Category: Restaurants

Running a successful restaurant isn’t just about serving great food. It’s also about giving customers a reason to visit, particularly during quieter periods of the week.

Whether you’re looking to fill tables on a Tuesday evening, encourage repeat visits or make more of a seasonal event, the right restaurant promotion can help bring in additional business.

But a good promotion doesn’t always mean offering a discount. Sometimes, an exclusive menu, themed evening or partnership with another local business can be just as effective.

Here are 15 restaurant promotion ideas you can adapt to your venue, from simple midweek offers to events that give customers something new to experience.

 

What makes a good restaurant promotion?

The most effective restaurant promotions have a clear purpose. Rather than reducing prices across your entire menu, think about what you want the offer to achieve.

Are you trying to attract customers during quieter hours? Increase the average amount customers spend? Encourage existing customers to return more frequently?

A successful restaurant promotion should:

• Solve a specific problem: Target quieter services, underperforming menu items or opportunities for repeat visits.
• Offer genuine value: Give customers something they find appealing, whether that’s a saving, an exclusive experience or an added extra.
• Be easy to understand: Customers should immediately know what they’re getting and how to claim it.
• Protect your margins: Account for food costs, staffing and any discounts before launching.
• Have a clear timeframe: Limited-time promotions can encourage customers to make a booking rather than putting it off.

You don’t need to launch several offers at once. Start with one that addresses a particular opportunity in your restaurant, measure its performance and build from there.

 

15 restaurant promotion ideas to try

1. Introduce an early-bird menu

If your restaurant tends to be quiet before the evening rush, an early-bird menu can help bring customers through the door.

Offer a reduced-price two or three-course menu for customers dining before a set time, such as 5pm to 6:30pm.

Keep the menu relatively small, using dishes your kitchen can prepare efficiently.

Try this: Offer two courses for £19.95 between 5pm and 6:30pm, Monday to Thursday.

Best for: Restaurants with quiet early-evening services.

2. Create a midweek set menu

Tuesday and Wednesday evenings can be challenging for restaurants that rely heavily on weekend trade.

A fixed-price midweek menu gives customers a reason to dine out when they might otherwise stay home.

Consider using popular dishes with predictable ingredient costs, rather than simply discounting your existing à la carte menu.

Try this: Run a Wednesday night set menu with a starter and main for £22.

Best for: Restaurants looking to increase covers during quieter weekdays.

3. Run a two-for-one or value-add offer

Two-for-one promotions can attract attention, but they need careful planning to avoid damaging profitability.

Instead of offering two main courses for the price of one, consider adding something extra to an existing purchase.

For example, customers ordering two mains could receive a complimentary side dish.

This creates a sense of value without necessarily halving your revenue.

Try this: Offer a complimentary sharing side when two customers order a main course each.

Best for: Casual dining restaurants, family venues and restaurants with shareable dishes.

4. Offer a free dessert with qualifying spend

A complimentary dessert can encourage customers to spend a little more during their visit.

Set a minimum spend that makes commercial sense for your restaurant, and choose a dessert with a manageable ingredient cost.

You could also use the promotion to introduce customers to a new dessert on your menu.

Try this: Offer one complimentary dessert per table when the food bill reaches £60.

Best for: Restaurants looking to increase average order value.

5. Host a themed food night

Themed food nights give customers something different to look forward to.

You could introduce a weekly curry night, steak night, tapas evening or regional food experience.

The advantage is that customers begin associating a particular evening with something special at your restaurant.

Try this: Launch a Thursday tapas night with a selection of small plates and sharing dishes.

Best for: Restaurants wanting to create regular midweek demand.

6. Organise a chef’s table or tasting event

If your restaurant has a talented kitchen team or a distinctive menu, a tasting event can turn a normal evening into a premium experience.

Offer a limited number of seats for a specially designed menu, potentially with the chef introducing each course.

Because customers are paying for an experience rather than simply a meal, you may be able to command a higher price without discounting.

Try this: Host a six-course seasonal tasting evening with 16 available places, booked and paid for in advance.

Best for: Independent restaurants, premium dining venues and chef-led concepts.

7. Launch a bottomless brunch

Bottomless brunch remains a recognisable promotional format for restaurants with suitable food and drink offerings.

A fixed-price brunch package can encourage group bookings and make weekend or late-morning services more attractive.

However, it’s important to calculate the cost of included drinks, establish clear time limits and ensure staff can manage service responsibly.

Try this: Offer a 90-minute brunch package with one main dish and a defined selection of included drinks.

Best for: Brunch restaurants, casual dining venues and restaurants targeting group occasions.

8. Run a quiz or entertainment night

Not every promotion needs to revolve around food prices.

A quiz night, live acoustic performance or comedy evening can give customers a reason to visit on a traditionally quiet night.

You could offer a special menu for the event or simply encourage attendees to order from your existing food and drink selection.

Try this: Introduce a fortnightly Tuesday quiz night with a small entry fee and a prize voucher for the winning team.

Best for: Casual restaurants, pubs serving food and community-focused venues.

9. Introduce a loyalty member night

Your existing customers can be one of your most valuable audiences.

Instead of running public discounts, consider offering an exclusive promotion to people who have joined your loyalty programme.

This could be early access to a new menu, an invitation to a special event or a complimentary extra with their meal.

Try this: Give loyalty members exclusive access to a monthly menu preview evening.

Best for: Restaurants with an established base of repeat customers.

10. Create a birthday offer

Birthdays provide a natural reason for customers to book a restaurant.

A birthday promotion can encourage customers to celebrate with friends and family, potentially bringing several additional diners with them.

Keep the offer simple and set clear qualifying conditions.

Try this: Offer a complimentary birthday dessert when the guest of honour dines with at least one paying guest.

Best for: Family restaurants, casual dining venues and celebration-focused restaurants.

11. Reward customers for referring a friend

Word of mouth is valuable for independent restaurants, particularly when customers already have a positive experience to share.

A refer-a-friend promotion gives them a little extra encouragement.

You could offer a reward when an existing customer introduces someone who makes their first qualifying booking or purchase.

Try this: Give both the existing customer and their referred friend £5 towards a future qualifying meal once the friend’s first visit is completed.

Best for: Restaurants with a strong regular customer base.

12. Offer a local resident promotion

If your restaurant is located in a residential neighbourhood, local customers can provide consistent trade throughout the year.

A resident-focused promotion can encourage people living nearby to try your restaurant for the first time or return more regularly.

You could limit the promotion to quieter evenings or offer a small additional benefit rather than a large discount.

Try this: Introduce a neighbourhood night every Monday, with a complimentary starter for qualifying local residents ordering a main course.

Best for: Neighbourhood restaurants and venues away from major tourist areas.

13. Introduce a student offer

Restaurants close to universities and colleges may benefit from promotions aimed at students.

Students can be particularly receptive to clearly priced meals, group offers and promotions available outside peak dining periods.

Consider creating a specific student menu rather than applying a blanket discount to everything you sell.

Try this: Offer a £12 student lunch menu on weekdays with valid student identification.

Best for: Restaurants near universities, colleges and student accommodation.

14. Create a seasonal menu or event

Seasonal occasions give restaurants a natural opportunity to refresh their offering.

Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Easter are obvious examples, but smaller seasonal changes can also work well.

Think about autumn comfort food, summer sharing menus or special dishes celebrating locally available ingredients.

Try this: Launch a limited-time autumn menu featuring seasonal starters, mains and desserts, supported by a dedicated tasting evening.

Best for: Restaurants that regularly update their menus or want to create new reasons for customers to return.

15. Partner with another local business

Working with another independent business can help you reach customers who might not already know your restaurant.

Look for businesses with a similar audience but a different product or service.

For example, you could partner with a local cinema, theatre, florist or activity provider to create a joint experience.

Try this: Work with a nearby theatre to offer a pre-show dining menu, promoted through both businesses’ marketing channels.

Best for: Restaurants near entertainment venues, attractions or complementary local businesses.

 

Restaurant promotions that don’t rely on discounting

Discounts can be useful, particularly when you’re trying to fill otherwise empty tables. But reducing prices shouldn’t be the default approach.

A restaurant promotion can also work by making the dining experience more interesting, convenient or exclusive.

Some of the ideas above are particularly suited to this approach:

• Exclusive experiences: Chef’s tables, tasting menus and special events give customers access to something they can’t normally book.
• Limited-time menus: Seasonal dishes and themed evenings create interest without requiring a price reduction.
• Entertainment: Quizzes, live music and other activities add another reason to visit.
• Member benefits: Loyalty events and early access can reward repeat customers without offering discounts to everyone.
• Local partnerships: Joint events allow businesses to share audiences and promotional costs.

These approaches can be particularly valuable when your restaurant is already busy at peak times.

For example, offering a 20% discount on a Saturday evening might simply reduce the amount you earn from customers who would have booked anyway.

Running a ticketed tasting event on a quieter Wednesday, on the other hand, could generate additional revenue while giving customers a reason to try something different.

The important question is whether your promotion creates additional profitable business, rather than simply making existing business cheaper.

 

How to promote your offer

Even a great restaurant promotion needs to reach the right customers.

Fortunately, you don’t necessarily need a large advertising budget to get started.

Use your social media channels

Facebook and Instagram are useful places to showcase new dishes, special menus and upcoming events.

Use clear photography, explain the offer in the first few lines and include a direct booking instruction.

For example:

Tuesday nights just got tastier!

Join us every Tuesday for our new tapas night. Choose from a selection of freshly prepared small plates, perfect for sharing.

Available from 5pm. Book your table today!

Update your Google Business Profile

Your Google Business Profile can help people discovering your restaurant through Google Search and Maps find relevant information.

Keep your opening hours, menus and booking links up to date, and consider publishing an update about your promotion where the feature is available.

You can learn more through Google’s Business Profile guidance.

Promote offers to your existing customers

Customers who have already visited your restaurant may be more likely to respond to an invitation to return.

If you have an appropriate customer contact list and the necessary marketing permissions, use email or other opted-in communications to share relevant offers.

A birthday promotion, loyalty event or exclusive menu preview could be particularly suitable.

Make the offer visible inside your restaurant

Don’t overlook customers who are already dining with you.

Table displays, menu inserts, receipts and staff recommendations can all introduce customers to upcoming events.

A guest visiting on Saturday might be interested in returning for a Wednesday tasting menu, but only if they know it’s happening.

Add the offer to your website and online ordering channels

Your restaurant website should make current promotions easy to find.

If the offer is available for collection or delivery, consider featuring it on your online ordering channels, with the relevant terms clearly displayed.

Direct online ordering can also provide a useful way to introduce customers to offers available through your own restaurant rather than relying entirely on third-party delivery marketplaces.

 

Start with one promotion and build from there

The best restaurant promotion isn’t necessarily the one offering the biggest discount.

It’s the one that helps your restaurant achieve a specific goal while remaining commercially worthwhile.

If Tuesdays are quiet, try a themed food night. If you want to increase average spend, test a qualifying-spend offer. If you’re looking to build stronger relationships with regular customers, consider an exclusive loyalty event.

Start small, communicate the offer clearly and measure the results.

Once you know what works for your customers, you can develop a promotional calendar that supports your restaurant throughout the year.

And with the right hospitality EPOS system, you can use your sales data to make more informed decisions about which promotions are worth repeating.

 

Generic EPOS comparison advice — check the pricing, ask about support, look at reporting — applies to any hospitality business. But a full-service, table-based restaurant has needs a café, pub or takeaway simply doesn’t: course timing, splitting a table’s bill six ways, service charge handled correctly, reservations that connect to what actually happens on the night. If you’re comparing systems specifically for a restaurant, these are the questions worth asking that a generic checklist won’t cover.

If you’re comparing different systems, it’s worth seeing how the features work together in practice. Explore YUMA’s restaurant EPOS system to see how table management, kitchen operations and payments connect.

 

How precisely does it handle course timing?

In a restaurant, timing isn’t a nice-to-have — starters, mains and desserts need to reach the kitchen at the right moment, not all at once. Ask any provider to show you exactly how course management works: can a server hold back a course until the table’s ready, and does the kitchen see that timing clearly, or does everything just land in the same queue regardless of course?

 

How does it handle splitting a bill six different ways?

Retail and quick-service systems rarely need to split a single transaction across multiple people, multiple ways, on the spot. A table of six wanting to pay separately, or three couples wanting to split evenly, is a daily occurrence in full-service dining. Ask to see bill-splitting handled live, not described — by item, by seat, and evenly — and time how long it actually takes.

 

Does it handle service charge and tronc properly?

Discretionary service charge and tip distribution are a genuine compliance area for restaurants specifically, governed by the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023, which requires tips to be passed on fairly with clear records. Ask exactly how a system handles service charge, card tips and tronc distribution — and whether it keeps the records the law now requires, or leaves that entirely up to you to manage separately.

 

Do reservations and pre-orders actually connect to the floor?

Many restaurants take bookings and, increasingly, pre-orders — but a reservation system that doesn’t talk to the till means a table’s pre-order has to be re-entered by hand once they arrive. Ask specifically whether a booking or pre-order flows straight into the order that reaches the kitchen, or whether it’s a separate system your staff have to bridge manually.

 

How does front-of-house ordering actually work under pressure?

A handheld waiter app that works fine in a quiet demo can behave very differently on a packed Saturday night — slow to sync, awkward to search a long menu on, or clunky when modifying an order table-side. Ask to try it yourself, specifically under conditions that mimic a busy service: fast order entry, quick modifiers, and immediate transfer to the kitchen.

 

The takeaway

A generic EPOS comparison will tell you about pricing, support and general reporting — all useful, but none of it restaurant-specific. The questions that actually separate systems for full-service dining are the ones above: course timing precision, real bill-splitting, proper tronc handling, reservations that connect to the floor, and front-of-house ordering that holds up under real pressure. Ask providers to show you each of these directly, rather than describe them.

 

Ready to put YUMA to the test?

Explore our restaurant EPOS system to see how YUMA supports table service, kitchen operations, payments and restaurant management. Then feel free to book a demo to see how it works during a real restaurant service.