Restaurant and Bar Web Design in Milwaukee and Chicago

In cities like Milwaukee and Chicago, the food and drink scene is stacked. Great restaurants open every month. Bars compete for the same Friday night crowd. And the thing that often decides where people end up? A quick Google search and whatever comes up first.

Your website is your digital front door. It’s where people check your menu, look at your hours, read reviews, and decide if you’re worth the trip. If that front door looks outdated or doesn’t work well on a phone, you’re losing tables to the place down the block that invested in a better online presence.

At Lakeside Web Design, we build websites for restaurants, bars, breweries, cafes, and food trucks across Milwaukee and Chicago. We know what hospitality customers want when they land on your site, and we make sure they find it fast.

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What Your Restaurant Website Should Actually Do

A restaurant website isn’t a business card. It’s a tool. Here’s what a good one looks like:

• Your menu, front and center: Not a PDF download. A real, browsable, mobile-friendly menu design that makes everything look appetizing. People want to scan your offerings in 30 seconds on their phone.
• Online reservations and ordering: If someone has to call to make a reservation in 2025, you’re losing bookings. We integrate systems like OpenTable, Toast, or Square so customers can book or order right from your site.
• Hours, location, and contact info that are impossible to miss: Sounds basic, but you’d be surprised how many restaurant sites bury this information. We put it where people actually look.
• Photos that capture your vibe: Good food photography and shots of your space tell people what to expect. We design around your best visuals so the site feels like your restaurant, not a generic template.
• Event and specials pages: Happy hour deals, live music nights, holiday menus. Keep your regulars in the loop and give new visitors a reason to come this week.
• Social media integration: Your Instagram is probably already doing some heavy lifting. We connect it directly to your site so visitors see your latest posts without leaving the page.

Getting Found on Google: Local SEO for Restaurants

Think about the last time you were looking for a place to eat. You probably typed something like “best tacos near me” or “happy hour Milwaukee” into Google. That’s exactly how your customers find you too.

Local SEO is how you show up in those searches. We optimize your site for the searches that matter most to your business: your cuisine type + your city, your neighborhood, “near me” searches, and specific menu items people crave. We also make sure your Google Business Profile is dialed in, because that’s what shows up in the map pack right at the top of search results.

According to Yelp, restaurants are the most searched business category on their platform. If your online presence is weak, you’re invisible to a massive chunk of hungry customers.

Built for Milwaukee and Chicago’s Food Scene

We live here. We eat here. We know what the Third Ward brunch crowd expects from a website versus what a dive bar on Brady Street needs. That local context matters because your website should reflect the personality of your place, not look like it was made by some agency that’s never set foot in the city.

Whether you’re a new spot trying to build buzz or an established restaurant that needs a fresh look online, we approach every project with the same focus: make the site beautiful, make it fast, and make it bring in more customers.

Pair your new website with ongoing SEO and content marketing, and you’ve got a system that keeps your tables full year-round.

Let’s Fill More Seats

Your food does the talking once people walk in. Let us handle getting them through the door. We’ll build you a website that looks as good as your menu tastes and shows up when people are searching for their next meal.