With takeaway you always have the opportunity to bring a smile to guests’ faces at home, also during Christmas. Get inspired by these restaurants who are already offering their Christmas boxes online.

The keyword “takeaway near me” is searched an estimated 117,000 times each month in the UK alone. In Holland, the Dutch equivalent is searched an estimated 36,000 times each month.

Almost all these searchers are looking to get a meal delivered to their home in the near future.

Having your takeaway restaurant appear prominently for a relevant “near me” search (that is one which is made by someone within your area of delivery) is therefore one of the best ways of getting a reliable stream of new customers.

But with the rise of ordering platforms dominating the front page of Google for food delivery related searches, how do you optimise your restaurant for the specific search “takeaway near me”? The following will explain exactly how to do this.

During the first closure The Green Rose (Arnhem) crafted a new dish every day for their takeaway menu. Prior to COVID-19 the menu was refreshed weekly with small dishes, nowadays the takeaway consists of Indobar and sushi. Wayan Dijenborgh (manager) explains why they made this change

Pop-up restaurant De Lasloods is the result of an annual collaboration between Louk Peperkamp and chef Michel Louws during the summer and late summer. Unfortunately, the doors had to close sooner than hoped and they switched to drive thru takeaway. In the search for a takeaway partner, Peperkamp soon ended up at Formitable. What convinced him?

With the latest updates from Google you keep your guests up to date with everything that’s going on in your restaurant and you're easier to find on Google. Especially in these times it’s important to put the correct information on Google. We’ve listed the most important updates for restaurants.

From a snack box to a michelin star menu and from a shopping bag to thirty different wines. These restaurants have unleashed their creativity and set up their Formitable takeaway shop in their own style. Get inspired by these ten examples.

Are you going to set up pick-up and delivery? It is good to think about everything that is involved. What can you arrange yourself and what would work better with a delivery partner?

How do you ensure that people really order your delicious home menu? How to promote your takeaway and delivery meals via all your channels in no time.

How do you make your home menu a resounding success? Right, with a smooth takeaway shop that makes your guests excited.

Devina Devine (manager, wine director Den Vandrette, Copenhagen) faced some problems with her old reservation system. It was time for a switch. Since using Formitable, she got rid of the old problems and even gets positive reactions from her guests. What are the biggest changes she has noticed?

Bob Kaasenbrood (owner Scheepskameel) was frustrated by the relatively high frequency of no-shows they were experiencing on a weekly basis. Now everyone who wants to reserve a table at Scheepskameel has to do a prepayment. How has this affected no-shows?

It may seem far away, but Christmas is just around the corner. Especially during these times it’s important to get the most out of this holiday, and we are here to help you. With these 4 tips you’ll be prepared to serve the best Christmas ever.

The Formitable widget is perfectly suited to show of your Christmas lunch or dinner. The earlier your guests can book a table for Christmas, the bigger the chances you get a full house. To get inspired we came up with a list of 5 (prepaid) Christmas tickets.

Since a couple of months you have to do a prepayment when you reserve a table a Restaurant Gebr. Hartering (Amsterdam). Niek Hartering (owner): "We were thinking about introducing prepayments earlier, but didn't dare to take the step."

The Squeeze feature provides restaurants the opportunity to offer shortened reservations online. Suzanne Sluijter (owner Restaurant Sinne) used to have to rely on guests calling last minute or walk-ins to fill the gaps in her bookings. Since offering shortened reservations online with the Squeeze feature, the number of seatings per table can automatically be doubled.

The number of restaurants asking for a prepayments is increasing. We spoke to a few restaurant owners who work with prepaid reservations. What has changed for them?

Is registering your guests contact details time consuming? Bar Ramona (Amsterdam) made this process digital with three simple steps. Preventing a crowd at the door and improving hygiene.

Are you organising an event? Have a new summer menu? With an email campaign you can easily reach a lot of guests. It’s a perfect marketing tool to sell tickets or reservations. Use the following tips to set up an effective email campaign.

Let’s not beat around the bush, responding to Google Reviews is beneficial for your restaurant. You build a relationship with your guests and you increase your visibility. No time to respond? With our tips and templates you can respond in no time.

Reviews can make or break your business, especially on a platform like Google. However, your rating on Google isn’t the only thing that makes a difference nowadays. Guests want to see more than just a number. Curious guests take their research in your Google Reviews a bit further.

With a lot of positive Google Reviews guests will easily find the way to your door. The template we show us helped us gain a lot of 5-star reviews on Google. That’s why we gladly share it with you. With this template you’re guaranteed to get more 5-star reviews.

Having a hard time collecting Google reviews? With these tips you’ll be drowning in them.

Lendl Mijnhijmer (manager and sommelier at Restaurant Bougainville*, Amsterdam) rarely emailed his guests, that was until he came across the new email campaign feature within Formitable. Mijnhijmer: "I can create a campagne in no time."

After being closed for weeks, restaurants can finally open their doors again. Patrick van Aller (co-owner Gastropub Van Kinsbergen in The Hague) is very happy, but was still vocal during the weeks they were closed. "We stayed in touch with our guests and are ready to open our doors from June 1st, but on our own terms."

Email campaigns are a numbers game. The more email addresses you have, the better the result of your campaign. Use these tips to increase your mailing list.

E-mail is the way to keep in touch with your guests and keep them informed about what's going on in your restaurant. 4 reasons why you should use email campaigns.

There are a lot of ways to improve your restaurant’s findability on Google. A quick win is to reclaim your Google search results from consumer platforms. Four ways to reclaim your Google search results, so you won’t have to lose any more money on your online reservations. 

Working with shifts to double tables is an excellent solution for getting the most out of your tables. We have listed 10 creative examples for you.

Prepayments are the best way to avoid no shows. Guests are no longer surprised when they have to pay in advance for a reservation, even on the terrace. For your inspiration, we have collected 50 examples of restaurants that work with deposits.

With videos you bring your restaurant experience to the living room of your guests. How about an instructional video with your takeaway menu? Or an online wine course? Five creative solutions.

Dennis Middeldorp, chef and owner of Restaurant Sense* in Den Bosch, was not immediately convinced of takeaway, but quickly changed his mind. How does a star restaurant deal with takeaway? Middeldorp: "We offer a three-course menu that is ideal for home."

4850 (Amsterdam) reinvented itself with a fully customized ordering menu. Judith Dekker (creative director and partner of owner Daniël Schein): "It is difficult to take a six-course dinner with you. But you will find everything that we enjoy ourselves after a busy day on the floor. And a lot of wine." In addition, 4850's action for the health care workers is heartening.

If you had asked the Caron family earlier this year if they had plans to offer a takeaway menu, they would have burst out laughing. But times are changing. And so Café Caron (Amsterdam) opened an online takeaway shop. Co-owner David Caron: "We sold out immediately. I hadn't seen that coming. You notice that people need a restaurant experience, but at home."

There are three major delivery platforms in the Netherlands. We list the most important features for you, plus a list of temporary initiatives that will help you through the COVID-19 crisis.

Do you need inspiration for photos? Alain Parry runs Balthazar’s Keuken in Amsterdam. He used to be a photographer in his earlier life. You can see his expertise in the photos he takes for his restaurant, all taken with a smartphone. To kick-start your photography, we discussed some tips with him.

Leveraging the experience economy can help you to get more paying guests into your restaurant. Learn from 5 successful restaurants and apply 5 key trends in the industry to increase your number of guests.

A gift voucher from your restaurant holds a promise for a beautiful night out, which is great for everyone involved, including your business. We’ll tell you why.

There are several reasons why every restaurant should turn their dining experience into a gift voucher. One of the reasons is, that it costs so little effort. Put a gift voucher onto your website and everything else happens by itself. Do you still want to get more out of your vouchers? These tips help you to get started selling more, smarter.

Gift vouchers are great if your business could use some support. Whoever purchases a voucher helps your restaurant survive, while having a great evening ahead of them. Use this mini toolkit to promote your vouchers through all your channels.

Taking control of your online reservations can feel like a big step. Especially if your restaurant is bookable through a consumer platform. Robbert Veuger (co-owner Aan de Poel**, Amstelveen) agrees. ‘We were worried that leaving our platform would lead to a decrease in online reservations.’ Apart from that, he wasn’t keen on moving to another online reservation system, as a previous switch went completely south. Until a fire destroyed his restaurant.

Do you think guests hate online reservations? Not a chance, they go crazy for convenience. You want to give your guests what they want, right? Reserving a table online is definitely on their most wanted list.

An online booking system makes your life so much easier and tremendously delights your guests. Five reasons why you can’t go without an online reservation system in this day and age.

Squeeze offers online reservations with a shorter table turn and fills the gaps in your planning. It helps you to fill your tables, like a real online floor manager. With these three pro-tips you can use this powerful feature to its full potential and give your evenings a boost.

The personal touch. That’s what it’s all about at Rijsel and Scheepskameel in Amsterdam. For years, owner Pieter Smits felt that accepting online reservations would be the opposite of this approach. Eventually he caved. What made him change his mind?

Would you love to serve more guests per evening? Are you done with tables collecting dust for hours on end? By offering online reservations with a shorter table turn, you’ll double those tables without seeming inhospitable. Squeeze, our online floor manager, has got you covered.

Instagram lets you make a lasting first impression on your guests and helps you build a relationship with them. Sounds complicated and time-consuming? With the right approach, it doesn’t have to be. Get inspired by these six best practices.

Your guest craves answers. Always happy to help, Google came up with Google My Business, placing all information on your business on the right side of your screen. Great, but why the hideous cover photo? Why those photos that seem to have nothing to do with your business? Is there anything you can do about that?

Does your restaurant have a Facebook business page? Adding a reservations button makes it super easy for guests to make reservations at your establishment.

Reserve with Google enables people to reserve a table directly from Google search results. And it enables you to attract more diners to your restaurant. In a way that is convenient for them.

Learn how to claim ownership of your restaurant on “Google My Business”. As the official manager of your business, you can make sure that your potential guests have a smooth dining experience from start to finish.

Fed up with commissions? Connect your reservations link to your own online reservations tool rather than to a consumer platform’s booking tool.

After seven years at restaurant Bord'Eau, chef Richard van Oostenbrugge and sous-chef Thomas Groot leave their kitchen to make their dream come true: a restaurant of their own. To realize their ideas they renovate a beautiful location near the Amstel river. It is the first no-table restaurant in the Netherlands, with only twenty-four seats and ten chefs.

David Caron is only twenty-one years old when he co-founded Café Caron. The popular family restaurant is open since 2017. The front of the house is his responsibility. Because of their success, his focus is now shifting. “Luckily, we were able to build a great team. If we had to do everything ourselves, it would not benefit our guests experience.”

Dennis Huwaë is chef and co-owner of restaurant Daalder. After a career at several Michelin starred restaurants he is now writing his own success story. Gault Millau awarded him a the most talented chef of 2018. What is on the agenda for the coming years?