Restaurants: how to get recommended by ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude

Updated 27 September 2026

When a customer asks ChatGPT for “a good Italian restaurant for dinner for two in [town]”, the assistant doesn’t taste your food: it relies on what it finds online, often by running a web search. This guide sets out the sources that matter for a restaurant, the pages to publish and how to get reviews by the book.

What AIs check before recommending a restaurant

With web search on, ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude query a search engine, read a few pages, then write their answer and cite their sources. For a restaurant, those pages are rarely just the home page of its website: they are mostly listings, round-ups and reviews.

• Your Google Business Profile: category, opening hours, attributes (outdoor seating, vegetarian options, accessibility), photos and reviews.
• Review and booking platforms such as Tripadvisor or TheFork, often cited for “best restaurant” questions.
• Local press, guides and “where to eat in [town]” articles, which hand AIs ready-made lists.
• Your own website, provided the menu, prices and opening hours can be read as text.

Pages to create on your website

An assistant can only suggest you for “outdoor seating”, “gluten-free” or “group of 20” if that information is written down somewhere. A menu published only as a photo or a PDF is hard to use.

• Your menu as text (HTML), with prices and the date it was last updated.
• A practical information page: address, opening hours including bank holidays and annual closures, directions, parking, accessibility, payment methods.
• A groups and private hire page: capacity, set menus, booking terms.
• An “About us” page: type of cuisine, chef, suppliers, specialities.
• A short FAQ: bookings, allergens (how to get the information), children, dogs, vegetarian options.
• Restaurant structured data (schema.org) with your address, opening hours, type of cuisine and a link to the menu, matching the visible content.

Customer reviews: a strategy that plays by the rules

Assistants often sum up a restaurant’s reputation from public reviews. Volume and recency count, but so does content: a review that mentions a “quiet terrace” or a “children’s menu” gives an AI exactly the material it reuses.

• Ask every customer for a review, not just the ones who seem happy: Google forbids selectively asking for positive reviews.
• Nothing in return: a free dessert or a discount in exchange for a review is banned by Google.
• Make it easy: a short link or QR code on the bill, with no pressure at the table.
• Reply to every review, including negative ones, factually and politely.

Local signals and consistency

AIs cross-check several sources. If your name, address or opening hours differ from one site to another, they may pick up the wrong version, or even tell people you’ve closed. Use exactly the same name, address and phone number everywhere. Mention your neighbourhood and nearby landmarks in your copy. Coverage in the local press or guides, earned with a real story (an opening, a new chef, a local product), counts for more than one more directory listing.

Mistakes to avoid

• A menu that only appears on Instagram or as an image.
• Opening hours that are up to date on your Google profile but not on your website, or the other way round.
• A temporary closure left on your profile after you’ve reopened.
• Check your robots.txt file: blocking OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot or PerplexityBot can keep you out of answers that use web search. You can refuse the training crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot) without blocking the search ones.
• Buying reviews or having your staff write them.

Restaurant checklist

• Complete Google Business Profile: category, attributes, special opening hours, recent photos.
• Menu as text on your website, with prices and the date last updated.
• Practical information page and groups page published.
• Name, address and phone number identical everywhere.
• A review request every time, and replies to every review.
• Restaurant structured data matching the visible content.
• AI search crawlers allowed in robots.txt.

Measure your visibility in AI answers

Ask your typical questions yourself in several assistants, with web search on, and note who gets recommended and which sources are cited. Answers vary with the wording: a single check isn’t enough. Saykora’s free test asks ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude with web search on and gives you, in 2 minutes and with no sign-up or card, an AI Score out of 100, the competitors named instead of you, the sources used and an action plan. See an example report or our method.

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