The challenge
Westbourne Spice is an Indian restaurant on Bradford Road in Otley. We designed and built their WordPress website, with reservations, Christmas Day bookings, full and early bird menus, and detailed events and catering pages.
Westbourne Spice is a restaurant client on Bradford Road in Otley, serving Indian, Asian and Balti dishes with vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options. We designed and built their website. It needed to present the restaurant and its food, take table reservations, publish more than one menu, and explain the restaurant's events and catering services in enough detail that people could see what was on offer before they picked up the phone.
A restaurant's offer changes through the year. There is the regular menu, an early bird menu, private dining, outside catering and seasonal events such as Christmas Day, each with its own times and terms. A website that only covers the basics leaves all of that to phone calls, and the busiest weeks are exactly when the phone is hardest to answer. The site had to hold the everyday information and the seasonal extras without either crowding out the other.
Christmas Day bookings on the homepage
The homepage carries a Christmas Day bookings section. It lists the available sittings, 12pm, 2pm, 4pm and 5:30pm, and sets out the deposit terms in plain words: a deposit per person to secure the booking, taken off the bill, and not refunded for any guest who does not attend. A "Book Now" button leads straight to the reservations form.
Putting the terms on the page before anyone books matters. Deposits protect a restaurant from no-shows on its busiest day of the year, and customers are far more comfortable paying one when the rules are clear before they commit.
Two menus, and a taste on the homepage
The menu page offers both the early bird menu and the full Westbourne Spice menu, each available to view or download as a PDF. On the homepage, a short preview lists dishes from the special grills, with prices and descriptions, and a "See Full Menu" link for the rest.
An early bird menu only works if people know about it, so giving it a place alongside the main menu helps it do its job of filling tables earlier in the evening. The homepage also mentions the vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options, which is often the first thing a group checks before choosing where to eat.
The restaurant and the chef in their own words
The homepage introduces the restaurant in three parts: the story, a word from the head chef and a description of the restaurant itself. The About page expands on all three, describing the décor, the open kitchen where guests can watch their food being cooked and the private table for special occasions, alongside a longer passage from the head chef about how they cook.
For a restaurant, these details do real work. Someone deciding between places for an anniversary dinner wants to know what the room is like and who is cooking, not just what is on the menu. The practical details sit close by too: the address, opening hours and a note that free parking is available.
Events and catering spelled out
The Events & Catering page splits the offer into two lists. Events covers private dining, special occasions such as weddings, birthdays and anniversaries, and corporate events. Catering covers custom menus built around dietary needs, on-site and off-site catering across Otley and beyond, and full-service catering with staff and table setups. The contact page picks up the same thread, inviting enquiries about work dos, surprise parties and catering.
Event and catering bookings are some of the most valuable a restaurant takes. A page that answers the obvious questions up front means the enquiries that come in are better informed. [RESULT: event and catering enquiries per month]
Reservations and the rest of the site
"Reservation" is in the header of every page. The reservations form takes a name, email, phone number, party size up to 20 or more, date, a time slot between 5pm and 10pm and any special requests, and it explains that a booking is confirmed once the restaurant emails the details. The site also has a gallery, a contact form and links to the restaurant's Facebook, Instagram, Tripadvisor and Google listings.
The site runs on WordPress with Elementor, so menus, seasonal notices and photos can be changed without a rebuild. That flexibility is the point of our web design and development work for restaurants. See more in hospitality and restaurants, or contact us.