WhatsApp Business API for Restaurants and Cloud Kitchens

Tonight's special to the people who come back

A restaurant's best customers are the ones who have been before. They do not need an ad. They need to be reminded, at the right hour, that the thing they liked is on tonight.

One campaign at 5 pm — a photo, two lines, a button to order or call — to every regular who opted in. On Growth and Pro, lists: weekday lunch regulars, weekend families, the office next door. Each list gets its own message.

The report shows who read it. On a slow Tuesday that is the difference between an empty room and a full one.

The bot takes the 7 pm question

Timings, address, "menu", "do you deliver to my area", "is there parking". The auto-reply bot on Growth answers all of them from the answers you wrote once. "Menu" sends the menu image from the media library.

On Pro, a chat flow takes a table booking: how many people, what time, a name. The booking lands in the inbox for a person to confirm. It takes a customer thirty seconds and nobody at the counter stopped taking orders.

Anything the bot was not told — a birthday cake, a large group, an allergy — goes to a person with the notes attached.

Orders, and what the platform honestly does

Be clear about this, because it is the question every restaurant asks. The platform does not put a menu with a cart inside WhatsApp, and it does not take payment inside the chat.

What it does: a chat flow can collect an order through buttons and text — which items, how many, delivery or pickup, address — and hand it to a person or send it to your own ordering system through webhooks on Pro. The customer pays on your website, at the door, or by a payment link you send.

Many restaurants keep it simpler. The campaign carries a button to the website menu. The website takes the order and the payment. The API sends the confirmation back on WhatsApp. If you need that website, we build online stores too — see WhatsApp ordering and alerts.

Delivery updates from your own system

Every delivery order raises the same three questions. Is it confirmed. Has it left. How long. On Pro, API access lets your ordering system send those messages on its own: order received, being prepared, out for delivery, delivered.

Webhooks bring the reply back. A customer who says "wrong address" reaches the inbox as a conversation, not a lost message. A customer who gets "out for delivery" does not call.

For a cloud kitchen running three brands from one kitchen, each brand gets its own number and its own account. The team answers all of them from one browser.

Zomato and Swiggy, and why this is different

The delivery apps bring strangers. They also keep the customer's number. The regular who orders from you every week through an app is their customer, not yours.

WhatsApp is for the customers who are yours. The ones who ate in, scanned the QR on the bill, and said yes to hearing from you. They cost nothing to reach, they read the message, and they order direct.

The two are not a choice. The app fills the room with new people. WhatsApp brings them back without the commission.

Sending well — the number is worth more than tonight

A restaurant that messages every day gets blocked. Blocks lower your number's quality rating and Meta limits how many new people you can reach.

Two or three campaigns a week, to the right list, at the right hour. Marketing cooldown on Pro leaves a contact alone for a set number of days after any marketing message. Skip-open-window keeps a paid template from going to someone who messaged you today. Put an opt-out line in every template; people who can leave easily rarely block.

What it does not do, and what it costs

What a restaurant owner should know before paying. The bot is not AI — it replies with the answers you gave it. There is no menu-with-cart inside WhatsApp and no payment in the chat. Zomato and Swiggy orders do not flow in. Messages go only on WhatsApp, not SMS. The green tick is applied for, never guaranteed. And there is no unlimited plan anywhere — Meta's tiers and quality rating cover every restaurant on every provider.

No setup fee, no minimum term. Most restaurants start on Growth for the bot and lists; cloud kitchens with their own ordering system go to Pro for the API. The live table is on the plans page. To start, send us tonight's special and your five most common questions. See also WhatsApp marketing software and the chatbot page.