Images You Need on Your Restaurant Website to Increase Reservations

Your restaurant website has one main job: to make people want to book.

Good photography plays a bigger part in that than you might think. Tripadvisor found that restaurant pages with photos received 73% more engagement than those without, while pages with more than 35 photos saw 107% more engagement.

That doesn’t mean adding 35 random photos will double your reservations. It does show that diners use images heavily when deciding where to eat.

So, what should you actually show?

Your best dishes

Start with the food people come to you for.

You don’t need to photograph every dish on the menu. Focus on your most recognisable, visually appealing or popular dishes — the ones that make someone think, “I want that.”

Six to ten strong food photos is a much better starting point than dozens of average ones.

Food being prepared

Don’t only photograph the finished plate.

Research has found that images showing food being prepared can increase perceived quality and purchase intent. Think pizza coming out of the oven, a chef finishing a plate, steak being carved or sauce being poured.

These images make the food feel fresh, real and part of an experience.

Your restaurant during service

One of the easiest mistakes to make is filling your website with photos of an empty dining room.

People aren’t booking your furniture. They’re booking the experience.

Show the restaurant when it feels alive: warm lighting, occupied tables, the bar in use and staff moving through the room.

The aim is to help someone imagine themselves sitting there.

Different seating areas

If you have different areas, show them.

That might include:

• booths
• terrace seating
• bar seats
• private dining
• outdoor tables
• counter seating

It gives customers a much clearer idea of what they’re booking and removes uncertainty before they reserve.

Real people

A few photos of real people can make your website feel much more trustworthy.

That could be your team, a chef at work, front-of-house staff serving guests or customers enjoying the restaurant.

Research into restaurant imagery has found that photos featuring people can increase trust and purchase intent.

The key word is real. Avoid anything that looks overly staged or like a stock photo.

Your exterior and entrance

These photos probably won’t be the most exciting ones on your site, but they’re still useful.

Showing your frontage and entrance reassures customers that they know where they’re going — especially if your restaurant is tucked away, upstairs or part of a larger building.

Drinks

Cocktails, wine, coffee and other drinks can help communicate the type of experience you offer.

They shouldn’t dominate your gallery, but a few strong drink photos can add personality and give people another reason to visit.

How many photos should you have?

There’s no magic number, but a good restaurant website should probably have around 20–30 strong, useful images.

As a rough guide:

• 6–10 food photos
• 3–5 preparation shots
• 4–6 atmosphere shots
• 2–4 seating-area photos
• 2–4 staff or customer photos
• 2 exterior photos
• 2–4 drink photos

You don’t need to use every image on one page. Spread them naturally across your homepage, menu, about page and booking journey.

The simple rule

Your photos should help someone imagine what it will be like to eat at your restaurant.

Show the food. Show the atmosphere. Show the people. Show the experience.

If someone can picture themselves there, you’ve made the decision to book that little bit easier.

References

1. Tripadvisor — restaurant photos and customer engagement. Tripadvisor research found that restaurant pages with photos received more engagement, with pages containing 35 or more photos seeing substantially higher engagement than those with none.
   Read the Tripadvisor research

2. International Journal of Hospitality Management — food preparation imagery and purchase intention. Research examining process-focused versus finished-dish photography and its effect on perceived food quality and purchase intention.
   Read the research

3. International Journal of Hospitality Management — restaurant atmosphere and lighting. Research examining how restaurant lighting shown in images can affect perceived attractiveness and intention to visit.
   Read the research

4. Cogent Business & Management — people in restaurant photography. Research examining how the presence of faces in user-generated restaurant photos can influence trust and purchase intention.
   Read the research

5. International Journal of Hospitality Management — aesthetic appeal of user-generated food photography. Research into how visually appealing food imagery can influence intention to visit a restaurant.
   Read the research

6. Google Business Profile — photo guidance. Google recommends using clear, well-lit and realistic photos of food, interiors, exteriors and staff that accurately represent the business.
   Read Google’s photo guidance