The line is slammed at 7pm and the calls nobody can answer are the reservations, catering, and big-party requests worth the most.
AI Automation · Oakland
AI Automation for restaurants in Oakland
For a restaurant, the phone rings during the dinner rush and nobody can pick up — and the calls you miss are the reservations, big-party bookings, and catering inquiries worth the most. That's the gap AI Automation fills. An embeddable assistant answers the questions that eat your night — hours, walk-ins, patio, what's gluten-free, large parties — pulled straight from your real menu and policies. It works on your site, by text, and in social DMs, 24/7. When someone wants a table or an event, it captures the details and hands a real person the lead. We work with Oakland businesses from the storefronts on Piedmont Avenue and College Avenue's Rockridge stretch to the taquerias and bakeries along Fruitvale's International Boulevard, the warehouses-turned-shops in West Oakland and Jack London Square, and the neighborhood spots in Temescal, Grand Lake, Dimond, and Montclair up in the hills. It's a city of independents — old-line family businesses next to first-gen owners — and the websites rarely keep up with the foot traffic.
The problem
Where restaurants leak leads
The same questions repeat all day — hours, parking, allergens, corkage, kids menu — and a host has to stop running the floor to answer each one.
After-hours messages on Instagram, Google, and your contact form sit unread until morning, by which point the person booked somewhere else.
Large-party and private-event requests arrive as vague messages, so you play phone tag for days instead of capturing date, headcount, and budget up front.
What we build
AI Automation, built for restaurants
An embeddable chat assistant trained on your actual menu, hours, allergen info, and policies — so answers match what's on the plate, not a generic FAQ.
A lead-capture flow for reservations, private events, and catering that collects date, party size, and contact details, then routes it to your inbox or notes (Toast, Square, OpenTable, Resy).
After-hours coverage across your website, SMS, and Instagram/Facebook DMs, with a clean handoff so every real lead reaches a person — never a dead-end bot.
Automations for the busywork: instant replies to inquiries, follow-up texts on large-party leads, and a daily digest of who asked what so you can spot demand.
What changes
What you can expect
The dinner rush stops costing you bookings — common questions and reservation requests get handled even when every host is on the floor.
Catering and private-event leads arrive complete, with date, headcount, and contact info, so you reply once instead of chasing.
Repeat questions about hours, allergens, and parking get answered instantly, freeing staff to focus on guests in the room.
We also build for neighboring East Bay businesses — Berkeley, Alameda, Emeryville, San Leandro, and Piedmont — working remotely or meeting on-site across the bridge when it helps.
FAQ
Common questions
Will the assistant give wrong answers about our menu or allergens?
Its answers come straight from your menu, hours, and allergen notes — nothing invented. Anything it isn't certain about goes to a person, and serious allergy questions are pointed to staff rather than guessed at.
Does this replace our host or our phone?
No. It handles the repetitive questions and after-hours messages, and captures booking and event leads. Every real lead — a reservation, a party of 20, a catering ask — is routed to a person so your team still closes it.
Does it work with Toast, Square, OpenTable, or Resy?
Yes. The assistant captures the request and can drop the details into your inbox, a text, or your POS/reservation notes. We wire it to whatever you already use so leads land where your team will see them.
Do you work on-site with Oakland businesses or only remotely?
Both. We're a two-person Bay Area studio, so most of the build happens remotely with regular calls. But if you're in Oakland — Fruitvale, Rockridge, Jack London, the hills — we'll come to you to look at how the front desk or the kitchen actually runs before we touch the booking flow. That on-site context usually makes the system better.
Keep exploring
More ai automation
See what we'd build for you
Start with a free scan — we'll show you the smallest fix that moves the needle for restaurants in Oakland. Built by Mohammed & Ravi, the two people who'll do the work.