In a perfect world, you’d know what your guests are thinking at all times. But technology hasn’t advanced that far just yet, which means finding ways to collect feedback falls to you and your team. 

You can certainly gather customer feedback via comment cards or in person, but asking guests how they’re enjoying their meals can only take you so far, as many may not feel comfortable voicing their concerns.

When you let guests respond privately — like via a post-meal feedback questionnaire email — you’ll be able to elicit more useful feedback and accurately gauge customer satisfaction.

We’ve compiled 60 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. 

Why Is Guest Feedback Important to Restaurants?

Guest feedback is important to the restaurant business because it helps you improve your service, menu and overall dining experience according to how your guest perceives it.

Public review sites rarely tell the whole story. According to Harvard Business Review, online reviews “tend to over-represent the most extreme view 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 satisfaction surveys via email gives guests the opportunity to share honest feedback anonymously (to the public eye, at least). Email surveys also remove friction because guests don’t need to make an account or share their thoughts in person, making them more inclined to share their opinions.

60 Restaurant Survey Questions

Without further ado, here are 60 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.

Overall Experience Restaurant Survey Questions

At a minimum, it’s important to ask these general experience questions. Their answers will expose potential strengths and weaknesses across your business.

1. How did you enjoy your visit overall?
2. How likely are you to return?
3. Was this your first time at the restaurant?
4. Did you travel to dine with us or are you local to the area?
5. How did you hear about the restaurant?
6. What was the best part of your visit?
7. What was the worst part of your visit?

Pro Tip: Granular data is the key to delivering a personalized guest experience. If guests indicate a willingness to return, consider how you can use that to inform your restaurant marketing. For example, you might opt to offer survey respondents an incentive to join your loyalty program, advertise your other locations, or invite them to an upcoming event.

Food Restaurant Survey Questions

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.

• 8. What did you order?
• 9. Did everything come out as ordered?
• 10. How did you enjoy your meal?
• 11. How would you rate the portion sizes?
• 12. What was the best part of the meal?
• 13. What was the worst part of the meal?
• 14. Did you order alcoholic beverages?
• 15. What did you think of your drinks?
• 16. Was everyone in your party able to find something they liked on the menu?
• 17. Do you have any dietary restrictions or preferences? If so, were we able to accommodate them? 
• 18. Would you like to see anything else on our menu?

Service Restaurant Survey Questions

The quality of restaurant service is often just as memorable as the food, and can quickly turn a first-time diner into a loyal regular. The questions below will help you understand how your front-of-house team is doing and how their performance can be improved.

• 19. Did the host greet you upon arrival?
• 20. How long did you have to wait before being seated at your table?
• 21. Who was your server?
• 22. Did the server answer questions about the menu items to your satisfaction?
• 23. Was your server attentive?
• 24. Was your server friendly?
• 25. Did your server anticipate your needs?
• 26. Did your server make recommendations?
• 27. If so, what did you think of the recommendations?
• 28. Did the service feel rushed?
• 29. Were courses spaced out well?
• 30. Did bussers clear the table between courses?
• 31. Was water refilled in a timely manner?
• 32. Did you get new silverware between courses?
• 33. Did the manager visit your table and conduct a satisfaction check?

Ambiance Restaurant Customer Survey Questions

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

• 34. Which three adjectives best describe the ambiance of the restaurant when you visited?
• 35. Was the space welcoming?
• 36. Was the space clean and organized?
• 37. How noisy was the space?
• 38. If you visited the restrooms, were the facilities clean and well-stocked?
• 39. If you require accommodations for a disability, was the space accessible to your needs?
• 40. Are our seats comfortable?
• 41. How did you like our music selection?
• 42. Did you like where you were seated?

Pro Tip: As you learn more about your customer preferences for food, seating and service, place these details in a centralized hub your team can access at a moment’s notice. With SevenRooms’ restaurant CRM, you can add customizable guest tags to each diner profile according to survey responses, such as positive or negative reviewer, to ensure a more personalized experience during their next visit.

Restaurant Reservations Survey Questions

The guest experience begins as soon as a customer attempts to make a reservation, so you must continually audit this process as part of your online surveys.

• 43. Did you make a reservation for your visit?
• 44. If so, which platform did you use to make the reservation?
• 45. How easy was it to make a reservation?
• 46. How long did it take you to make a reservation?
• 47. Did you receive a reservation reminder?
• 48. How satisfied were you with the availability of reservations?

Restaurant Takeout Survey Questions

If you use restaurant technology to power your online ordering system and takeout processes, don’t forget to also gauge the off-premise user experience by asking these questions.

• 49. Did you place a takeout or delivery order?
• 50. If so, what ordering provider did you use?
• 51. Was your order easy to place?
• 52. How long did it take you to place the order?
• 53. How long did it take for the food to be ready for pickup/be delivered to you?
• 54. Was your order ready within the provided time frame?
• 55. Was our staff courteous and friendly during pickup/delivery?
• 56. How could we improve our takeout/delivery offering?
• 57. Did the food you order hold up well during delivery?
• 58. Was your food warm when it arrived?
• 59. What can we do to improve the presentation of delivery/takeout meals?
• 60. Did you use a discount code or coupon? 

How to Collect Customer Feedback, Automatically

Online review websites are powerful tools to help you better understand what guests think of your business. However, online reviews are typically a result of a reactive approach to understanding the guest experience.

Surveys allow you to proactively collect guest feedback and act on it before a review goes public — and the best way to do that is through marketing automation.

By automatically sending guests restaurant surveys via email after every experience, you’re getting ahead of feedback and can more efficiently gauge customer satisfaction to adjust your service, menu and ambiance accordingly.

SevenRooms’ guest feedback software automatically emails every guest a survey after dining in your restaurant or ordering online. Feedback is then 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 tailor service.

To learn more, request a demo today.

FAQs About Restaurant Survey Questions

1. What Is the Importance of Guest Feedback?

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. 

2. How Do You Get Customers to Leave Reviews?

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.