For restaurants and dining rooms
How restaurants get recommended by ChatGPT
“Best Sunday roast in Clapham” is not a trade-directory question. In a 2026 London study, 86% of the star ratings ChatGPT showed next to restaurants were labelled Tripadvisor. None were labelled Google. Time Out, The Infatuation and the Michelin Guide shaped most of the lists. OpenTable pages appeared in 64% of searches and were the only booking partner attached to a restaurant card. Your own site still mattered: ChatGPT linked to it for 163 of 195 recommended rooms. launchAEO is how a restaurant sees whether that site can be read — menu as text, not a PDF — and, on Growth, whether the assistants name you when a diner asks where to eat.
Questions customers already ask AI
These are the prompts, not keywords. An assistant that cannot match them to a page on your site will name someone else.
- Best Sunday roast in Clapham for a group of six.
- Where can I eat vegan tasting-menu food in Manchester tonight?
- Romantic Italian with a table at 8pm in Edinburgh this Saturday.
- Kid-friendly restaurant near the South Bank with a high chair and a short walk from Waterloo.
- Halal restaurant in Birmingham that takes a booking for twelve.
Why someone else gets named
The stars on the ChatGPT card are Tripadvisor’s
Byter’s London run labelled 168 of 195 restaurant cards as Tripadvisor. A kitchen that only chases Google reviews is polishing a number the card does not show. Claim the Tripadvisor listing, keep hours and price band honest, and reply to guests there.
Guides write the shortlist before your menu does
86% of those answers cited an editorial guide. Time Out, The Infatuation, Michelin, Harden’s and SquareMeal are what the model read. A press mention helps. The site still has to be quotable — menu, neighbourhood, occasion — or the diner never reaches you. That is the work launchAEO runs.
OpenTable is the reserve button
OpenTable was the site ChatGPT searched most often, and the only booking link it attached. If you are bookable only on a widget no assistant knows, the diner sees a competitor with a time they can actually take.
What launchAEO checks
Whether the menu is text a crawler can quote
A photographed menu, a PDF, or a booking iframe with no dishes in the HTML means the model cannot answer “have they got oysters” from your site. launchAEO’s readability check is built for that.
Occasion pages, not only “about us”
Diner prompts name the occasion: Sunday roast, pre-theatre, vegan, group of twelve. Issues & Alerts and the action plan catch a site that only describes the chef.
Who is named on the neighbourhood and cuisine questions
Growth asks the assistants the way a diner would and stores who was recommended. Tripadvisor ratings are not a launchAEO score; the mention is.
What to change
Same shape as the action plan in the product: what’s wrong, why it matters, how to fix it.
What’s wrong
The menu is a PDF or a photograph of a chalkboard.
Why it matters
ChatGPT linked out to most recommended restaurants’ own sites. It cannot quote a picture of a starter.
How to fix it
Publish dishes, diets and prices in HTML. Update them when the chalkboard changes. The action plan will keep a missing text menu as an open issue.
What’s wrong
Tripadvisor is unclaimed or the hours are last winter’s.
Why it matters
That is where the stars on the ChatGPT card came from in London. Wrong hours make you look closed.
How to fix it
Claim it, match the hours to the door, and ask guests for an honest review with nothing in return.
What’s wrong
No public way to book a table an assistant knows.
Why it matters
OpenTable inventory is what ChatGPT attached to restaurant cards. A mystery widget is a dead end.
How to fix it
Keep an accurate OpenTable (or equivalent) profile even if you also use another system, and put the neighbourhood and nearest station on the site in words.
Where assistants look
Tripadvisor
Source of 86% of the ratings ChatGPT showed on London restaurant cards in the Byter study.
OpenTable
Appeared in 64% of those searches and was the only booking partner on the cards.
Time Out
Cited in 49% of the London dining answers — the editorial list the model leaned on first.
TheFork
A European booking directory Gemini already cites, including for UK rooms.
Questions about this
How do restaurants get recommended by ChatGPT?
Put the menu, neighbourhood and occasion in HTML a crawler can quote, keep Tripadvisor honest, and be bookable. launchAEO is how you see whether that site is ready and, on Growth, whether ChatGPT names you when a diner asks where to eat.
Why don’t Google reviews show on ChatGPT’s restaurant cards?
In the London sample, none of the 195 cards were labelled as Google. Directions links went to Google Maps; the stars did not. Treat Tripadvisor as the rating the diner will see inside ChatGPT.
Do I need thousands of reviews to be named?
No. Half the recommended London restaurants had fewer than 430 Tripadvisor reviews, and more than one in five had fewer than 100. Guides and a bookable profile did more work than raw volume.
How does launchAEO help a restaurant get recommended?
It checks whether the menu and occasion pages can be read, lists what to fix, and on Growth asks the assistants the diner questions — Sunday roast, vegan, a table for twelve — then shows whether you were named.
Where these facts come from
Independent studies, not launchAEO scores. We summarise them; we do not pretend we ran them.
Other businesses
Small businesses
A shop, a practice, a local firm. launchAEO gets the site ready so ChatGPT names you, not only the chains.
Dentists
NHS lists, Invisalign, a broken tooth. Confirm the practice on the CQC and the dentist on the GDC.
Garages
MOTs, clutches, a Golf that needs a service. RAC, AA and the Motor Ombudsman are the proof ChatGPT quotes.
The full playbook sits in the 2026 guide to getting recommended by ChatGPT.
Get onto the recommendation
Free is a homepage check, not a trial. launchAEO shows whether AI can read the site, what to fix, and — on Growth — whether the answers name you. Prefer us to handle it? Managed services are quoted separately.