Your restaurant needs its own ordering page. This week.

Nine days ago every restaurant, café and bar in the Netherlands closed its doors. Takeaway and delivery are allowed. For most places that now means one thing: Thuisbezorgd, Uber Eats, Deliveroo, and a commission on every order that arrives — at a moment when every euro is the difference between paying the rent or not.

The platforms are useful right now. They are also not the only option, and they should not be the whole plan. Here is what to do this week.

Put an ordering page on your own site

Not an app. A page. A menu with prices, a way to pick items, a way to pay, a way to choose pick-up or delivery and a time. It can be simple; it has to work on a phone and it has to be findable from your Google listing. Your regulars already know your name — they should be able to order from you without a middleman taking 15–30% for the introduction.

A basic version of this can be live in days, not months.

Tell people it exists

• Update your Google listing: mark that you offer takeaway and delivery, put the ordering link in the profile, update the hours to the new reality.
• Instagram and Facebook: one post, pinned, with the link. Then the menu of the day, every day.
• A sign on the door with a QR code to the page. People still walk past.
• Email and WhatsApp to every customer whose number you have. This is what those lists were for.

Keep it simple on the operational side

A shorter menu than usual — the dishes that travel well and that a small crew can make. Fixed pick-up slots so the kitchen is not slammed. Pay online so nobody handles cash at the door. Clear allergen notes; people cannot ask the waiter.

What to keep when this is over

This is the part nobody is thinking about yet, understandably. But the places that come out of this with their own ordering channel, a customer list they own and regulars used to ordering direct will be in a stronger position than they were in February. The platforms will still be there for discovery. Your own page will be there for everyone who already loves you.

If you need help

An ordering page that works on any phone, takes iDEAL, and shows up on a tablet or printer in the kitchen is not a big build. Email us with your menu and we will tell you honestly how fast it can be live.

Stay open. Just differently.