Restaurants - please keep your websites up to date

[AmblerGirl]

I have a four month old baby and never get to go out to dinner anymore, so any chance I get its a huge deal for me. Well, I heard great things about Mina Cucina in Springhouse so though we could go for an early dinner tonight. I checked the website and saw they open at 3:00 on Sundays. Perfect time for an early dinner when you have a baby in tow. Well, we planned everything (baby nap, bottle etc.) around arriving at 3:00 with a full and sleepy baby. When we arrived, they were just setting up the restaurant and said they did not open until 4:00. I mentioned the website and my response was basically, "nope, its 4:00". We had planned everything around the times listed on the website, which is a huge undertaking with a little one. We were stuck going to Iron Hill instead for a less than stellar meal. So, restaurants, please keep your websites up to date!

[Den]

Obviously next time you'll simply call ahead but I wouldn't let the experience turn you off to Mina's, it's a good little addition to the neighborhood.

[lawgirl3278]

I hear that. The owners of Pesto in South Philly still have their other restaurant, Io et Tu, listed on their site. That place has been closed for years, it's a day care center now!

[mandycat]

Small business Web sites are so generally unreliable that I frequently call ahead to verify what I find there. This leads me to another pet peeve: a restaurant whose telephone is answered by what sounds like a disgruntled employee temporarily called away from dishwashing detail. If you can’t have incoming calls answered by a civil person who speaks clearly, knows what’s going on and is prepared to give up two minutes of his/her precious time, let your answering machine pick up. I’ve permanently crossed more than one business off my list after getting the impression that I was being a pest merely for calling.

[barryg]

Somewhat OT but:
Why do so many restaurant websites have their menus available in PDF-only format?

Why are so many restaurant websites written in all Flash? This means we can't link to particular pages and Google can't crawl them. I also think it is why many restaurant pages are out of date--Flash is hard to edit without fancy tools and know-how so the original designer needs to make any changes. Restaurants should be using a Content Management System so they can make changes to their site without knowing how to program.

[sockii]

>Why do so many restaurant websites have their menus available in PDF-only format?

Probably because it's the fastest/easiest way to export it from whatever page-layout/word processing program the menu was originally drawn-up in. It does annoy me as well as it shouldn't take THAT much effort to make even a simplified web version...

Ditto on the Flash annoyance. But my biggest peeve is restaurant websites that have to play music in the background! Ugh!

[Buckethead]

Menupages is good for getting menus in non-PDF format.

[givemecarbs]

Wow, that is annoying AmblerGirl! Other businesses do that too. Grr. Hmm was thinking of going to Iron Hill soon, what did you order there?

[AmblerGirl]

I had a prime rib, my husban teased me for ordering a senior citizen blue plate special - prime rib dinner at 3PM on a Sunday! It was not a great cut of meat a bit chewy, and the salad it came with was just a bunch of iceberg lettuce with some onions and carrots thrown on it and some dressing on the side. They do burgers/sandwiches much better, my husband a great smokehouse burger. I was just so in the mood for a real dinner after looking forward to a big italian meal at Mina Cucina all day!

[oliviasaru]

I heartily concur. Even if you've had someone else do your web design, learn just enough about editing so you can make small but vital changes like phone numbers, hours, etc.