Everything is pretty stripped down and simplified. No gratuitous use of flash.
I also like their use of reservations, for the most part the system is set up to treat everyone as equals, so its not like a celeb can just come in:
"In March 2008, Chang opened Momofuku Ko, a 12 seat restaurant that takes reservations six days in advance, online only, on a first-come-first-served basis, without regard to social status or income. The highly limited seating, along with Chang's popularity in New York, has caused a furor, generating frustration for both influential and ordinary people who have failed to secure a reservation"
I feel its both attractive and functional. Its primarily supposed to be a website (i.e used from a normal web browser) but will work fine on your iphone.
There is no flash but we've used jquery extensively for 'flashiness'.
There is also prominent twitter/flickr and facebook engagement throughout.
There are menu's (web based and pdf choices), offers and locations. Try googling for 'giraffe menu' - the menu is the top hit.
We spent a while fine tuning the location finder http://giraffe.net/restaurants which uses the google API to provide 'a nearest list' functionality. Once you chosen a restaurant it will also provide you with a list of other restaurants close to your choice.
The site www.usabilitypost.com did a feature on the location finder as we've also done something cool with the location search box.
http://www.usabilitypost.com/2009/11/30/search-dropdown-hybr...
The idea behind the site is simple. Get people to the restaurants. We've had a lot of feedback that suggests that it does just that and we're quite proud of the result.
A lot of local businesses don't get my business because they don't have or want a web site, and I don't use the yellow pages. A decent web site is becoming increasingly important IMO.
Reminds me why I generally just type "<restaurant name> menu" into Google, and generally someone has a direct link to a PDF.
Restaurant websites are frustrating for me (and you ;-), but do they matter to anyone that doesn't read HN?
You can also directly email customers who spend the most money (based on info in the online ordering database) and send them weekly specials and coupons on the website. This is very effective.
"Pizza Hut is getting 30 percent of its sales online. Moreover, online boosts the amount of sales – online orders are ten percent higher than in-person orders because it is so easy to check off additional or more expensive items." Source: http://localonliner.com/2010/01/29/newspapers-partner-with-a...
These site-down restaurants without take-out/delivery should have all of their information easily available online for potential customers to find before they make a reservation. So, yes, I think that it is still very important to have an easy to use website for a restaurant.
TL;DR - You've got to sell them on the business aspects, like SEO.
I'm sure this isn't an original idea but web development firms should offer a subscription package to owners. This subscription would assist them in monitoring the performance of their total web presence (not just the website which is becoming less relevant these days) and assisting them in improving it. It could certainly prove a point of difference in a saturated market especially if you got a great case study or two behind you to present to customers.
The difficulty is that site developers are just programmers and designers and not salesmen and marketers so they either don't understand or care about what I just talked about or don't know how to sell it to the business owners.
Bums on seats is the bottom line.
Such things tend to devalue the Internet. I think this is part of the problem Yelp is trying to solve.
Flash websites are usually payed for and in good amounts to and they are done by people who don't really understand usability but do know marketability (for themselves) and how to make things look pretty.
Seriously, I do understand the point you're making, but keep in mind that not everyone is interested in the phone portion of their smartphone, or able to make effective use of it. :)
If the worst thing about a restaurant is its website, I'm a happy guy. They'll catch up, but I can't say I blame them for focusing on other things.
1) Sure, its called a phone, but thats just because at some point it was a phone. Now its a phone/browser/weak computer/video game system. The name is almost misleading.
You have a good point that its doesn't make sense to complain "I'm using tool A to do job B for which it wasn't made and it doesn't work" but thats no longer the case for many modern "phones."
2) If the restaurant can get more business by adapting to people who "use their phone incorrectly" then they might as well do that (assuming the cost/benefit works out).
