Six restaurant websites that don't look like a template.

Contramar, Mexico City

Contramar has no big headline or slogan up top. After the photos comes the whole menu, as text, with each dish's weight and price: “Tiradito de pescado, 80 g”. The octopus is priced by the gram, and the page states that prices include 16% sales tax.

For bookings it lays out every option at once: OpenTable, two phone numbers, WhatsApp, an email for groups of more than seven and the hours the reservations desk answers, 10am to 8pm.

Worth copying: the menu as text with prices, not a PDF, and every way to book in plain sight.

Rochelle Canteen, London

Rochelle Canteen has four menu items: Book, Menu, Events and Contact. Opening hours sit near the top, split into lunch and supper, with a rule no template would ever write: “Guests must leave by 10pm”.

Further down it names the team, from Margot Henderson to the head chef, and lists its suppliers one by one: the fishmonger, the cheesemonger, the cider maker.

Worth copying: house rules written as they are, and real names instead of “quality ingredients”.

Mugaritz, Errenteria

Mugaritz opens with a line that could only be theirs: “Abre la mente, no solo la boca”, open your mind, not just your mouth. Instead of weekly hours it gives the season, May 1 to October 25, and bookings go through its own system.

Worth copying: if your business runs in seasons, say so with dates. And if you have a line of your own, lead with it.

Union Boulangerie, Paris

Union Boulangerie doesn't say “local ingredients”. It says where each one comes from: flour from Moulins de Brasseuil, honey from beekeeper Philippe Belmonte, hazelnuts from Mathieu Martinet. Each shop gets its address, its hours and a button that says “J'y vais!” (“I'm going!”) and opens directions.

Worth copying: a name for every adjective, and buttons that say what the person wants to do.

Muchacha, Montpellier

Muchacha is a Latin American rooftop bar. Its hours are split by what's going on: kitchen 6pm to 11:30pm, bar and dance floor until 1am. The age rule (over 25s only) is right there, and the copy has a point of view: “Rien ne s'y mange seul”, nothing here is eaten alone, because the plates are for sharing.

Its weak spot: the menu is a PDF.

Worth copying: hours that answer the real question, which isn't “are you open?” but “until when is the kitchen open?”.

Luca, London

Luca spells out its booking rules in plain text: à la carte online for up to six, bar lunch for up to four, corkage at £50 a bottle with a two-bottle limit, and the reservations office hours, Monday to Friday, 10am to 5pm.

Its menus, on the other hand, are PDFs. I'm including it anyway because it shows that a well-made site isn't perfect. It's specific.

What they have in common

• The menu, the hours and the rules, up top and as text. What people look up before they go isn't hidden behind a button.
• Real names: people, suppliers, dates, amounts. Each one does more than ten adjectives.
• Short menus. Rochelle Canteen and Muchacha cover everything with four items.
• Third-party booking, like OpenTable or Zenchef, linked without fuss. Using a standard system isn't slop; wrapping it in made-up copy is.

If an AI built your restaurant's website, the first fix isn't design. It's replacing every adjective with a fact. The guide to making your site not look AI-generated has the order for the rest.