We are booked out already. Why would we care?

You might not, and that is a legitimate answer. Where this matters is a second location, a quiet season, or a category where you are competing for a visitor who has no local knowledge at all.

Our menu changes weekly.

Then the priority is that whatever is published is text, not an image, and that the profiles say the menu changes. A stale PDF from eighteen months ago is worse than a short note saying the menu moves.

Do you post reviews or reply to them?

No. That is outside what this does, deliberately — a tool that wrote your review replies is a tool you should be suspicious of.

Does this work for hotels?

The same question set applies reasonably well; the aggregators are different ones. Run it and look at the questions to judge for yourself.

We have no website to speak of.

Then the report will mostly be about the profiles, and it will say so. A short honest list beats a long one full of work you cannot do.

The report is free with no signup. Paid plans start at $49 a month for three client sites.

Restaurants & hospitality

“Where should I eat?” — and what the assistant actually says

30 buyer questions across three engines, run against a well-reviewed Austin restaurant. It was named on none of the twenty-two questions that never mention it. Every answer was assembled from Reddit, OpenTable, The Infatuation and Tripadvisor.

Real report

We ran this on Emmer & Rye, Austin, TX

Tested 30 buyer questions across ChatGPT (API), Perplexity, Gemini. 22 of them never name Emmer & Rye — those are the ones a buyer who has not heard of them would ask.

Run on 2026-09-16 against ChatGPT (API) openai/gpt-5.4-mini, Perplexity perplexity/sonar-pro, Gemini google/gemini-3-flash. Engines answer differently over time — this is what they said that day.

0 of 22: questions that never name them, where they came up anyway
22: questions answered entirely without them

The questions, and who got recommended instead

Asked exactly as written below. The domains are the ones each engine actually cited.

“best restaurant for families in Austin, TX”
ChatGPT (API)
- austintexas.org
Perplexity
- restaurantsforkings.com
- tribeza.com
- guide.michelin.com
- cozymeal.com
- wanderlog.com
Gemini
- mas-austin.com
- craftbeeraustin.com
- austinwithkids.com
- austinfunforkids.com
“most recommended restaurant in Austin, TX”
ChatGPT (API)
named nobody in particular
Perplexity
- feastio.com
- alexreichek.com
- traveltourister.com
- timeout.com
- blog.resy.com
Gemini
- resy.com
- michelin.com
- kvue.com
- exblog.jp
- atxfyi.com
“who is the best restaurant for groups in Austin, TX”
ChatGPT (API)
- estancia.com
- thecarillonrestaurant.com
- hanksaustin.com
Perplexity
- alexreichek.com
- dineguides.com
- austintexas.org
- austin.culturemap.com
- naboo.app
Gemini
- austinfoodadventures.com
- naboo.app
“best restaurant for seasonal tasting menu in Austin, TX”
ChatGPT (API)
named nobody in particular
Perplexity
- joinpearl.co
- exploretock.com
- menutotaste.com
- airial.travel
- worldclubdirectory.com
Gemini
- restaurantsforkings.com
- hestiaaustin.com
- austinot.com
- tribeza.com
- kvue.com
“best restaurant for date night in Austin, TX”
ChatGPT (API)
- guide.michelin.com
Perplexity
- austinfoodadventures.com
- statesman.com
- cozymeal.com
- foodanddating.com
- austinot.com
Gemini
- austintexas.org
“which restaurant is better for families”
ChatGPT (API)
named nobody in particular
Perplexity
- momlovesbest.com
- totsandtrips.com
- 405magazine.com
- cheapism.com
- care.com
Gemini
- tribeza.com
- austinwithkids.com
- austinfunforkids.com
- bridgesandballoons.com
- sislenpropertygroupaustin.com

What the engines cited

Directories, threads and roundups — the pages holding the answer. The claimable ones are the fastest item on any report.

reddit.comCommunity thread22 questions
3 engines
opentable.comDirectory you can claim19 questions
2 engines
theinfatuation.comRoundup / aggregator19 questions
2 engines
tripadvisor.comDirectory you can claim18 questions
2 engines

Other domains the engines cited

Every other domain the answers named — competitors, directories and publishers alike. Cited by more than one engine on more than one question.

austinchronicle.com12 questions
3 engines
austintexas.org11 questions
3 engines
restaurantsforkings.com7 questions
3 engines
hestiaaustin.com5 questions
3 engines
atasteofkoko.com14 questions
2 engines
guide.michelin.com11 questions
2 engines

What the site never says

For each question, what the model needed to find on the site and did not — in its own words.

“best restaurant for families in Austin, TX”
The site would need to say it is family-friendly or otherwise explain why it is a good choice for families.
“most recommended restaurant in Austin, TX”
The site would need a direct claim or ranking showing it is highly recommended in Austin.
“who is the best restaurant for groups in Austin, TX”
The site would need to state it accommodates groups or is a best choice for group dining.
“best restaurant for seasonal tasting menu in Austin, TX”
The site would need to explicitly say it offers a seasonal tasting menu.

The prescription

What the report told them to do

Generated from the questions they lost, not from a checklist. Each one names the questions it is meant to win back.

Own your listings on opentable.com, tripadvisor.com
change16 questions
On 16 of the questions you lose, the assistants cite a directory rather than any business's own site. Those listings are the answer buyers are being shown.
Answer "best restaurant for families in Austin, TX" on /
change13 questions
The site would need to say it is family-friendly or otherwise explain why it is a good choice for families.
Add structured data describing the business
change12 questions
The site states nothing machine-readable about what it is or where it is, so assistants have to infer both from prose.
New FAQ entry answering "how to choose a restaurant"
new page3 questions
The site would need guidance or criteria for choosing a restaurant.

Get this for your own client

A tasting-menu restaurant that never appears on “best tasting menu in Austin”

Emmer & Rye is a well-reviewed restaurant with a seasonal tasting menu, and on 'best restaurant for seasonal tasting menu in Austin' the assistants named another restaurant and a listicle — because, as the report puts it, the site never explicitly says it offers one. That is the pattern across all twenty-two questions it lost: 'best for families' went to the tourism board and Tribeza, 'most recommended' to Resy and Michelin, 'date night' to the Michelin guide again. Look at what is cited underneath and none of it is a restaurant's own site: a Reddit thread on twenty-two of the thirty questions, OpenTable and The Infatuation on nineteen, Tripadvisor on eighteen, the Austin Chronicle on twelve. The answer in this category is assembled from other people's pages, so most of the work is off the website — the profiles being quoted, and the occasion questions the site leaves to the phone.

What to do about it

This is the shape of every report we produce, split two ways: the changes we will make for you on WordPress once the plugin ships (as drafts, behind approval), and the ones only you can do — claiming a listing, fixing a profile, answering the questions a page has been avoiding. We mark which is which rather than pretending the second column does not exist.

01
Treat the review and booking profiles as your homepage
Tripadvisor, OpenTable, the delivery platforms, the Google Business Profile. Hours, menu, whether you take bookings, what is actually being served this season. Those pages are the answer; your site is the footnote.
02
Put the menu on the page as text
A menu that is a PDF or an image is unreadable to everything asking about your food. This is the single most common technical failure in this category.
03
Answer the occasion questions
Groups, date night, dietary requirements, children. These are the segment questions in the set, and they are answered by aggregators because restaurants leave them to the phone.

FAQ

Questions

Run the same questions on your own restaurant

One client website. You get the questions they lose, who won them, and what the site never answers. Free, and there is no signup.

Get your free reportOne client website, no signup. Paid plans will ask the same questions 2.5× deeper.

“Where should I eat?” — and what the assistant actually says

We ran this on Emmer & Rye, Austin, TX

The questions, and who got recommended instead

What the engines cited

Other domains the engines cited

What the site never says

What the report told them to do

Own your listings on opentable.com, tripadvisor.com

Answer "best restaurant for families in Austin, TX" on /

Add structured data describing the business

New FAQ entry answering "how to choose a restaurant"

A tasting-menu restaurant that never appears on “best tasting menu in Austin”

What to do about it

Treat the review and booking profiles as your homepage

Put the menu on the page as text

Answer the occasion questions