--- title: "The audit recording: a five-minute screen video for a restaurant owner" status: published date: 2026-10-15T14:40:00Z author: clikiti-research excerpt: "71% of the 180 independent restaurant, café and bar websites we scanned don't mark allergens or dietary dishes, and 51% don't put the menu up as text. This is the script for a short screen recording that shows an owner their own site on a phone, and the note to send with it." featured_image: /research/restaurants/2026-q4/scenes/scene-opener-agency-1600.webp featured_image_alt: "After service, an agency owner shows a laptop to a chef-owner at a candlelit table in an empty dining room" featured_image_caption: "Owners watch a recording after service, on their own time. Five minutes, their own site, one fix at a time." og_image: /research/restaurants/2026-q4/og.jpg category: restaurants tags: [pitching, accessibility] series: pitch-playbooks series_part: 10 type: playbook cites: - restaurants/2026-q4#diet - restaurants/2026-q4#menu - restaurants/2026-q4#reserve - restaurants/2026-q4#order summary: - "Only 29% of 180 independent restaurant, café and bar websites mark allergens or vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free dishes, the least-answered diner question (Clikiti Research, October 2026)." - "49% put the menu up as real text, 37% let a diner book a table online or say plainly it is walk-ins only, and 43% take pickup or delivery orders directly." - "Owners are on the floor when you'd call. A five-minute screen recording of their own site on a phone, in the order a diner meets it, gets watched after service and does the pitching for you." pitch_line: "A guest with an allergy picks the place that says so before they arrive; the server answers the same question every night." audio: src: /research/posts/restaurant-website-audit-recording/episode.mp3 duration: 213 transcript: /research/posts/restaurant-website-audit-recording/episode.txt --- Restaurant owners don't take calls during service, and after service they don't want a meeting. What gets watched is a short screen recording of their own website, on a phone, sent with a two-line note. This post is the script for that recording: what to show, in what order, and what to say over each finding. The numbers come from [The State of Independent Restaurant Websites 2026](/research/restaurants), our scan of 180 independent restaurant, café and bar websites against eight questions diners ask. The one to build the recording around: **71% of the sites don't mark allergens or vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free dishes.** It is the least-answered question in the study. ::stat{ref="restaurants/2026-q4#diet"} ## Before you hit record Do the walk-through once without recording, on your own phone, and write down pass or fail for each step below. Then decide the one fix you'll lead with. On most restaurant sites it is either the menu or the dietary marks, because those are where the misses cluster. Set up the recording: - **Record the phone screen, not a desktop.** The owner's guests are on phones. Use the phone's own screen recorder or mirror it to your laptop. - **Keep it under five minutes.** Six findings at most. If the site passes something, say so and move on. - **Start on a search result, not the URL.** That is where a diner starts. - **Your face in a corner is optional.** Your voice is not. ## The recording, step by step Show the steps in the order a diner meets them. Each one has a thing to tap, a number from the report, and a line to say. The lines are written to be read out as they are. ### 1. The home page: are you open tonight? Tap through from the search result and stop on the first screen. Look for today's hours. 77% of the sites show opening hours as text, so this is usually a pass. If it is, say so first. It tells the owner you're looking fairly. > "Hours are right there on the first screen. Good. Most places get this one, and you do too." If it fails, it goes to the top of the note: it is a quick fix. ### 2. Tap Menu: can I read it? This is the centre of the recording. Tap Menu and let the screen sit for a beat so the owner sees what a guest sees. Then try to select a dish name. Only 49% of the sites put the menu up as real text. The rest hand the phone a PDF, a photo, an app page or nothing we could find. > "Here's your menu on a phone. It's a PDF, so I'm pinching and dragging to read a dish. Search engines and screen readers can't read it the way they read a page. Half the restaurants we looked at have this same problem." If the menu is text, praise it and stay on it: steps 3 and 4 happen on this page. ### 3. Scroll the menu: what will it cost? 34% of the sites show prices beside dishes on a text menu. If the menu is a PDF, this step folds into step 2. > "There are no prices next to the dishes. People decide where to eat on what it'll cost, and right now they have to guess." ### 4. Look for GF, V or an allergen note: can I eat here? The lead finding. Scroll the whole menu on camera, slowly, looking for a legend or a mark. 71% of the sites have none. > "Someone with a gluten allergy or a vegan friend checks this before they pick a place. I can't find a single mark. Your servers answer this question every night. The menu could answer it before the guest arrives." If the site passes, say it is in the top three in ten and move on. ### 5. Book or order: can I do it without calling? Find the button. Two numbers, and the one to use depends on the kind of place: - **A table.** 37% of the sites let a diner book online or say plainly that it is walk-ins only. Chef-driven rooms do it on 81%, cafés on 9%. A café doesn't need booking; it needs the walk-ins line. - **An order.** 43% take pickup or delivery orders directly, through a commission-free service, rather than only through a delivery app. > "To order pickup, the site sends me to a delivery app. Every order that goes through it pays the app a commission. A direct ordering link keeps that money with you." ### 6. One thing they can't see: contrast or speed End with one technical check from the report. Pick whichever fails. 64% of the sites have text below the 4.5:1 contrast minimum, and 26% take longer than 2.5 seconds to show their main content on a phone. Keep it to one sentence and don't read out tool names. > "Some of the text over your photos is hard to read on a phone in daylight. That's a theme setting, not a redesign." ### Close: what you'd fix first Ten seconds, no slides: > "If I could change one thing this week, it'd be the menu: real text, with the GF and V marks on it. I can send you what that page would look like. Reply to this email if you want it." ## The follow-up note Send the recording as a link, not an attachment, with a note short enough to read on a phone between tickets. :::copy{label="The follow-up note"} Subject: Your menu on a phone (5 minute video) Hi, I recorded your website the way a guest sees it on a phone, start to finish. It takes five minutes. The short version: your hours are easy to find, but the menu is a PDF and nothing on it marks gluten-free or vegan dishes. We looked at 180 independent restaurant websites, and 71% don't mark them either, so it's a chance to be ahead of most of your neighbours. If you'd like, I'll send a mock-up of the menu as a page, with the marks on it. No call needed. ::: Edit the middle sentence to match what you found. Keep the number, the offer and "no call needed". ## What to deliver if they say yes The report rates the menu and the dietary marks as content jobs, hours and prices as quick fixes, and booking and direct ordering as build work. A first job that fits most of the sites in the study: 1. **The menu as a page,** one section per course, one dish to a line, prices beside them. The PDF stays as a download. 2. **A dietary legend and the marks,** with one short allergen note on how the kitchen handles requests. 3. **Hours in the header,** kitchen hours included. 4. **One booking or ordering button,** or the walk-ins line, on every page. 5. **Restaurant structured data** pointing at the new menu page. 84% of the sites have none. :::pitch{title="The recording on one card"} 1. **Record the phone, in the diner's order.** Hours, menu, prices, dietary marks, booking or ordering, one technical check. Under five minutes. 2. **Lead with the dietary marks.** 71% of 180 sites have none. It is the question servers answer every night. 3. **Close with one fix and a mock-up offer.** "Reply if you want it" beats "can we book a call" with an owner who is on the floor. ::: For what each kind of menu looks like to a phone and a search engine, and how to check one in two minutes, see [our field guide to the menu](/research/posts/restaurant-menu-as-a-phone-sees-it). For a pitch built as a live conversation instead of a recording, compare [the talk track for auto repair shops](/research/posts/auto-repair-shop-prices-talk-track).