Instagram is no longer just a photo-sharing app. For restaurants, it’s a primary search and discovery engine that dictates where people choose to dine. Especially as F&B consumers are always on the lookout for the next unique experience. One worth sharing with their followers.
Your audiences are always searching for terms like “instagram worthy restaurants,” “best instagrammable restaurants near me,” and “best instagram restaurants near me.”
This means you need to have an aesthetically pleasing interior combined with delicious food and a memorable dining experience.
Instagram is the third most popular social media platform in the world, with 2 billion monthly active users (MAU). According to Statista, this number is expected to keep growing “with no signs of slowing down.”
Roughly 31.6% of Instagram’s users are aged between 25 and 34 years, a target segment for restaurants and bars. This makes Instagram an important tool for restaurants to attract a high-value audience.
As a dining concept, it’s super easy and quick to create. (Takes seconds!)
So, how do you get on their radar? By following our Instagram best practices for restaurants, F&B groups, and other types of venues.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to create an optimized Instagram bio for your restaurant that attracts and engages guests and converts views into direct online bookings. This guide is complete with a checklist to help you focus your digital efforts on tactics that drive real traffic and revenue.
Instagram: The place for #Foodlovers #Foodstagram
The Meta platform is popular among food lovers, or foodies, around the world, making it a prime opportunity to grow as a restaurant.
Global Instagram audiences
India is the country with the biggest Instagram audience with 413.85 million users, followed by the United States with 171.7 million users.
In the UAE, DataReportal estimates there were 7 million users in 2024, representing 73.3% of the country’s total population.
Instagram for restaurants
Although not as powerful as in the past, Instagram hashtags still matter. There are tons of food-related hashtags used by restaurants and popular food bloggers and influencers.
If you like food, you’ve probably come across some of those hashtags like #foodstagram #foodlover #foodporn #foodphotograhy, and others.
According to Accio, these are the top Instagram hashtag trends for 2025:
Other popular hashtags include:
#vegan – used over 131 million times
#healthyfood – used in 126+ million posts (including those that aren’t in English)
Besides hashtags, Instagram now relies heavily on keywords, like TikTok. For example, writing “Our new brunch menu in Jumeirah, Dubai” in caption can rank better than just #DubaiBrunch.
So, you’ll need to use a mix of keywords, hashtags, clear, and concise captions on the platform.
Restaurants also use Instagram to share organic content and run paid ads for brand awareness.
However, what many restaurant owners and managers don’t know is that they can get commission-free restaurant reservations via Instagram.
All you have to do is add the ‘Reserve’ button to their Instagram profile.
Instagram for Restaurants: Profile Optimization Basics
The first few seconds of your restaurant’s Instagram profile are critical for converting a viewer into a follower or customer.
They should provide information, including essential details about your concept or group.
Here’s what you need to include in your restaurant Instagram profile:
Username and name: This is your restaurant’s brand name. You can also add keywords like your cuisine type and location to boost discovery.
Restaurant Instagram bio: Use the 150-character limit to answer the questions about who you are, where you are, and what you offer. Use emojis and flags to save space. Always include a clear Call-to-Action (CTA) and a link to your menu or reservation system.
Profile picture: Use a high-quality, recognizable logo. It must be consistent across all channels to reinforce brand trust.
Reservation button: Add the dedicated “Reserve” or “Order Food” button. This is the single most effective way to turn a viewer into a paying customer. Instagram doesn’t charge per bookings and if you’re using a restaurant reservation management system, like Servme, you can enable or disable bookings via Instagram.
Highlights: Use Highlights as a permanent frequently-asked questions (FAQs) section. Include essential categories like MENU, HOURS/INFO, and user-generated content (UGC). Focus on content that makes your space an instagrammable restaurant.
Best Practices for a High-Converting Restaurant Instagram Content Strategy
Great accounts show personality and purpose, not just a plate. This means you need to create an Instagram content marketing strategy for your restaurant that combines building brand awareness and driving engagement, online bookings, and foot traffic.
To make your restaurant ‘Instagram worthy’ to your guests, you need to diversify the content on your feed.
Diversify post types, use clear and catchy post captions that highlight your restaurant’s dishes and offerings, and use great images.
Here are the best practices for maximizing your restaurant’s Instagram marketing:
Visual aesthetics and consistency: For a successful Instagram posting strategy, ensure a consistent color palette, filter, and mood. Your feed should look cohesive, whether you use professional, high-quality photos or a more casual, authentic style.
High-quality visuals are non-negotiable when using Instagram marketing for restaurants.Create content pillars and themes: Diversify your content beyond just food. Make sure you show guests the full experience in your dining concept. Share content of:
Food/drink photos: Showcase signature dishes, focusing on plating and presentation.
Ambiance/interior: Highlight the decor and lighting that makes your concept an ‘instagrammable,’ worthy of UGC and photography. Sell the vibe and entice guests to take images of their food and themselves at your restaurant.
Behind the scenes: Use this to humanize your brand. For example, share a chef spotlight, a quick kitchen tour, or sourcing to build trust.
User-generated content: Repost customer photos to build social proof, make guests feel valued, and entice others to visit.
Content formats: For an effective Instagram posting strategy, use a mix of formats, such as:
Reels: Prioritize short, engaging videos using trending audio to maximize reach beyond your followers. Use quick-cuts to showcase dish preparation, ambiance highlights, or sneak peeks of new dishes or beverages.
Feed posts: Use Carousels to share multiple photos (like a menu item and a review) for longer engagement.
Stories: Use interactive stickers, along with polls, Q&A, to directly engage your audience and gather insights.
Still images: Use single images with a message, such as a dish, testimonial, or a set table.
Caption strategy: Every post needs a compelling restaurant-focused caption. Don't just describe the dish. Tell a story, ask a question, and include a strong CTA like ‘Reserve your table now’ or ‘Tag friends who you want to share this cocktail with.’
Further reading: ChatGPT for Restaurants: 10 Creative Ways to Use AI [With Prompts]
Instagram Best Practices for Engaging Your Restaurant Audience
You’ve created content for your concept’s Instagram account. Now, it’s time to make sure this content converts and engages. This means getting viewers to engage, follow, comment, and share.
Here are a few engagement ideas:
Contests or giveaways: One of the most popular engagement and marketing tactics for restaurants are contests and giveaways. Use them to boost follower numbers, increase engagement, and even build a community.
Create special birthday offers: If you have a restaurant CRM, you can use it for marketing emails or WhatsApp campaigns for guests’ birthdays. You can then share posts about people celebrating their birthday at your venue. Alternatively, you can let guests know that you offer a special 20% discount on people’s birthdays. Ask them to show you their ID for verification.
Create and promote special dining events: Depending on your venue, you can create events like Mexican Night, Sushi Night, BBQ, and others to create hype around your concept. You can use this tactic to increase restaurant reservations.
Promote seasonal menus: Offering limited-time menus with seasonal fruits is a simple tactic for enticing guests, enhancing branding, and getting more guests to come in. Your seasonal menu doesn’t have to be big. It can have a main course, dessert, and 2 beverages. Or any combination of foods.
Influencer collaborations: Consider collaborating with local or regional influencers to boost engagement, awareness, and increase restaurant sales and foot traffic.
Tracking Instagram Marketing Metrics
Besides engaging viewers, you need to track Instagram metrics to see if your content resonates. Or if it needs tweaking.
Here are the top marketing metrics to track:
Engagement rate: This key metric tracks the level of engagement with your content. To calculate it, take the total number of likes, comments, shares, and saves on a set of recent posts and divide it by the total number of followers. A high engagement rate indicates good marketing efforts and a loyal and active community.
Follower counts: While often considered a vanity metric, follower counts are important. See how many followers you’re adding per week or per month. Make sure it’s not your top and only metric.
Comments and replies: This is another engagement metric that gauges interactions. Do followers or viewers respond to your posts with comments and direct messages?
Frequency & Timing
Consistency is key to staying top of mind. Restaurants on Instagram need to post daily. As your followers grow, you may need to post more than once per day.
Vary between post types so you can reuse content. Add music from Instagram’s library when possible.
For example, a single image of a beverage can be turned into a GIF of several beverages on a plate or table. You can then turn it into a giveaway and later share a story or series of stories of the winner.
Timing is also an important factor. Try to identify the best times when guests engage with your content.
Consider content, type, frequency, and timing. For example, if you’re posting about your breakfast menu, you can’t post about it late at night.
You’ll need to share the post in the morning, but maybe not at 7 am.
From Scrolls to Sales: Turning Instagram Engagement into Bookings
While aesthetics and engagement are important, what really matters to most restaurant teams is this: Does our Instagram account actually drive revenue?
When executed intentionally and with a strategy, your answer is Yes.
Yes, turns metrics into revenue through online reservations and foot traffic.
1. Boost reservations and table bookings
A well-optimized bio, including the ‘Reserve’ button and your booking widget, helps convert profile visits into actual guests.
Reels showcasing ambiance or food prep often spark FOMO (fear of missing out) and lead to last-minute bookings.
“After watching your pasta reel, I booked for tonight!”
This turns a simple Instagram post into a trackable business result. The guest sees a post or testimonial and makes a reservation, which translates to revenue.
2. Drive walk-ins through visual discovery
Aesthetic photos of dishes, cocktails, or sunset views invite impulse walk-ins, especially for bars, cafés, and beachside venues.
Stories showing “Today’s Mood” or “Table with a View Available” encourage spontaneous decisions, adding more bookings or covers to a day’s shift.
3. Convert UGC into trust and loyalty
Reposting guest photos builds authenticity and creates “social proof.” It can also prompt others to share their photos so they can be featured too.
New followers are more likely to trust restaurants that engage with their community.
💬 “They featured my birthday dinner in their Story. Love this place!”
This strategy increases UGC content, builds trust, and encourages more bookings from followers and Instagram viewers.
4. Influencer collaborations that deliver ROI
Besides being an engagement tactic, collaborating with micro- or nano-influencers with local followings can boost visibility and increase DM inquiries or link clicks, which translates to more walk-ins.
You can take it a step further and offer a special coupon code for influencers so you can track who your top influencer sources are.
This works great for new menu or venue launches, where influencer collabs boost walk-ins and sales.
5. Reel and story promos that boost sales
Use Flash promos like "Happy Hour starts at 2 pm" or Reels promoting limited-time dishes to drive urgency. Similarly, you can launch Instagram-exclusive discounts, like: “Like and show this post for 15% off today!” These work well and can boost revenues during slow hours.
This tactic involves a promo post that can translate to quick wins or immediate walk-ins, increasing average daily revenue
Further reading: 9 Ideas to Experiment with During Your Restaurant’s Slow Months
Check Off the Boxes for an Optimized, Revenue-Generating Restaurant Instagram Account
By now, you know what you need to turn your restaurant’s Instagram content strategy around. From optimizing your Insta bio to adding the Reserve button to creating new content.
Grab our checklist and tick off the boxes before you start tracking the next set of metrics.
FAQs about Instagram Marketing for Restaurants
What is an Instagrammable restaurant?
An "instagrammable restaurant" is one with striking visual aesthetics, from the interior décor to the food presentation. It encourages guests to take high-quality photos and share them on Instagram. It’s a space where the design promotes user-generated content.
How often should a restaurant post on Instagram?
Like other social platforms, consistency is key on Instagram. And it’s ok to start small and then expand your posting.
For feed posts (photos, carousels, Reels), aim for 3 to 5 times per week. For Instagram Stories, which are great for daily updates and specials, posting a couple of times per day is recommended to stay top-of-mind. Always prioritize the quality of the posts over their quantity.
Do Instagram ads work for restaurants?
Yes, Instagram ads are highly effective for restaurants. They help you target specific audiences, by location, age, and interests, to drive measurable results like increased bookings, online orders, and foot traffic.
Ads work best when paired with compelling visuals and a strong CTA like “Book Now” or “Get 10% Off”
How do I add a Reserve button to my restaurant’s Instagram profile?
You must have a business profile on Instagram and partner with a supported reservation provider like Servme.
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to add the ‘Reserve’ button on Instagram. The same process works for Facebook, too.
Conclusion: Crafting Your Own "Instagrammable" Story
The modern diner's journey begins with the scroll. Instagram isn’t just a photo-sharing platform. It's a powerful marketing tool for building brands, driving bookings, and fostering community.
The most successful restaurant and bar accounts aren't just selling food. They’re selling experiences and unique moments. They’re selling a memorable time for their guests.
Don’t just track likes and followers. Track profile visits, link clicks, DMs, and mentions. These are your digital foot traffic.
If you use platforms like Servme with integrated CRM and reservation tools, you can even track the source of bookings from social campaigns, helping you optimize and scale what works.
Want to track where your bookings are coming from? Servme lets you connect your Instagram directly to reservations. Try it now!
Nada Sobhi
Marketing
