53 Restaurant Survey Questions to Ask Your Guests

As a restaurateur, it can be difficult to know what your guests are thinking. Asking guests how they’re enjoying their meals can only take you so far, as many may not feel comfortable voicing their concerns. And, as we all know, public review sites typically attract only highly satisfied, or highly dissatisfied, guests. So, how can you accurately gauge customer satisfaction? By sending guests post-meal feedback questionnaires via email.

When you ask the right questions and let guests respond privately, you’ll be able to elicit useful feedback. We’ve compiled 53 restaurant survey questions to help you get the most out of your surveys. These in-depth questions cover a breadth of topics including food, service, ambiance, reservations and off-premises dining. 

In this guide to restaurant customer survey questions you’ll learn:

Guest feedback is important to the restaurant business because it helps you understand what your guests are thinking so that you can improve your service, menu and overall dining experience.

Public review sites can only take you so far. According to Harvard Business Review, online reviews “tend to over-represent the most extreme views… with many extreme positive and/or negative reviews, and few moderate opinions.” That’s why it’s common to see scathing reviews about how difficult it is to find parking near a restaurant, or raving reviews about a chocolate cake, but less neutral feedback.

While those polarizing reviews are useful, they can mislead you into thinking something is worse than it actually is and keep you from focusing on more meaningful areas of improvement. Sending post-meal restaurant customer surveys via email gives guests the opportunity to share honest feedback easily. Email surveys remove friction because guests don’t need to make an account or share their thoughts in person. As a result, customers will feel more inclined to share their opinions.

Surveys give you the opportunity to solicit and implement feedback, reward guests for their loyalty and make things right with less satisfied customers.

With SevenRooms’ customer feedback software, you can automate the sending of restaurant survey questions via email. You can send guests a one-question survey that leads to a longer survey that they can fill out if they feel so inclined. 

Feedback is linked to each guest’s profile in your SevenRooms customer relationship management (CRM) system, so your whole team knows what guests thought of their previous dining experiences and can use that to influence service. For example, you may want to treat guests who raved about your chocolate cake to a slice on the house, or ensure that a guest who thought your chicken was too spicy receives a milder version of the dish on their next visit.

Without further ado, here are 53 restaurant customer survey questions to ask guests after a dine-in or takeout meal. For easier navigation, we’ve organized the questions into the following categories: overall customer experience, food, service, ambiance, reservations and online orders. Tailor these questions to your restaurant and the type of experience guests had.

These questions pertain to your guests’ general experience at your restaurant. If you don’t pose any other questions, make sure you ask these.

1. How did you enjoy your visit overall?
2. Was this your first time at the restaurant?
3. How did you hear about the restaurant?
4. What was the best part of your visit?
5. What was the worst part of your visit?

Food is the primary reason why people dine out. Make sure your menu is the best it can be by soliciting feedback about your drink and food quality with these questions.

1. What did you order?
2. Did everything come out as ordered?
3. How did you enjoy your meal?
4. What was the best part of the meal?
5. What was the worst part of the meal?
6. Did you order alcoholic beverages?
7. What did you think of your drinks?
8. What did you think of the menu options?
9. Do you have any dietary restrictions or preferences?
10. Were we able to accommodate your dietary preferences?

Service can make or break a dining experience. Ask these questions in your restaurant surveys to understand how your front-of-house team is doing and how their performance can be improved.

1. Did the host greet you upon arrival?
2. How long did you have to wait before being seated at your table?
3. Who was your server?
4. Did the server answer questions about the menu to your satisfaction?
5. Was your server attentive?
6. Was your server friendly?
7. Did your server anticipate your needs?
8. Did your server make recommendations?
9. If so, what did you think of the recommendations?
10. Did service feel rushed?
11. Were courses spaced out well?
12. Did bussers clear the table between courses?
13. Was water refilled in a timely manner?
14. Did you get new silverware between courses?
15. Did the manager visit your table and conduct a satisfaction check?

When you’re close to the business, it’s easy to take things for granted about its ambiance. Ask these questions to understand what your guests think of your restaurant’s atmosphere.

1. Which three adjectives best describe the ambiance of the restaurant when you visited?
2. Was the space welcoming?
3. Was the space clean and organized?
4. How noisy was the space?
5. If you visited the restrooms, were the facilities clean and well-stocked?
6. If you require accommodations for a disability, was the space accessible to your needs?
7. Were you satisfied with the COVID-19 safety precautions the restaurant was taking?

Making reservations is an important part of the dining experience. Pose these restaurant survey questions to guests who booked a table in advance.

1. Did you make a reservation for your visit?
2. If so, how did you make the reservation?
3. How easy was it to make a reservation?
4. How long did it take you to make a reservation?
5. Did you receive a reservation reminder?
6. How satisfied were you with the availability of reservations?

You shouldn’t only send restaurant surveys to your dine-in guests. Learn more about your customers’ off-premises dining experiences by asking these questions.

1. Did you place a takeout or delivery order?
2. If so, how did you place this order?
3. Was your order easy to place?
4. How long did it take you to place the order?
5. How long did it take for the food to be ready for pickup/be delivered to you?
6. Was our staff courteous and friendly during pickup/delivery?
7. How could we improve our takeout/delivery offering?
8. Did the food you order hold up well during delivery?
9. Was your food warm when it arrived?
10. What can we do to improve the presentation of delivery/takeout meals?

It can be difficult to obtain honest, unbiased feedback from guests during a meal or via online review websites. By sending guests restaurant survey questions via email after each meal, however, you can gauge customer satisfaction, find out what they’re really thinking and adjust your service, menu and ambiance accordingly.

SevenRooms can help you collect guest feedback automatically and connect it to guests’ profiles in your CRM. Request a demo today.

Guest feedback is essential to the restaurant business for many reasons. Reviews can help you build healthy relationships with your guests and adjust service to fit customers’ needs. Most importantly, allowing guests to leave reviews can help them feel more valued, leading to repeat customers and increased sales in the future. 

The best way to get customers to leave reviews is by making reviews part of your in-person engagement strategy, especially with regulars. Send post-meal feedback surveys via SevenRooms to find out what guests are really thinking. Social media and online reviews are other excellent ways to engage customers. It is essential to reply to online reviews to satisfy customers and make them feel connected to your restaurant.