches that query. A restaurant with "Italian" in its schema, a detailed pasta menu with individual dish descriptions, and content about Italian cooking techniques will dramatically outperform a restaurant whose website says "we serve a variety of cuisines including Italian" for Italian food queries. Specificity triggers AI recommendations.

Review volume, recency, and cross-platform consistency. AI aggregates reviews from Google, Yelp, TripAdvisor, OpenTable, and your website. It evaluates overall rating, review count, how recent reviews are, sentiment patterns, and specific details mentioned in reviews. A restaurant with 500 reviews across multiple platforms and a 4.5 average is dramatically more likely to be recommended than one with 30 reviews and a 4.9 average. Cross-platform consistency in ratings reinforces AI confidence. A restaurant rated 4.5 on Google, 4.4 on Yelp, and 4.6 on TripAdvisor sends a much stronger signal than 4.8 on Google and unrated on other platforms.

Dietary and accessibility information. AI increasingly prioritizes restaurants that provide clear dietary and accessibility information because these are among the most common and most consequential restaurant queries. A diner with a severe nut allergy asking AI for safe restaurant options needs accurate, detailed information. Restaurants that provide structured dietary data, allergen protocols, and accessibility details give AI confidence to make these critical recommendations.

Location accuracy and hours reliability. AI needs to trust that your location and hours are correct before recommending you. Inconsistent addresses across platforms, outdated hours, or missing holiday schedules reduce AI confidence. The restaurants AI recommends most confidently are those with identical NAP (Name, Address, Phone) across every platform, accurate hours in their schema markup, and proactively updated holiday and seasonal schedules.

Content depth and freshness. AI evaluates whether you have genuine culinary authority or are just a listing in a directory. A restaurant that publishes detailed chef profiles, sourcing stories, dietary guides, seasonal menu updates, and food blog content demonstrates the kind of topical authority AI trusts. Fresh content — recent blog posts, updated menus, current event listings — signals an active, well-managed restaurant that AI can confidently recommend.

Site health and AI accessibility. Technical factors like page speed, mobile responsiveness, HTTPS, clean URLs, and AI crawler access all affect whether AI can effectively index your content. A restaurant website that blocks GPTBot or ClaudeBot in its robots.txt is invisible to those AI engines — regardless of how good the food is. Check your AI crawler access with our complete AEO checklist.

AEO Strategies by Restaurant Type

While the seven steps above apply universally, different restaurant types should prioritize differently:

Fine dining: Prioritize chef profiles, tasting menu details, wine programs, award recognition, and private dining capabilities. AI queries include "best restaurants for a special occasion" and "tasting menu near me." Casual and family dining: Emphasize family-friendly features, kids' menus, dietary accommodations, and value positioning. Review volume is particularly important given higher cover counts. Fast casual: Focus on order-ahead options, delivery availability, clear pricing, and customization. Delivery platform presence (DoorDash, Uber Eats) provides additional AI signals.

Bars and cocktail lounges: Include drink menus with structured data alongside food menus. Happy hour details and specialty cocktail descriptions help AI match queries like "best cocktail bars with food." Cafes and bakeries: Optimize for morning and weekend queries — brunch content is extremely high-volume. Wi-Fi availability and workspace friendliness are relevant signals. Food trucks and pop-ups: Keep a current "Find Us" page with your schedule. Use Event schema for pop-up appearances. Focused menus match very specific queries that AI loves to answer.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Restaurants Who Start Now Will Own Their Markets

AI-powered restaurant search is not a future trend. It is happening right now, at massive scale. Hundreds of millions of people are asking ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews where to eat — and those AI models are evaluating your website, your reviews, your structured data, your menu content, and your Google Business Profile to decide whether to recommend you.

The vast majority of restaurants have done zero AEO work. They have template websites with PDF menus AI cannot read, no structured data, outdated hours, thin or nonexistent content about their food and story, and no strategy for AI visibility. Many rely entirely on third-party platforms like Yelp, DoorDash, and Google Maps and have no owned web presence at all. Their menu is invisible to AI. Their chef story is untold. Their dietary accommodations are unlisted.

Every step you implement from this guide puts distance between you and your competition. Start with the highest-impact changes: implement Restaurant schema with menu data (Step 1), put your menu on your website as structured HTML with dietary labels and pricing (Step 2), and build a systematic multi-platform review strategy (Step 3). These three steps alone can dramatically increase your AI visibility.

Then build out the remaining steps: optimize your location and hours across every platform (Step 4), create food content AI wants to cite — chef profiles, sourcing stories, dietary guides, and recipes (Step 5), add structured event and catering pages (Step 6), and set up your technical foundations including robots.txt, llms.txt, mobile speed, and image optimization (Step 7). Each step compounds. Together, they create a discovery channel that grows as AI search grows — and AI search is growing faster than any other channel in restaurant marketing.

In the restaurant industry, discovery is everything. The restaurants diners find are the restaurants diners eat at. The restaurants AI recommends are the restaurants diners find. The owners who build their AI presence now — while competitors are still uploading PDF menus and hoping for the best — will be the restaurants AI recommends first. The best time to start was six months ago. The second best time is today.

Want to see how AI-visible your restaurant is right now? Scan your website free with Vida AEO and get your AI visibility score in under 60 seconds. See exactly which optimizations your restaurant needs and where to start.