AI for restaurants: menus, Google reviews, phone bots and legal duties

Where AI helps in hospitality today

DEHOGA NRW, the hospitality association for North Rhine-Westphalia, lists typical uses in the sector: automatic table reservations, chatbots on the website, texts for menus and social media posts, and analysing guest reviews. For small businesses, three of these are usable straight away: having texts written, replying to reviews and taking pressure off the phone.

Our assessment: a free chatbot such as ChatGPT or Gemini is enough for texts. According to Notebookcheck, the paid tiers ChatGPT Go and Plus cost 8 and 23 euros a month, and according to Google, Google AI Pro costs 21.99 euros a month. A phone bot is more worthwhile if calls regularly go unanswered during service.

Menus: texts yes, allergens only from you

A chatbot can turn your bullet points into appetising descriptions, suggest names for a dish of the day or shorten long texts. DeepL is suitable for translations into English or Italian. According to DeepL, the free version translates 50,000 characters and one document a month. DeepL Pro Individual costs 7.49 euros a month billed annually, including VAT, and according to the vendor, texts are not used for training.

Allergens require care. The German Federal Ministry of Agriculture makes clear that restaurants must also inform guests about the 14 main allergens, such as gluten, eggs, milk, nuts or celery. This may be done in writing, electronically or orally. If information is given orally, written documentation must be easily accessible on request, and there must be a clear notice about this on the premises.

The German data protection authorities stress that AI results make no claim to be correct. Our assessment: never let the AI add or rephrase allergens. Take them from your recipes and check translated menus to make sure the allergen information is still correct.

Replying to Google reviews

According to Google, you can only reply to reviews once your Business Profile is verified. Google has now connected Gemini to Business Profile: Gemini can then summarise reviews, draft replies, create posts and even maintain menus in the profile. According to Google's help pages, however, this connection is not available in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, so not in Germany either (as of October 2026).

In Germany you therefore take a detour: summarise the criticism in your own words, without names, contact details or other details that could identify the guest, and enter only that summary into ChatGPT or Gemini. Ask for a short, friendly reply and paste it into your Business Profile yourself. According to the German data protection conference, removing names alone is usually not enough, because people can also be identified from the context.

Our assessment: replies are public. Do not include booking details, phone numbers or the names of companions, and read every reply before posting, especially for complaints.

Reservations via AI phone bot

Restaurant phone bots answer calls, check free tables in the reservation system and book directly. Three examples with published terms:

According to its pricing page, resmio charges a one-off 14.90 euros and 0.20 euros per call for its phone assistant. It can only be added to the Premium (69.90 euros a month) and Ultimate plans, all prices net plus VAT. According to resmio, both plans have a minimum term of twelve months, even if you pay monthly. If you want to be able to cancel monthly, that costs an extra 10 euros a month. According to the provider, up to 500 calls are free in the first month. The assistant cannot currently take deposits.

Assistent.ai has no base fee and charges a one-off 99 euros for set-up and 0.35 euros per call, 0.32 euros from 301 calls and 0.28 euros from 751 calls, plus VAT. According to the provider, the service works with various reservation systems and forwards callers to your team if they want to speak to a person.

In Germany, OpenTable connects Bookline's AI phone assistant. The page does not state a price.

Our assessment: all figures on hours saved or extra bookings come from the providers themselves. Test the bot with your own calls first, including dialect and special requests.

Duties: telling callers, contract, team

Since 2 August 2026, AI systems that talk directly to people must, according to the European Commission, be designed so that the person learns from the start that they are talking to an AI, unless this is obvious. German law firm IT-Recht Kanzlei recommends that phone bots play a message with a greeting, a notice about AI and recording, a reference to the privacy information on your website and a request for consent. The firm considers a data processing agreement with the provider indispensable.

DEHOGA NRW also advises keeping a simple list of all AI systems in use and informing the team how and where AI is used in the business.

For chatbots: the German data protection conference recommends business accounts rather than private ones, with training on inputs switched off. Guest data such as names, phone numbers or individual guests' intolerances do not belong in a general chatbot.