What makes a restaurant agent-ready?

What an agent is trying to do

A guest asks for a table, a dish or a location. The agent works through the same steps every time:

1. Find restaurants that match: cuisine, area, open at the right time.
2. Read the menu for that location and service.
3. Check the guest's needs: party size, diet, parking, a private room.
4. Find how this location takes reservations or orders.
5. Book through the restaurant's own system, or ask a person.

What has to be true

• Every location's address, phone and hours agree on your site, Google and each ordering and reservation listing, holiday hours included.
• Brunch, happy hour and kitchen hours are stated separately from opening hours.
• Each location's menu is in text, by service, not only in a PDF or a photo.
• Dietary marks are stated per dish, with your kitchen's own caveat.
• Parking, accessibility and private dining capacity are written down per location.
• Your reservation and ordering links are the ones you chose, with party-size and cancellation terms beside them.

The facts that change during service

Sold-out dishes and open tables change by the hour, and they live in your POS and your reservation system. An assistant should state them only from a current reading. When it can't read them, the honest answer is “ask the restaurant,” never “full” or “sold out.”

The allergen rule

An agent may repeat what you state about a dish. It should never call a dish safe for an allergy, and it should never read silence as “free of.” Allergy questions end with your staff.

Where to start

1. Ask ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity about each location's hours, one signature dish and how to reserve, the way a guest would.
2. Compare your hours and menu across your site, Google and every ordering app, and fix the differences at the source.
3. Put each menu on your site in text, by service.
4. Write down the facts that live only in a manager's head: parking, accessibility, private dining.

Questions