Four Tips and Prompts for Using AI as a Restaurateur

How AI Is Becoming a New Restaurant Operating Tool

US Foods Director of Restaurant Operations Consulting Lance Reynolds spends a lot of time on Large Language Models (LLMs)—he knows how US Foods’ customers can use AI tools to improve their operations and marketing efforts. Reynolds is also a partner in four restaurants in the Flagstaff, Arizona, area, which gives him another testing ground for what works.

“When I’ve conducted workshops for chefs and restaurant owners asking how many are intentionally using AI to streamline operations, less than 5% raise their hand,” Reynolds says. “Once I go through just one example, 100% are in.”

Here are Reynolds’ four baby steps for using an LLM to tighten operations, support marketing and drive sales. No need to become a tech expert overnight—just start with a great prompt.

1. Treat Your Google Listing Like Your Front Door

“If you’re going to get discovered—if somebody’s looking for a restaurant—you need to make sure you’re going to show up on their phone in that Top 3 list. You get outside that Top 3, nobody’s clicking down and doing more research. It’s really about using AI to build the entire ecosystem of your digital brand—your Google listing, your Apple Maps listing, social media engagement. Our customers taking one step further and using SpotHopper to do this are seeing their sales go up 15% to 40%, which is pretty amazing for restaurants right now.”

Sample AI Prompt for Local SEO & Listings

“Help me improve my website copy, Google Business presence and customer review replies so they attract more local guests and rank better in search by rewriting and expanding my restaurant’s website content to be more SEO-friendly for my city and nearby neighborhoods, clearly showcase our cuisine and core menu items and keep or improve our brand voice. Then, create Google posts and review reply templates we can use going forward.”

2. Turn Your Menu Into a Profit and Training Engine

“Most operators don’t know if their menu is profitable. When they need to make changes, it becomes this massive daunting task that it doesn’t need to be. I teach operators how to put their chef brain into AI. Then you let it do the heavy lifting.”

Sample AI Prompt for Menu Engineering

“You are a restaurant R&D chef and operations trainer—help me design limited-time specials that cross-utilize existing inventory and are easy to plug into MOXē.”

3. Automate Your Marketing Strategy

“People panic post all the time. They don’t think everything through, … what they did last week, what’s going on this week or what’s happening in town. All you have to do is call a team marketing meeting for a brain dump of ideas, record it on your phone and feed it to AI for further research and a plan. Now you have agency-level marketing.”

Sample AI Prompt for Restaurant Marketing Plan

“You are a restaurant marketing strategist and copywriter for a chef-driven, foodie-focused restaurant. Create a seven-day content plan covering email, social media and SMS with two event tie-ins, plus two automated guest messages, such as a day-after-visit and a 45-day-later ‘we miss you’ visit.”

4. Capture More High-Value Catering and Events

“You have the facility, you have the people, you have the food—you already have everything you need to start this other branch of your business. Catering and events can be additional revenue without putting a huge burden on your restaurant—just two additional private events or catering orders per month can generate anywhere from $2,000 to $10,000 in additional revenue, depending on your concept. We use AI to figure out the menu, and exactly how much to prep and order.”

Sample AI Prompt for Catering & Events

“You are a restaurant R&D chef and catering manager. Create two sample menu packages including per-person pricing, a shopping list, prep time and customer-facing proposal.”

Explore US Foods Menu IQ Tools

Check out US Foods’ Menu IQ tool enhanced with new mobile- and AI-powered features, including AI recipe creation, real-time food costs, inventory management, profitability calculations and more.