Over the past few years, GenAI tools, like Gemini and ChatGPT, have helped many restaurant owners and operators create strategies and campaigns that drive awareness and traffic to their concepts.
There’s no doubt that Gemini, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and others have helped non-marketing specialists create content easily.
Research shows 55% of foodservice businesses say they use AI for “personalized marketing campaigns.” At the same time, 72% of guests say they prefer restaurants that use AI “for customization options.”
However, a seasoned marketer knows you can’t take things as is from ChatGPT or Gemini. You need to use accurate ChatGPT prompts for your restaurant and then tweak the result to make it more human.
To enhance your strategy and content creation processes, you need accurate, detailed, and specific restaurant prompts that help you meet your marketing goals and operating needs.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to craft those F&B-specific ChatGPT prompts for your restaurant, bar, or entertainment concept. We’ll cover the R.A.F.T. method and share 40+ prompts you can start using instantly.
How Is ChatGPT Helping Restaurants Thrive?
As mentioned, ChatGPT has been instrumental in supporting restaurant marketing and operations teams in many ways.
The value of incorporating GenAI goes beyond a simple social media calendar. For F&B professionals, ChatGPT can act as a powerful partner in optimizing core business functions.
Research by Popmenu in 2024, showed 79% of 362 US restaurant operators used or were considering “AI for everything from taking orders and preparing food to business operations and marketing.”
Here are a few of the common use cases we’ve seen across Servme’s customers:
Marketing & content creation: This is by far the most common area where users are experimenting with AI. Creating and tweaking ChatGPT prompts for your restaurant can improve personalization, enhance content creation, and help you increase restaurant sales via your email, SMS, or WhatsApp marketing campaigns.
Menu development: Restaurants are using ChatGPT to transform simple lists into sensory-rich descriptions that drive sales. Coupled with menu design software, ChatGPT can speed up development cycles, generate new seasonal menu ideas, beverage pairings, and enhance menu engineering efforts.
Customer service & communication: Research shows AI-powered chatbots can handle up to 70% of inquiries at quick-service restaurants (QSRs). Moreover, 60% of restaurant owners “believe AI can significantly improve” the guest experience.
Staff training & operations: In a high-turnover environment, AI ensures consistency. It excels at drafting clear Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), onboarding guides, and specialized training scripts for front-of-house (FOH) and back-of-house (BOH) teams, reducing management workload.
Further reading: ChatGPT for Restaurants: 10 Creative Ways to Use AI
The R.A.F.T. Method for High-Impact Restaurant Prompts
To transition from generic content to high-value marketing assets, restaurant marketing specialists and teams must upgrade their ChatGPT prompts.
One way is to use the R.A.F.T. method, a prompt engineering framework that ensures every output aligns with your brand and business objectives.
R.A.F.T. stands for Role, Audience, Format, and Task.
Role: Define the persona. Instruct ChatGPT to act as a seasoned expert (e.g., "Act as a seasoned Restaurant Marketing Director" or "Assume the voice of a professional food critic").
Audience: Specify the recipient, your target audience. Who is this content for? (e.g., "Write this for potential catering clients" or "for loyal, high-spending guests").
Format: Determine the format of the content you want to create. (e.g., "Generate 5 Instagram Reels scripts," "Draft a 500-word blog outline").
Task: This the core command. What is the specific job to be done? (e.g., "Summarize the brand's sustainability commitment")
Let’s see the R.A.F.T. method in action.
Here’s what a ChatGPT prompt for your restaurant would look like if you used the R.A.F.T. method and what it would look like without.
Generic prompt vs R.A.F.T. Prompt
Generic Prompt (poor) | R.A.F.T. Prompt (high impact) |
Write a tweet about our new cocktail menu. | Role: Act as our lead mixologist. Audience: Write for young, adventurous cocktail enthusiasts in [city name]. Format: Generate 3 attention-grabbing tweets. Task: Focus on the use of unusual, locally-foraged ingredients and drive traffic to the online menu link. |
Result: Vague, standard announcement. | Result: Specific, brand-aligned, actionable content tailored for social media. |
By incorporating these 4 elements, F&B marketers gain control over the AI's output, transforming it from a general writing tool into a focused marketing assistant.
Identify Your Marketing Content and Needs
Before you can start writing your ChatGPT restaurant prompts, there are a few things to identify.
First, you should have a restaurant marketing strategy in place so you can tailor your content around this.
This strategy includes the content formats you use to attract customers, drive website traffic, and increase restaurant reservations and footfall.
Common content and distribution channels for restaurants, including hotel dining concepts, include:
Restaurant email campaigns
SMS or WhatsApp marketing
Social media content, specifically Instagram and Facebook
Email Newsletters
Google Business Profile
Online review platforms
Reservation channels like Zomato and Tripadvisor
Mastering Social Media: Volume, Variety, and Velocity
For F&B marketers, social media is a constant, hungry beast requiring endless content.
ChatGPT can help you generate high-volume, high-quality, and varied copy that maintains brand consistency, drastically cutting down the time spent on daily content production.
Here are several targeted ChatGPT prompts for restaurants focused on content velocity and engagement.
Generating a 7-day social media content calendar
Use highly structured prompts to offload planning and drafting to AI. This ensures you cover different themes and goals throughout the week.
Determine what platform the content is for (Instagram, TikTok, Facebook) and the type of content needed (Reel, Story, single image, testimonial spotlight…etc.)
Prompt: "Act as a Content Strategist for a high-end downtown brunch spot. The goal is to drive weekend bookings and build brand presence. Generate a 7-day Instagram content calendar. Include a focus on visual appeal (aesthetic dishes) and specific CTAs for reservations. Specify a day for a staff highlight and a day for a user-generated content (UGC) repost."
Crafting A/B test-ready ad copy
Successful advertising relies on testing different messaging angles to see what resonates. Instead of manually drafting slight variations, AI can instantly provide copy that targets different buyer psychology triggers, such as scarcity, social proof, value, exclusivity.
Prompt: "Act as a Conversion Copywriter. Write three different versions of a Facebook ad headline and body copy for a $50 fixed-price dinner. Version 1 must stress exclusivity and scarcity ('Limited Seats'), Version 2 must emphasize value and quality ('Award-Winning Chef'), and Version 3 must use social proof ('Rated #1 by Local Foodies')."
Engagement and story prompts
Engagement rate is vital for platform algorithms. These prompts help you generate interactive content that encourages followers to stop, read, and participate, boosting your visibility without requiring heavy planning.
Prompt: "Generate 5 Instagram Story templates for a bakery. Include 2 'Ask Me Anything' question ideas, 1 poll idea comparing two seasonal items, and 2 'Fill-in-the-Blank' captions designed to encourage comments and sharing."
ChatGPT Prompts for Restaurants: Menu Descriptions & Storytelling
While social media drives traffic and engagement, your physical or digital menu is where conversion truly happens.
Here are several ChatGPT prompts to craft compelling menu descriptions that increase average guest spend, average checks, and brand loyalty.
Irresistible, high-margin dish descriptions
These prompts help marketers turn basic ingredient lists into mouthwatering descriptions using sensory language and origin stories.
Prompt 1: Act as a food critic. Re-write the menu description for a 'Truffle Mushroom Pasta.' The new description must incorporate the sensory details of its aroma and texture, and mention the specific Italian region the truffle oil is sourced from.
Prompt 2: We need to increase the perceived value of our $28 Wagyu Beef Slider. Generate 3 concise, evocative descriptions that focus on the specific preparation method (e.g., dry-aged, slow-smoked) and the premium nature of the ingredients.
Prompt 3: Draft a short disclaimer to be added next to our signature seafood item that uses persuasive language and an urgent tone to encourage customers to order it before it sells out for the day.
Seasonal menu prompts
Seasonal and thematic menus keep your concept fresh, drive repeat visits, and increase restaurant foot traffic. They can also help you boost profits during holidays and holidays and local ingredient availability.
Use AI for brainstorming and naming processes for new limited-time offerings.
Prompt 1: Generate 5 creative, marketable names and a brief concept overview for a 4-course 'Autumn Harvest' tasting menu focused entirely on local squash, root vegetables, and game meats.
Prompt 2: Our pastry chef has created a new, complex dessert using local lavender and honey. Draft a short pitch for this dessert, focusing on its light, floral notes and its perfect fit as a spring/summer limited-time offer.
Prompt 3: Draft the marketing copy for a Valentine’s Day set menu, focusing on romantic and exclusive language. The copy must be suitable for both email and a printed menu insert.
Further reading: 6 Valentine's Day Promotion Ideas for Your Restaurant
Re-drafting our 'About Us' and brand narrative
Consistent, emotional brand messaging creates trust and loyalty. The following prompts help solidify your restaurant's origin story, mission, and ethos, ensuring your tone is consistent across your website, social bios, and physical collateral.
Prompt 1: Based on the following facts [list 3-4 facts about the founder], write a 3-paragraph founder story that emphasizes passion and community involvement, suitable for our restaurant's ‘About Us’ page.
Prompt 2: We define our brand tone as 'rustic, energetic, and friendly.' Review our current mission statement and rewrite it to better align with these 3 attributes, in less than 75 words.
Prompt 3: Generate a short, 2-sentence blurb for our Google Business Profile that summarizes our unique selling proposition [add USP] and uses the active verb 'serving/serves' rather than 'offers.'
Further reading: [Guide] 10 Revenue-Boosting Restaurant Holiday Promotions
Developing server upsell scripts
FOH staff are the first and final link in your marketing chain. They greet guests as they enter your dining concept and as they are about to leave.
Support your team with sales scripts to help them upsell high-profit menu items and boost average checks. Be sure to include that the scripts aren’t ‘salesy.’
Prompt 1: Draft a descriptive, 3-sentence upsell script for our specialty Old Fashioned cocktail. The script must focus on the aroma and the preparation technique (e.g., smoked ice or house-made bitters). Make sure the script doesn’t sound pushy.
Prompt 2: Create a concise training guide for servers listing the top 5 dessert upsell opportunities, detailing the best time to mention each item and a compelling one-sentence descriptive talking point.
Prompt 3: Generate suggested wine pairings for our 3 main protein dishes (steak, fish, vegan). For each, provide a two-sentence explanation that highlights how the wine's acidity/tannins complement the dish's flavor profile.
Boost Reach with SEO-Optimized ChatGPT Prompts for Your Restaurant
Organic search is a long-term revenue driver for QSRs, restaurants, bistros, and bars, as well as concepts that offer catering and private events.
Use AI to speed up keyword research, outlining, and search engine optimization (SEO) for your restaurant. The following prompts help you capture local intent and broader authority signals.
Local SEO content & keyword brainstorming
These prompts target immediate customer needs, ensuring you appear in "near me" searches and local discovery.
Prompt 1: You’re a local SEO expert. Provide 10 long-tail keywords focused on attracting customers searching for "[Your City] + [Your Cuisine] + [Atmosphere]." Then, write a 2-paragraph FAQ answer for the keyword "Are reservations necessary at [Restaurant Name]?"
Prompt 2: Our restaurant/bar has a separate section for booking private dining rooms. Generate 3 variations of the page's main heading, optimized for the keyword "best private dining space in [City name]."
Prompt 3: Draft 5 concise, authoritative answers for our Google Business Profile Q&A section. They should cover parking availability, gluten-free options, and pet policy.
Generating F&B blog outlines
Use long-form content to establish authority, offer tips, and capture informational search traffic. You can use AI to create blog post outlines or complete articles.
Prompt 1: Generate a 500-word blog post outline on "The Ultimate Guide to Pairing Natural Wine with Seafood." Include H3 subheadings and suggest specific points where internal links to existing menu items should be placed.
Prompt 2: Our new blog post is about "How to Host a Successful Office Catering Event." Draft an introduction (200 words max) that uses a strong hook and clearly lays out the 5 main sections of the article.
Prompt 3: Act as a F&B content strategist. Suggest 5 high-value blog post ideas for a vegan restaurant, focusing on topics that maximize organic traffic and reinforce our commitment to sustainable sourcing.
Creating meta titles and descriptions
Part of SEO is optimizing your page title and meta description. These signal Google to drive traffic to your restaurant website, boost your organic ranking, and increase your click-through rate (CTR).
The SEO prompts help you generate multiple, high-performing variations quickly.
Prompt 1: Generate 3 meta descriptions for our “Catering Services” page, each under 160 characters. Version 1 must use an urgent tone, Version 2 must emphasize quality ingredients, and Version 3 must include pricing as the main value proposition.
Prompt 2: Our current meta title for the 'Careers' page is "Join Our Team." Rewrite this title to be more engaging, include the keyword [add keyword], and maximize CTR.
Restaurant ChatGPT Prompts for Operational Efficiency
Besides marketing and attracting guests, you can use ChatGPT prompts for other areas in your restaurant like recruitment, training, and others. The aim is to turn ambiguous tasks into clear processes.
Drafting SOPs
Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are critical for quality control, especially when managing multi-location concepts or in high-turnover environments.
Use AI to generate foundational drafts that managers can quickly refine.
Prompt 1: Write the [SOP] for the "end-of-shift cash reconciliation" procedure for a Bar Manager. Include steps for verification, reporting discrepancies, and security measures for cash handling.
Prompt 2: Generate a concise, step-by-step SOP for managing and filtering grease trap waste, focusing on local health and safety compliance standards.
Prompt 3: Draft a checklist-style SOP for the restaurant manager detailing necessary steps before the first guest arrives, focusing on lighting, music, and cleanliness checks.
Writing clear F&B JDs
Use ChatGPT prompts to create detailed, attractive, and clear job descriptions (JDs) to attract high-quality talent.
However, you must review and tweak the result to your needs. You can also provide references from direct and indirect competitors.
Prompt 1: Draft a complete job description for a Lead Host/Hostess. Include sections for required skills, essential duties (seating, reservation management, guest relations), and 3 KPIs.
Prompt 2: Write the job summary section for a Line Cook position. Emphasize the fast-paced, high-volume environment and the opportunity for skill development. Keep the tone energetic and professional.
Further reading: The Ultimate Restaurant Manager Opening & Closing Checklist
The Future of F&B Marketing Is Collaborative
Successful prompt engineering will only get you so far. You should be serving great quality food and service to entice first-timers and turn them into regulars.
Managing restaurant operations is a team effort. Using the above ChatGPT prompts can help you improve your restaurant’s marketing efforts and streamline content creation across menus, policies, announcement, social media, and other channels.
Remember, AI is not here to replace your team, but be an indispensable assistant.
The best results come from continually refining your prompts. Keep using the R.A.F.T. method to customize your prompts and generate unique, brand-aligned content.
Manage your entire restaurant’s dining experience with Servme. From reservations and integrations with booking channels to email, SMS, and WhatsApp marketing, to seating and table management, and much more. Book your personalized demo now!
Nada Sobhi
Marketing
