Best AI Phone Answering Services for Restaurants

Start with Maple Pro if you want phone ordering and published plan prices. Consider Loman for another ordering-and-reservations option, Slang for reservation-focused calls, and Hostie for guest communication across channels. The right choice depends on what happens after the conversation: an order, a booking, or a clear handoff to staff.

A pleasant voice is only part of the test. Bring an order your kitchen actually makes, ask to change it, and inspect what staff receive. If reservations matter more, try a new booking and a change to an existing one. Ask each provider to show the workflow your restaurant needs.

Maple publishes this guide and sells one of the products below.

Which kind of restaurant answering service do you need?

Start with the calls your staff handle today. Answering questions, taking orders, and managing reservations require different workflows. Choose a plan for the work it completes, then test the result in the system your staff use.

Caller request	Workflow to look for	What a demo should prove
What time do you close? Can I speak to someone?	Phone answering, restaurant information, and staff routing.	The service gives the right hours and reaches the right person, with a fallback when staff cannot answer.
Can I order two pizzas, change a topping, and pay?	Ordering with the required menu, POS, and payment support.	The confirmed items, modifiers, pickup time, and payment status reach the place staff expect. A message or ordering link is a different result from a completed POS order.
Can I book a table or change my reservation?	Reservation support for your booking platform.	The booking or change appears in that platform with the right date, party size, and guest details.

Before requesting quotes, list your common call types and which need a person. Include complaints, existing-order changes, and requests the service cannot finish. Ask who owns the follow-up and where staff see it. Keep those requirements the same across demos.

Which AI phone answering services should restaurants shortlist?

Provider	Published focus	What to verify in a demo	Start here if
Maple	Voice for answering and FAQs; Pro adds POS ordering and reservations.	Your menu, order destination, payment flow, and staff transfer.	You want to compare answering and ordering plans with published prices.
Loman	Starter for basic call management; Premium for ordering and reservations.	The quoted plan, your POS setup, and a completed test order.	You want another restaurant ordering and reservations option to test.
Slang	Restaurant phone answering, guest inquiries, and reservation management.	Your booking platform, reservation changes, and staff routing.	Reservation and guest-service calls are a priority.
Hostie	A virtual concierge spanning calls, texts, and other guest communication.	The channels, reservation or ordering workflow, and staff controls you need.	Your team needs to manage guest conversations across channels.

Use this shortlist to choose demos. A provider's published feature list does not tell you how it will handle your menu, location, or exceptions.

What does Maple cost, and which plan includes ordering?

Maple Voice costs $150/month with monthly billing or $85/month with annual billing. It includes phone answering, hours and FAQs, automated call transfer, analytics, and multilingual voice.

Maple Pro costs $350/month with monthly billing or $220/month with annual billing. It adds phone orders into supported POS systems, reservations, payment over the phone, and order confirmation texts. Compare the full scope on Maple's pricing page.

For ordering, start with the guide for your POS: Toast, Square, or Clover. For table reservations, review OpenTable. Ordering and reservations are separate workflows to test.

How should you compare quotes from other providers?

Loman lists Contact Us pricing for both Starter and Premium and states that it has no per-minute fees. Ask for a quote covering your locations and required features. Its public pricing page does not supply a monthly dollar amount.

Ask every provider for the same breakdown: recurring subscription, setup, usage charges, integration costs, support, billing term, and cancellation terms. Compare monthly billing with monthly billing and annual commitments with annual commitments.

Use your recent call volume to estimate cost. Count completed orders, reservation calls, transfers, and calls that need follow-up separately. A low cost per answered call can still leave staff with substantial work if the caller's request remains unfinished.

What should you test before connecting your restaurant's phone?

1. A normal order. Include a required choice, an extra item, and a pickup time. Compare the caller's confirmation with the order staff receive.
2. A change or unavailable item. Change a quantity or modifier before checkout. Ask for something that is sold out and check the final order and total.
3. Payment. Ask the provider to demonstrate the payment flow for your setup, including a failed or abandoned payment and what staff see afterward.
4. A reservation. Request a table, then change or cancel it. Confirm the result in the reservation system, including the date, party size, and guest details.
5. A staff handoff. Ask to speak to a person. Test what happens when that person is unavailable and agree on who follows up.
6. Your busy period. Test overlapping calls and interruptions. Agree on how to handle requests that cannot be completed and how staff will know.

Record the result for each test as completed correctly, completed with staff help, or not completed. Keep the same test cases for each provider. Once live, review those outcomes alongside missed calls, corrections, and staff time.

What should a useful trial prove?

A useful trial shows how the service performs on your own calls. Agree on the trial period, the calls included, how you will count mistakes, and what happens when staff intervene. Separate an answered call from a correctly completed order or reservation.

Read Maple customer stories and listen to Maple calls, then book a demo with your own menu. Use the checklist above to decide whether the workflow fits your restaurant.