AI for restaurants: what a chatbot can handle in guest messages today, and where it has to stop

Saturday, 7:40 pm, every table is taken, and on the restaurant phone 3 guests are asking: “Are you open for lunch tomorrow?”, “Is the lentil bolognese vegan?”, “Table for 6 at 8 pm, any chance?” By the time you check your phone after the last guest has left, the group of 6 has long since booked somewhere else.

An AI can answer the first two questions today from your website and your menu while you serve. For the third, it may send your reservation link or take down the request, but never say “yes”. If it does anyway, 6 people turn up at 8 pm to a full restaurant.

Search for “AI in restaurants” and you read a lot about phone AI, staff rotas and stock control. But many guest questions arrive in writing, by WhatsApp, by email and through the chat on your website. For those you need no new POS system and no new phone system, just an assistant that answers only from your content and hands over to you at the right moments. The rules for it are further down, ready to copy.

What guests look up online before they visit

Before a new guest comes in for the first time, they have often seen your menu already. According to a Bitkom survey from spring 2024 of 1,005 people in Germany aged 16 and over, 53% usually look at the menu online before visiting a new restaurant or café, and among people aged 16 to 29 it is 65%. 47% prefer to book directly online. Anyone who can't find what they're looking for there sends a message. The questions repeat, and the answer is often already on your website.

So your menu belongs online as text, and your reservation link somewhere people find it at once. That helps the guests who never write. And it is the material an AI will later answer from.

People still write, though, and someone has to answer. Staff for that are expensive and hard to find. In a member survey by the German hospitality association DEHOGA (Tageskarte, February 2026), staff costs were a burden for 75.2% of the participating businesses, well ahead of red tape (67%) and energy costs (65.7%). Back in October 2021, the shortage of skilled workers was a problem for 79.6% of 4,600 businesses surveyed, and 51.9% responded with extra closing days (DEHOGA survey, October 2021), and messages keep arriving on those days too.

What an AI can answer today

A good assistant answers only from your content (website, menu, answers you write yourself) and says openly when there is nothing on a topic. The right column is your checklist for the afternoon plan further down, because that is where things often fall short.

On WhatsApp and Telegram, many questions come in as voice messages. An AI that turns the audio into text answers “There are five of us tomorrow with a stroller, is it easy to get in?” just like a typed question. And an assistant that replies in the guest's language helps any restaurant with tourists: the family from Lyon asks about a high chair in French and gets the answer in French, even if your website is only in German.

Where the AI has to stop

At these 6 points the AI stops, however well it writes.

Confirming tables

Without a connection to your reservation system, an AI doesn't know whether a table is free at 8 pm. It can only guess, and you only find out about a guessed “Yes, that works” when the guests are standing in the door. So when it comes to tables, it may do just two things: send the reservation link, which shows the real free times, or take down the date, time, number of guests, name and phone number and say clearly that only your confirmation counts.

Orders

Without a till, a kitchen ticket and payment, an order in the chat is just a promise nobody at the pass knows about. The assistant explains how to order from you (link, phone, in person) and accepts nothing itself.

Allergies

This is the most delicate point. One wrong sentence about nuts costs more than a table here. In all three countries, allergen information for food that is not prepacked is the business's duty. Only the form differs:

• Germany: Under § 4(3) LMIDV, you state allergens in writing, for example on the menu, a sign or a notice. Under para. 4, verbal information is allowed only on request, given by you or by sufficiently trained staff. For that you need a written or electronic record that guests can see on request, and a clear note next to the dish or on a notice that you give the information verbally.
• Austria: Under the Allergeninformationsverordnung (Allergen Information Ordinance, BGBl. II Nr. 175/2014), you inform guests in writing or verbally. For verbal information, according to the Austrian Economic Chamber (WKO), a trained person must always be on the premises, and under § 4 of the ordinance both ways must rest on written documentation.
• Switzerland: Under Art. 5(1)(d) LIV, verbal information is only allowed if a clearly visible written notice points to it. In addition, the information must be available to staff in writing, or a qualified person gives it directly. Fact sheet no. 4 of the canton of Aargau (as of September 2025) names the chef as an example.

For the AI, this means it repeats what your checked menu says, for example “According to our menu, the risotto is gluten free.” It never judges whether a dish is safe for a particular person. Traces are a separate matter: the Austrian Economic Chamber writes that possible traces are not covered by the duty to inform. What your menu doesn't mention, the AI can't know either. If a guest asks “Can you guarantee there are no nuts in it?”, only your kitchen can answer. And the AI replaces none of the information you have to give anyway under the rules above.

Groups and parties

A request for 25 people brings in a lot of revenue and is easily lost when it sits somewhere between email, WhatsApp and the contact form. The AI can prepare it neatly: date, number of guests, occasion. You set the menu, the price per person and the deposit. You don't want to take back a wrong price in front of 25 guests. So set a number from which every request lands with you, even if your reservation link would allow bigger tables.

Complaints

If a guest writes after their visit that the food was cold, the AI can apologize and pass the message on to you. It never offers a voucher, a discount or a dessert on the house. Whatever it promises, you have to deliver at the table, and only your team knows whether the complaint is right.

Passing itself off as human

An assistant must never pretend to be someone from your team. Since August 2, 2026, Art. 50 of the EU AI Act has applied: people must learn at the latest at their first interaction that they are dealing with an AI system, unless that is obvious anyway (text in German). The duty in para. 1 falls on the provider of the AI system, which for a tool you buy is usually the company that makes it. Still, check whether your tool identifies itself as AI on every channel, WhatsApp included.

Everything in this section is general information, not legal advice. For allergen questions about your own business, your local food inspection authority can help.

Setup in one afternoon

1. Collect the facts. Opening hours for each day with kitchen closing time, closing days, public holidays and annual closures, your reservation link, pickup or delivery, parking, bus and train, steps at the entrance, payment methods, gift vouchers.
2. The menu as a PDF with selectable text. Export it straight from the program you design it in, such as Word or Canva, not as a scan. The test: if you can highlight a dish in the PDF with your mouse, an AI can read it. If you use letters or numbers for allergens, the key belongs in the same document. Otherwise nobody knows what “A, G” stands for.
3. Write your own answers. Go through your WhatsApp history from the last 4 weeks and write down the 10 most common questions with your answer, in your own voice, using du or Sie the way you do with your guests. Then add whatever is in the right column of the table above and not answered anywhere yet: holidays, group size, accessibility, dogs on the terrace.
4. Set limits. Write down what always goes to you: table requests without a link, orders, severe allergies, groups from a size you choose, and complaints. You can take the template in the next section for this as it is.
5. Test like a difficult guest. Ask 15 real questions, including these 4: “Do you still have a table free tonight at 8?”, “Is the risotto suitable for someone with celiac disease?”, “I'll take 2 pizzas for pickup.” and “Are you open on December 26?” (if that isn't stated anywhere). The assistant only passes when it confirms no table, hands the celiac question to your floor staff, doesn't accept the pizzas and admits it doesn't know about the holiday. Any other answer shows you a gap in your content or your rules.
6. Connect the channels and settle the handover. Connect website chat, WhatsApp and email. Check beforehand whether you can still use your WhatsApp number in the app on the restaurant phone afterwards. That depends on the tool. If you have no website, share a chat link instead, for example in your Instagram profile. If your tool understands voice messages, finish by sending one from your personal phone with a question about parking, and check the answer. Decide who gets the conversations that are handed over and by when they get a reply.

If your lunch menu changes every week, keep in mind that an assistant only reads your website again at intervals, Deskwoot about every 48 hours. A dish from the week before can then still turn up for up to about 2 days after the change. So have the assistant point to the page with the lunch menu instead of naming single dishes, or start the new read yourself after the change (in Deskwoot with “Re-crawl” in the Training Hub).

Rules for your assistant, ready to copy

These rules fit into your tool's instructions field. Replace whatever is in square brackets with your own details.

You are the AI assistant of [restaurant name] and answer only with what is in our content.
1. Never say that a table is free or booked. Send the reservation link: [link]. If there is none, ask for the date, time, number of guests, name and phone number, and say that the reservation only counts once we confirm it.
2. Always pass requests for [10] or more people to the team, even if there is a reservation link. Ask for the date, number of guests and occasion first. Don't name prices for set menus, rooms or deposits that aren't in our content.
3. Don't take orders. Orders go through [link or phone number].
4. Name allergens and ingredients only as they appear on our menu, always with the name of the dish. Never judge whether a dish is safe for someone with an allergy or celiac disease. Our floor staff will clarify that.
5. If something isn't in our content, such as holidays or special requests, say so openly and pass the question to the team.
6. With complaints, apologize, offer no vouchers or discounts, and pass them to the team.
7. When writing in German, address each guest individually as [du/Sie], even if they write to us using “ihr”.
8. Identify yourself as an AI assistant, never as a person from the team.

Sample replies for 5 typical requests

The examples assume the facts are in your content.

Guest: Do you have a table for 6 on Saturday at 7 pm?
Assistant: I'm afraid I can't see whether a table for 6 is still free on Saturday at 7 pm. Our reservation link shows you all the free times, and you'll get the confirmation by email: [link]

Guest: Do you have a table for 6 on Saturday at 7 pm? (restaurant without online booking, website chat)
Assistant: I'm happy to take down your request: Saturday, 7 pm, 6 people. What name should it be under, and what number can we reach you on? The reservation is only binding once we confirm it.

Guest: Is the risotto gluten free? I have celiac disease.
Assistant: According to our menu, the risotto has no ingredients that contain gluten. I can't judge whether it's suitable if you have celiac disease. Please let our staff know when you order, and the kitchen will answer that for you directly.

Guest: There are 25 of us and we'd like to have a party in December.
Assistant: Lovely. Which day in December would you like to celebrate, and what's the occasion? Then our team will get back to you with an offer.

Guest: I'll take 2 margheritas for pickup at 6 pm.
Assistant: I'm afraid I can't take orders in the chat. For pickup, please order through [link] or by phone at [number].

Sentences your assistant must never write

What Deskwoot covers today

Back to Saturday, 7:40 pm. Deskwoot brings WhatsApp, email, the chat on your website, Telegram and 4 more channels into one inbox, and there the AI assistant Fynn answers while you serve. It answers the question about lunch tomorrow from the opening hours on your website, and the one about the lentil bolognese from your menu. For the table for 6, it sends your reservation link if that is in your content, right away and at midnight too. Without a link, it takes down the date, time, number of guests, name and phone number, passes the request on to you and tells the guest that only your confirmation counts.

Fynn gets its knowledge from your website (read again every 48 hours), from documents such as your menu and from answers you write yourself. Deskwoot rejects a scan with no text layer at all as soon as you upload it, with a notice, so before any guest asks about the risotto (Training Hub guide).

If you set up Deskwoot as a restaurant, the setup writes the rules for tables, allergens, opening hours, parties and how to address guests straight into Fynn's instructions. For parties it then asks for the date, number of guests and occasion, and it names allergens only as they appear on your menu. It isn't connected to your POS system, so there is nowhere it could enter an order. A group limit isn't part of these rules: by default, Fynn sends the reservation link for bigger tables too. You add rules 2, 3 and 6 from the template above yourself in the bot settings. Then send Fynn the 4 tricky questions from the afternoon plan, for example in the chat on your website, and check every answer.

Deskwoot turns voice messages of up to 10 minutes on WhatsApp and Telegram into text, and Fynn answers them like a typed question (how that works). It replies in the guest's language.

If Fynn gets stuck or the guest wants a person, it hands over with a short note: the request, the mood, a suggested next step. The free app for iPhone and Android sends you a push notification for the handover, so you see the request for 25 people the same evening. Fynn is recognizable as AI on every channel, on WhatsApp and Telegram for example through a line like “Fynn, the AI assistant of Sample Trattoria” above its first reply (details). Deskwoot and its database run in data centers in the Netherlands, and you sign the data processing agreement under Art. 28 GDPR right in the dashboard.

What Fynn can't do today: take phone calls (an AI voice for the phone is planned) and answer messages on Instagram or in Facebook Messenger. Until then, the chat link in your Instagram profile helps. WhatsApp runs on the WhatsApp Business Platform, and you can't use the same number in the WhatsApp Business app on your phone at the same time. When you're out, you reply in the Deskwoot app instead.

You can try everything free for 7 days, no credit card needed. After that, Fynn is available from the Startup plan at $3.20 per agent a month billed annually ($4 billed monthly), with 50 AI conversations a month for the whole workspace. Each one beyond that costs $0.07 from a prepaid balance. A conversation counts once a month, however many messages Fynn writes in it. If 3 people work in the inbox, that comes to $9.60 a month billed annually. If Fynn answers 120 guest conversations a month, 70 × $0.07 = $4.90 comes on top, $14.50 in total. A single group of 6 a month that would otherwise have eaten somewhere else covers that. Fynn isn't part of the free Hacker plan.

Meta bills the WhatsApp fees to you directly, with no markup from us. According to Meta, since October 1, 2026, 1,000 service messages a month per number are free, meaning replies within 24 hours of a guest's last message. After that, Meta charges for each one. So add a payment method at Meta, or Meta stops delivering further replies once the 1,000 free messages are used up.

Where you can start today

Take the 10 questions you've typed most often in the last 4 weeks and check whether the answers are on your website and in a menu with selectable text. Whatever is missing, add it. That helps with any tool, and the guests who never write will then find the answer themselves.

Then pick 2 questions from your list, ideally the one about a table for tonight, and ask them in the live demo on the restaurants page. There, Fynn speaks for “Sample Bistro”, and you see where it answers on its own and where it refers guests to the team. If you like what you see, start the free trial on the same page with your own restaurant: 7 days, no credit card needed.