Why the restaurant phone is hard to answer
The phone rings most when the dining room is full. Callers want to know if you're open on Monday, whether there's a vegan option, if you do takeaway, where to park, or whether they can get a table for four at seven. Whoever answers is usually also seating guests or running food.
What the assistant does
- Answers the everyday questions from your opening hours, address, services and dietary options. If you list "vegetarian and gluten-free pasta available; no vegan desserts", that's what callers hear.
- Takes reservation requests with the date, time, party size, name and phone number, then reads them back and tells the caller the team will confirm. If you connect a calendar such as Google Calendar, it can check availability and add the booking. Without a connected calendar, nothing is confirmed until your team does it.
- Hands large parties to the manager. You set the party size, say eight, and any request at or above it is passed to the manager rather than treated as an ordinary table. This is one of the scenarios the restaurant brain is tested on.
- Transfers to staff on your list of up to five people, once a phone number is connected, for calls that need a person.
What it won't do
- It won't tell a caller "your table is confirmed" when it has only taken a request.
- It won't invent menu items, prices or opening hours that aren't in your details or knowledge base. If it doesn't know, it says so and offers to take a message.
- It won't take card details for deposits or prepayments.
- It tells callers it's an AI if they ask.
Setting it up
- Choose the restaurant receptionist in the Brain Marketplace.
- Fill in your hours (including lunch and closed days), services, dietary options and your large party size, which is required.
- Add a few FAQs to the Knowledge Base: corkage, children's menu, private room, parking. You can also import your menu page and approve the sections you want used.
- Publish, run the automatic tests and try booking a table in the chat playground.
- Get a RingMind number, connect it to the assistant and set up your transfer list.
After service
Each call is saved with a transcript. Reservation requests show up as messages in your dashboard, where you can mark them done or turn them into tasks. If you turn on texting, guests can also send questions by SMS or WhatsApp and the assistant answers them from the same information. US SMS needs carrier registration (10DLC) before texts are delivered reliably; see SMS and WhatsApp.
Tools it can connect
Besides a calendar, you can post new requests to Microsoft Teams, record them in an Airtable base, or send them into your own n8n workflow. Integrations are in Beta. Plans are on the pricing page.