WhatsApp for restaurants and cafes: reservations, orders and reviews

Picture a neighbourhood cafe, twelve tables, one owner who is also the barista. It's 12:40, the queue is out the door, and the phone is lighting up with "Is there a table for four at 1?" and "Can I pre-order two flat whites and a brownie?" Nobody has a free hand.

This is where WhatsApp for restaurants earns its keep. Some diners would rather message than phone, and a few well-chosen automations can answer the repetitive questions while you pull shots. We'll follow our made-up cafe through four jobs: reservations, pre-orders, a ready-for-pickup message, and asking for a review. The cafe is hypothetical, but every Avox feature we name is real, and we'll flag what each one can't do.

WhatsApp for restaurants: keep your phone, add a back office

If your cafe already has a WhatsApp Business app number, keep it. With Coexistence you connect that same number to Avox, so regulars still reach the same chat, you can still reply from the phone, and the team gets a shared inbox plus automations. Our Coexistence explainer walks through it.

Reservations: a slot is a table

Avox's premade Time slots table lists free times with a "places" count. The premade Appointment booking Flow shows a customer only the free times for the day they choose, holds the one they pick for ten minutes and then books it, so two people can't get the last place.

For a cafe, treat each row as one table at one time: "Saturday, 1:00 pm, Table 4, one place". The booking lands in the Appointments table with a booking number and a status. We cover the full build in booking automation with Flows.

Be realistic about the limits:

• The premade Flow books one place per slot. It doesn't ask for a party size. You can add a "number of guests" note, or edit the Flow, but if your reservations depend on seat counts, that takes some design work.
• You maintain the slots. The table is the source of truth. If you also take bookings by phone, mark those times as taken, or you will double-book.
• A Flow is not for everyone. Meta says Flows aren't supported on WhatsApp Web, and they need a reasonably recent Android or iPhone. Keep a typed way to ask.

For the confirmation, Meta's utility template guide uses a restaurant reservation confirmation as its worked example of a utility message. Avox's premade booking confirmation automation sends one when a row appears in Appointments. Keep it plain: who, when, where.

Pre-orders from today's menu

Avox also ships a Menu table (dish, section, price, vegetarian, spice level, "Available today") and a premade Flow called Order from today's menu. The customer picks Starters, Mains, Desserts or Drinks, sees only the dishes marked available, enters how many, and sees a total. That total is worked out by Avox's endpoint from your table, and the order arrives in the chat for your team.

When the oat-milk delivery doesn't turn up, you switch "Available today" off and the dish vanishes from the Flow. That's the best part.

Again, the limits:

• One dish and a quantity per order, as shipped. It's a quick pre-order, not a full ordering system. For a table of mixed plates you'd edit the Flow, or take the rest by chat.
• Payment isn't taken inside the Flow. The screen says the team will confirm time and payment in the chat. If you want a payment link, Avox can create one through a connected payments app (see connected apps).
• No kitchen printer. The order shows up in your Inbox, so someone must be watching it.
• The Flow needs the window open. It goes out as a normal message, so it fits a customer who has just written to you.

"Your order is ready"

Once a customer has just ordered in the chat, their 24-hour window is open, so a team member can type "Ready in ten minutes" in the Inbox, or from the phone with Coexistence. No template needed.

If you want it automated, or the order was placed more than a day ago, you need an approved template. You would write your own, since the library's order update is worded for shipping. Something like: "Hi {{1}}, your order {{2}} is ready to collect at the counter." Meta decides the category when it reviews it, but a message about an order the customer placed is the type of thing utility templates are for. Our template approval tips cover how to get through review.

Opening hours are the other big repetitive question. A business-hours auto-reply can tell people when you open; the auto-reply guide explains how to keep it from being annoying.

Asking for a review without being a pest

After a visit, a rating request is natural, and Avox's library has two templates for it: a Feedback request with Great, Okay and Poor buttons, and a Review request with a link button to a review page. Avox's Feedback after a visit automation sends the rating request when a reservation in Appointments is marked Completed, saves the answer to a Feedback table, and alerts your team to a Poor one. A cafe that doesn't take reservations can use the tag-based Feedback with follow-up automation instead.

Two cautions:

• Meta treats these as marketing. Its categorization guide says a general request for feedback won't be approved as utility. That affects price, and it affects permission: only message people who have said yes. Meta's policy requires opt-in, and our opt-in guide has practical wording.
• Ask everyone the same way. Sending the review link only to the people who clicked "Great" may be tempting, but check the review site's own rules before you design anything like that.

For a weekly specials list, Avox has a premade Sign up for updates Flow with a clear opt-in checkbox. It's a better doorway than adding customers to a list because they ordered once.

Questions people ask

Can customers pay in the chat?

Not inside the premade Flows. A booking or order can trigger a payment link from a connected payments app, which goes to the customer as a separate message.

Do I need to give up my phone?

No. Coexistence lets the WhatsApp Business app and Avox run on the same number, so you can still reply from the counter.

What will the messages cost?

Avox plans include automation credits, shown on our pricing page, and Meta charges separately per delivered template message. Look at its current rate card for your country.

Will this work for a food truck or a cloud kitchen?

Probably. The Menu table and order Flow don't depend on tables or seating. The reservation Flow won't matter to you, but the menu, the pre-order and the "ready" message will.

Your next step: make the Menu table from the premade, add today's eight dishes, switch one off, and send the order Flow to your own phone to see what a customer sees.