Mark Watson on restaurant websites: prioritize the menu
Comedian highlights poor UX design in restaurant web design, sparking online debate about the basics.
What to know
- Restaurant websites often bury menus behind unnecessary content (founder histories, ingredient sourcing, mood lighting) that users don't need.
- Basic information—hours, address, current menu—is frequently missing or hard to find, forcing customers to seek alternatives like Google Maps.
- Common obstacles include large unoptimized PDFs, chatbot pop-ups, required app downloads, and paywalls that gate menu access behind order forms.
- Many commenters suspect poor design reflects owner priorities rather than designer recommendations, with some noting designers likely advocated against it.
The dispute None: the thread is remarkably unified in frustration. No one defends elaborate restaurant websites. · positions read across 142 posts and comments
Restaurant websites are bloated with unnecessary content and poor UX that obscures basic information like menus, hours, and location.
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“And include the mugglefreaking opening hours, you lunatics.”
slowridr.bsky.social · Bluesky ↗
Google Maps and third-party menu aggregators are the solution, because they bypass restaurant websites entirely.
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“This is what makes anyone who adds menus to Google maps entries a hero to me. You're saving me time and scrolling and I wish you a world of green lights and good gut health.”
orbette.bsky.social · Bluesky ↗
Web designers are likely blameless; they probably recommended simpler designs but owners wanted bloated, fancy sites.
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“I can guarantee you the web designer tried to convince the owner of this...”
gromitroberts.bsky.social · Bluesky ↗
Mark Watson Comedian
How it unfolded 5 developments, newest first · click a bar or a number to jump postscomments
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5
Users praise Google Maps contributors for solving the problem
One commenter notes that people adding menus to Google Maps entries are heroes because they bypass restaurant websites entirely, saving time and friction.
“This is what makes anyone who adds menus to Google maps entries a hero to me. You're saving me time and scrolling and I wish you a world of green lights and good gut health.”
— orbette.bsky.social -
Even better if it’s a PDF of a photograph of a photocopy of said menu, taken with a 15 year old digital camera by candlelight during an earthquake.
2 more of the top 3 · 102 posts in this stretch
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Oh, and don’t code a little help bot to pop up in the lower right of the screen so I can’t click OK and place an order. I had to switch to my iPad and rotate the screen until there was a moment where the bot hadn’t yet popped up.
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And if your menu is tied to online ordering, don’t make it impossible to access when you’re closed.
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4
Specific usability barriers emerge: chatbots, apps, ordering gates
Comments detail intrusive design elements: persistent chatbots blocking interaction, requirements to download apps or start orders just to view menus, and paywalls around basic information.
“Don't tell me where all the ingredients come from if you're not going to let me find out what food they'll be in!”
— alicefraser.bsky.social -
Don’t tell me where all the ingredients come from if you’re not going to let me find out what food they’ll be in!
2 more of the top 3 · 10 posts in this stretch
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No I don’t want to download the table booking app. You’re a kebab shop!
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"30-year breakdown" is a good description of my adult life.
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3
Commenters blame web designers and restaurant owners for poor choices
Discussion turns to whether poor design reflects owner priorities or failed designer recommendations, with some defending designers who likely tried to convince owners otherwise.
“And include the mugglefreaking opening hours, you lunatics.”
— slowridr.bsky.social, Bluesky commenter · source -
And please make sure you leave the Christmas 2024 menu accessible. I'll want to look back on that.
2 more of the top 3 · 16 posts in this stretch
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And include the mugglefreaking opening hours, you lunatics.
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The number of times I have been tempted to send this XKCD cartoon about university websites to my actual university
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2
Users share frustrations with restaurant website design flaws
Commenters quickly piled on with complaints about common problems: PDF menus that are hard to navigate, missing hours and location information, outdated menus still online, and poor design choices that obscure basic information.
“Definitely make it a pdf of the actual menu in the restaurant with all that scrawly text so you have to download it, open it in a different application and then zoom in and out endlessly.”
— chrisweston.bsky.social -
W
If you're designing a website for a restaurant, my tip would be: making it easy to find the menu is important, a 30-year breakdown of the founder's original vision and evolving philosophy less important.
2 more of the top 3 · 13 posts in this stretch
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Definitely make it a pdf of the actual menu in the restaurant with all that scrawly text so you have to download it, open it in a different application and then zoom in and out endlessly.
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Yes. One page - the address, the phone number, a link to the menu.
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1
Mark Watson critiques restaurant website design priorities
Comedian Mark Watson posted on Bluesky that restaurant website designers should focus on making the menu easy to find, rather than lengthy explanations of the founder's vision and philosophy.
“If you're designing a website for a restaurant, my tip would be: making it easy to find the menu is important, a 30-year breakdown of the founder's original vision and evolving philosophy less important.”
— Mark Watson -
It’s the new ‘recipes that start with a 600 word long childhood memory’
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What people are saying 10 voices from 1 site · best of 142 · verbatim
- Yesterday
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The number of social media posts advertising in person workshops and sales from the bricks and mortar shop that don't specify where the business is. It's the World Wide Web Janice, not the Sudbury on Sea Web. Don't alienate potential customers by getting their hopes up for naught...
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also, the owner of any restaurant who prints their actual menu (on paper or card) in small font in sepia tones and then has low 'mood' lighting meaning that it defeats my reading glasses and I have to take a photo of the menu and enlarge it and everyone takes the piss - jail's too good for them.
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How can you enjoy your meal if you don't have the context of everyone's previous meals.
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Hours and location, also important. And maybe dont make me start an online order to see the menu.
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I can guarantee you the web designer tried to convince the owner of this...
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Also, avoiding having a 15MB+ PDF (unoptimised) downloadable version of the menu which no-one bothered to proof-read.
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‘At xxxx we do things a bit differently’ A No, you don’t B You mean ‘more expensively’
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Went to a chain restaurant last week and the link to the menu on the website took you to a page all about how to open your own franchise. Anyway, we'll be opening half a dozen locations across the midlands next year.
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Also, opening and closing times, with exceptions (like bank holidays) called out.
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S
Amazing how many websites fall into this trap