Best AI phone answering services for restaurants (2026)

Pick by the call you most need finished. Takeout paid by card on the call: start with Maple Pro or Loman. Paying per order: Bite Buddy. Phone plus drive-thru or kiosk: VOICEplug. Reservation-led dining rooms: Slang, Hostie, or SevenRooms Voice AI if you book on SevenRooms. Restaurants that run on Yelp: Yelp Host.

Maple publishes this guide and sells one of the eight services. Each row below comes from that company's own pages, and we have not tested the others. If you are weighing texts and the host stand as well as the phone, read what an AI receptionist should do. For monthly cost at your call volume, use the answering service cost guide. For phone against drive-thru, see voice ordering by channel.

Which is the best AI phone system for restaurants like yours?

"Not printed" means the company's own site does not say. Ask for it in writing.

Service	POS ordering	Reservations	Card payment in the call	Published price	Start here if
Maple Voice and Pro	Pro takes phone orders into your POS: Toast, Square, Clover, SkyTab (now Shift4 Dine) and the rest of the integrations list.	Pro books, modifies and cancels reservations on OpenTable.	Yes on Pro: it takes the card during the call.	Voice $150/month, or $85/month billed yearly. Pro $350/month, or $220/month billed yearly.	You want orders and card payment finished on the call for a flat monthly price.
Loman Starter and Premium	Premium sends pickup and delivery orders to the POS; loman.ai names Square, Toast, SpotOn and Clover.	Premium lists automated phone reservations.	Yes: loman.ai says Loman securely takes credit card payments over the phone.	loman.ai/pricing asks you to request pricing and states no per-minute fees; Loman's Maple comparison article says it starts at $199 per month.	You want Loman to call you so you can place a test order before a quote.
Slang AI Core and Premium	Not described on slang.ai; Slang texts guests links, including ordering links.	OpenTable, SevenRooms, Yelp and Fishbowl.	Not printed on slang.ai.	Core from $399 per location, Premium from $599 per location; slang.ai does not print the billing period.	Most calls are about tables and you book on OpenTable, SevenRooms or Yelp.
Hostie Essential, Premium and Hospitality Plus	Takeout orders by phone or text; hostie.ai lists pickup orders into Square and orders through Olo or Stream.	OpenTable, Resy, Tock, SevenRooms and Yelp.	Not printed on hostie.ai.	Not printed on hostie.ai/pricing.	Guests also reach you by text, email, Instagram or Google Maps.
Bite Buddy	Orders into the POS; lists Toast, Square, Clover, Olo, Heartland, Lightspeed and others.	Phone table reservations; lists Yelp.	Not printed on bitebuddy.ai.	$0 to $1.50 per order; the site says most restaurants offset this with a "Digital Order Fee."	You want to pay per order.
VOICEplug Phone AI	Orders to the POS; names FoodTec, Square, Clover, Toast, Qu, InTouch, Checkmate, Olo, Revel and NCR.	ReserveVOICE, with confirmations in OpenTable.	Not printed on voiceplug.ai.	Not printed; the homepage mentions flat monthly plans.	You also want drive-thru or kiosk voice ordering from one company.
SevenRooms Voice AI	Not described on the Voice AI page.	Books, changes and cancels inside SevenRooms.	Collects deposits by sending a secure payment link at booking.	Not printed; Voice AI is an add-on and plans are by quote.	You already run SevenRooms for reservations and guest records.
Yelp Host	Takes phone orders and sends them to your POS.	Through your booking platform; waitlist with Yelp Guest Manager.	Texts the caller a payment link.	From $249 per month after up to 30 days free; Yelp says additional fees and terms apply.	Your Yelp page already holds your hours and details, or you use Guest Manager.

What does an AI phone answering system for restaurants do on a call?

All eight answer common questions such as your hours. They differ in what they finish without a person: an order in the POS, a booking in your reservation system, or a paid ticket. Write down your five most common calls before any demo, for example a pickup order, a delivery order, hours, a table for six and a catering question, and which of them must reach a person.

What does AI phone ordering for restaurants need to get right?

The test is the ticket: correct items and modifiers in the POS, and a payment state staff can trust. Maple Pro and Loman both say they take the card on the call. Yelp Host texts a payment link, and Bite Buddy, Hostie and VOICEplug do not print how payment works. A link the guest never opens leaves an unpaid order, so ask each vendor what staff see then. For card rules and typed-in card fees, read taking card payments by phone.

Next, match the POS. If yours appears on only one of these lists, book that demo first. Maple's list includes SkyTab, Chowbus and Quantic; Bite Buddy's includes Heartland and Aldelo; VOICEplug's includes FoodTec and InTouch; Bite Buddy and Hostie both list Olo. Our Loman and Maple comparison sets those two side by side, and the VOICEplug review goes further on its products.

Which AI phone answering for restaurants suits a reservation-led dining room?

Start from the book you already use. Slang lists OpenTable, SevenRooms, Yelp and Fishbowl, and suggests openings at sister restaurants when one is full. Hostie lists OpenTable, Resy, Tock, SevenRooms and Yelp, plus texts, email, Instagram and Google Maps in one inbox. SevenRooms Voice AI runs inside SevenRooms and recognizes returning guests from their profiles. Maple Pro books, changes and cancels on OpenTable. The Slang AI review and the Hostie review go further on each.

When does a telephone answering service for restaurants with human receptionists fit?

A human bureau fits a restaurant that takes no phone orders and wants a person to take a name, a message and a callback number. Ask whether the bureau keys orders into your POS or emails a message to the manager. Ruby's plans page says its plans differ only by the number of receptionist minutes, so your busiest nights use the most minutes. An AI service suits calls that should end as a ticket or a booking.

How does each AI answering service for restaurants charge?

Three price shapes appear in the table: a flat month (Maple, Yelp Host), a starting price per location (Slang) and a fee per order (Bite Buddy). Take this example with assumed volume: a restaurant that completes 150 phone orders in a month, then 300.

Price shape	Monthly cost
Bite Buddy at $1.50 per order	$225 at 150 orders; $450 at 300 orders
Maple Pro, monthly billing	$350 at either count
Maple Pro, billed yearly	$220 a month at either count
Yelp Host starting price	From $249 at either count

At $1.50 an order, Bite Buddy passes $350 at 234 orders a month and $220 at 147 orders. Bite Buddy's $0 figure relies on what it calls a small "Digital Order Fee," so ask who pays it and how it shows on the guest's bill. Slang prints $399 per location for Core without a billing period, so confirm it in your quote. Maple Voice and Pro have no contract and no per-minute fees. Enterprise, the custom plan for groups, uses a master service agreement, as Maple's pricing page lists.

What test calls should you bring to each restaurant phone answering service demo?

1. Bring your menu. Order something your kitchen makes every day with a required choice, a modifier and a pickup time, for example a half-and-half pizza with one topping removed. Compare what the agent reads back with the ticket staff receive.
2. Change the order. Change a quantity before checkout, then ask for an item you have marked sold out. Check the final items and total.
3. Pay by card on the call. Use the vendor's test card flow. Then try a declined card and a caller who hangs up at payment. Check that the POS shows paid or unpaid correctly. If the vendor texts a link, leave it unopened and see what staff see.
4. Book a table. Book for six, move it by an hour, then cancel. Check each step in your reservation system.
5. Ask for a person. Raise an allergy question, sound upset, and ask for a manager while nobody is free. Agree on the fallback and who calls back.
6. Call at the same time. Place two calls at once and interrupt the agent mid-order.

Mark each test as completed correctly, completed with staff help, or not completed, and keep the same tests for every vendor. The phone trial worksheet (CSV) has these cases with blank result columns. For menu setup and staff handoff, use the menu preparation guide, the demo comparison checklist and the staff handoff checklist. When you move the number, follow the call forwarding checklist.

Where does Maple fit?

Maple Voice answers questions and transfers calls. Maple Pro adds phone orders into supported POS systems, OpenTable reservations and card payment during the call. See how a Maple call reaches the kitchen, hear recorded Maple calls, then book a demo with your own menu.

Published by Maple. This AI-assisted guide combines each company's own product and pricing pages with a worked price example on assumed order counts and a proposed set of demo tests. It does not rank the services, report a test of any other vendor, or promise any result.