AI phone system for restaurants, cafes, and catering teams
AI phone system for restaurants and catering
Handle reservations, catering inquiries, private events, hours questions, waitlist calls, order-status questions, and missed-call follow-up without pulling staff from guests.
Meet Your Restaurants AI Employee
PhoneMachine answers calls for restaurants and catering, qualifies the request, captures the details, routes urgent work, and gives your team the clean next step.
What it handles for restaurants:
Reservation and waitlistCollect party size, date, time, occasion, and flexibility.
Catering inquiryCapture event date, headcount, menu style, budget, location, and deadline.
Private eventCollect room/date/time, guests, food and drink needs, and coordinator.
Hours and menu FAQsAnswer from approved hours, menu, parking, allergy, and policy docs.
Order statusUse approved order notes or create a staff callback task.
Outbound confirmationsCall to confirm catering details or event headcount.
Why restaurants teams choose PhoneMachine
Restaurants miss calls during rush hours, which is exactly when catering, event, and reservation money is calling.
Capture
Dinner rush missed calls
Staff are serving guests while the phone rings. The AI captures reservations and catering leads.
Route
Catering deadline
An office lunch order needs a quick response before another restaurant wins it.
Follow up
Private dining revenue
Event inquiries are high value and need structured intake.
Automate
FAQ overload
Hours, parking, and menu questions stop interrupting the host stand.
How it works
Answer, understand, route, follow up.
Restaurants caller reaches you
Use a PhoneMachine number or forward the line customers already call.
AI handles the front desk work
It follows your restaurants scripts, FAQs, escalation rules, and caller history.
The conversation becomes structured data
Transcript, summary, tags, urgency, contact updates, and next action are saved.
Your team gets a clean handoff
Call back, text, assign a task, route urgent work, or launch approved follow-up.
Restaurants call handling, built in
Every vertical page keeps the current PhoneMachine system, with the scripts, boundaries, and intake fields changed for restaurants and catering.
Voice
Voice
Answers restaurants calls 24/7 and captures intent.
Text / SMS
Text / SMS
Sends links, reminders, confirmations, and follow-up replies with consent controls.
Outbound
Outbound
Runs approved callback and follow-up scripts without inventing promises.
Knowledge
Knowledge
Uses approved restaurants FAQs, policies, fields, and never-say rules.
Team handoff
Team handoff
Moves the conversation into your shared inbox with context and next steps.
Live call example
Hear the AI handle a restaurants call.
Catering lead is the kind of scenario the page is built around.
Catering lead
CALLERDo you cater office lunches?
PHONEMACHINEI can collect details. What date, how many people, and what style of food are you thinking?
CALLERFriday, 35 people, boxed lunches.
PHONEMACHINEGreat. I will send a catering request with your deadline.
Explainer
How PhoneMachine works for restaurants and catering.
Use this walkthrough for the vertical-specific positioning, then test the same AI phone system live on the demo line.
The math
Catering and private events are too valuable for voicemail.
One captured catering order or private event can outweigh months of AI phone coverage.
Guardrails for restaurants
The AI uses the same PhoneMachine workflow with industry-specific safety and compliance boundaries.
Allergy guardrails
Use approved allergy language and route sensitive questions to staff.
Reservation control
Request or book only according to connected availability rules.
Payment security
Do not collect card details by phone unless approved payment workflow exists.
AI Receptionist
Starter
AI answers, records, and summarizes calls for one-person businesses.
$39/mo billed annually
Monthly option: $49/mo
Start free trial- 120 AI voice minutes / mo
What's included
- 1 business number + 2 users
- Inbound SMS inbox + outbound SMS (after carrier approval)
- Call recording + transcripts
- Browser video links
- 25 fax pages / mo
Best ValueMost popular
Business
The full AI phone system for growing teams.
$99/mo billed annually
Monthly option: $129/mo
Start free trial- 300 AI voice minutes / mo · 500 SMS / mo
What's included
- 5 users + 2 numbers included
- AI auto-learning + knowledge base
- API keys + webhooks
- Team chat + internal video
- Review collection + SMS keywords
Outbound Automation
Business Pro
Outbound automation for teams that run larger calling lists.
$239/mo billed annually
Monthly option: $299/mo
Start free trial- 600 AI voice minutes / mo · 1,000 SMS / mo
What's included
- Unlimited users + 2 numbers included
- Power Dial Contacts & Campaigns (voice + SMS)
- SMS drip automation
- Sentiment + predictive follow-up
- Voicemail drop
Enterprise
Enterprise
Custom — built for your team.
Custom
Contact Sales- Custom voice + SMS pool
What's included
- Custom users and numbers
- SSO, SCIM, audit logs
- Dedicated account manager + custom AI training
Restaurants setup
What the AI needs to know.
Reservation fields+
Party size, date, time, occasion, seating preference, allergies, and flexibility.
Catering fields+
Date, headcount, menu type, delivery/pickup, budget, dietary needs, and deadline.
Restaurant facts+
Hours, menu, parking, accessibility, policies, gift cards, and private dining rules.
Order status rules+
Use connected order notes only; otherwise create staff task.
Never-say rules+
Do not guarantee availability, quote custom event pricing, or provide medical allergy assurance beyond approved language.
Research · 5 min
Missed Call Statistics: What Unanswered Calls Really Cost Small Businesses
How many business calls go unanswered, how few callers leave voicemail, and how to calculate what missed calls cost your business per month.
Read article Pricing & buying · 6 minHow Much Does an AI Receptionist Cost in 2026?
AI receptionist pricing explained: flat monthly plans vs per-call and per-minute billing, what the major services charge, and the hidden costs to watch for.
Read article Playbooks · 6 minHow to Never Miss a Business Call Again (Without Hiring Anyone)
A practical playbook for answering every business call: call forwarding setups, ring strategies, after-hours coverage, and when to add an AI receptionist.
Read articleStop sending restaurants callers to voicemail.
Launch a 24/7 AI front desk with real phone, SMS, scripts, summaries, routing, and follow-up for restaurants and catering.
Start free trial