Ordinami.itTikTok has filled real restaurants: lines outside unknown venues that became destinations for a video with millions of views. But for every famous case, there are thousands of restaurant profiles stuck at two hundred views. Is it worth investing time? The honest answer: it depends on your audience and how much you enjoy doing it, because reluctant effort on TikTok is immediately noticeable.
When it makes sense
- If your audience is under 35: for aperitifs, pizzerias, burger joints, and informal formats, TikTok is where your customers decide where to go.
- If you have something visually strong: the dough opening, the melted scamorza, the dessert cart, a spectacular format.
- If your team includes someone who enjoys being in front of the camera. Authenticity, even if a bit rough, works better on TikTok than polished production.
Formats that work for restaurants
- The process: preparing a dish from start to finish in 30 seconds, with hands-on and real kitchen sounds.
- The character: the owner or pizzaiolo with a recognizable personality who returns video after video. People bond with people, not menus.
- Honest behind-the-scenes: what a Saturday night in the kitchen is really like, the coffee machine at 6 am.
- Responding to comments: a customer asks if you make gluten-free pizza? Respond with a video. It's the platform's native format.
Regarding the time required, it's best to be honest: two or three videos a week mean a couple of hours between filming and editing, to be carved out during downtime. If you don't have it, it's better to post one video a week consistently for a year than three weeks of enthusiasm and then silence.
Mistakes to avoid
Chasing every trend even when it has nothing to do with the restaurant; posting three videos and giving up because nothing happened (numbers come with consistency, if they come); and above all, being unprepared when the video works. A viral video that brings fifty new customers on the weekend is a beautiful problem, but it's a problem: if the dining room then struggles, reviews will tell the story of chaos, not the video.
Prepare for landing
Those who arrive from TikTok follow a specific path: video, profile, menu, decision. Make the path smooth: in your profile, include location, how to book, and a link to the menu. A digital menu with clear photos and prices is the perfect landing for an audience that lives on their phone and will never call to ask how much the pizza costs. With Ordinami, the menu link is ready to be added to your bio, and the menu the customer sees online is the same they'll find on the QR code at the table: consistency that matters to an audience grown on reviews and screenshots. One last detail: update your menu before the video is released, not after — if the dish of the moment is not on the menu, the comments will let you know.