AI for Restaurants.

Reservation reads, yes — the agent can pull bookings, allergen notes, and guest history from the major systems. Booking back into them is more variable: OpenTable and Resy are workable through their partner APIs, Tock is more closed. For most independent restaurants I've worked with, the practical setup is the AI handles the conversation, proposes a time and party size, and the manager confirms in the system. Catches the bookings you'd otherwise lose to voicemail without putting the AI in charge of your floor plan.

It will surface them, never decide for the kitchen. If a guest mentions a tree nut allergy, the agent flags it on the booking, in the inquiry summary, and in the prep list — but it doesn't tell the guest a dish is safe. That answer comes from the chef. Allergen mistakes are not the place to remove the human, and the build refuses to. If a guest pushes for a yes-or-no on safety, the agent escalates to the manager.

Most independent restaurant builds I take on land between $3k and $10k. The reservation-and-inquiry handler usually fits the lower end. Adding catering quoting and the inventory summary pushes it up because they touch your POS and email. Monthly running costs after that are usually a few hundred dollars including model usage. Not the kind of investment that makes sense for a place doing 30 covers a night, generally a fit at 80+ covers and a phone that won't stop.

The reservation agent runs in the cloud, so a wifi outage at the restaurant doesn't kill it — guests still reach a booking system. POS-dependent tools like the inventory summary obviously stop running until the POS is back. None of this is designed to be the only thing standing between you and a working service. If everything I built turned off tomorrow, the kitchen still cooks and the host still seats. That's deliberate.