How to Get More Google Reviews for Your Restaurant

When people decide where to eat, Google is often the first place they look. They search "restaurants near me", scan the star ratings, read a few reviews and look at photos of the food. A restaurant with 600 reviews at 4.6 looks like a safe bet. One with 40 reviews looks like a gamble.

Here's how restaurants, cafés and pubs can get more Google reviews from the diners they're already serving.

Why restaurants are different

Restaurants have one big advantage over most businesses: volume. A busy restaurant might serve hundreds of people a week. Even if only a small share of them leave a review, that adds up fast.

The flip side is that your competitors have the same advantage. Popular restaurants often have hundreds or thousands of reviews. You can't keep up by hoping diners remember to review you. You need a system.

The other big difference is that diners decide quickly. Someone choosing between three places for dinner tonight isn't doing weeks of research. They're glancing at ratings, review counts and photos on their phone, often while standing in the street.

When to ask

The evening of the meal, or the next morning

Diners are happiest at the end of a good meal, but they don't want to be asked for a review while they're still at the table. A short text later that evening or the next morning works far better.

If you take bookings, you already have most diners' names and mobile numbers. That's the easiest way to reach them after their visit.

"Hi Priya, thanks for joining us at The Old Bell last night. We hope you enjoyed it. If you have a moment, a Google review would really help us: [link]"

Walk-ins

For walk-in diners you don't have contact details for, a small card with the bill, or a QR code on the receipt, is a gentle way to ask. It won't get the same response as a text, but it costs nothing. Here's how to find your review link and turn it into a QR code.

Special occasions

Birthdays, anniversaries and celebrations are often your happiest diners. If your team went the extra mile with a candle in the dessert or a card on the table, those guests are very likely to want to say so.

What not to do

• Don't offer a free dessert or drink for a review. It's one of the most common mistakes restaurants make, and it breaks Google's rules. Under UK consumer law, an incentivised review also has to be clearly disclosed as one.
• Don't ask staff to review the restaurant, or their friends and family.
• Don't set your team review targets. Google's rules specifically ban staff quotas for reviews.
• Don't ask only the tables that seemed happy. Ask everyone. Google's rules don't allow businesses to selectively ask happy customers.

Photos and your menu

For restaurants, photos do almost as much work as reviews. Diners want to see the food, the room and the atmosphere before they book.

• Upload good photos of your dishes, your dining room and your outside space
• Keep your menu up to date on your Business Profile
• Diners can add photos to their reviews. A review with a photo of a great Sunday roast is far more persuasive than words alone
• Keep your opening hours accurate, especially over bank holidays. Turning up to a closed restaurant is a common cause of 1-star reviews

Reviews that mention your dishes

Google picks out common words and phrases from your reviews and shows them on your profile. If lots of diners mention your Sunday roast, your pizza or your gluten-free menu, that helps people looking for exactly that.

You can't tell diners what to write. But great signature dishes and friendly service tend to get mentioned on their own.

Replying to reviews

Restaurants get more reviews than most businesses, so replying to all of them takes time. It's still worth doing. Diners read your replies to see how you treat people when something goes wrong.

Thank happy diners warmly and specifically. For complaints about slow service, a cold dish or a booking mix-up, apologise, explain briefly if there was a reason, and invite them back to try again.

"Hi Tom, thank you for the feedback, and I'm sorry your food took so long on Saturday. We were short-staffed in the kitchen, but that's no excuse. I'd love the chance to make it up to you. Please ask for me next time you book. Thanks, Sarah (manager)"

For more wording, see our review reply templates.

Groups and franchises with several sites

If you run more than one restaurant, each site needs its own Google Business Profile, and each collects its own reviews. A great review for your city-centre site doesn't help your new opening across town.

• Ask diners to review the site they actually visited. Use a separate review link for each location
• Agree a reply style across the group so every site responds in the same voice
• Keep an eye on the ratings at each site. A sudden drop is often an early warning of a problem in that kitchen or front-of-house team

The bottom line

You're already serving hundreds of people who enjoyed their meal. Most of them would happily leave a review if someone asked at the right moment. A short text the morning after their visit, with a direct link, is the simplest way to turn good meals into a stronger Google profile.