Upselling and Cross-Selling in Restaurants: Practical Examples to Boost Sales

Upselling is getting the customer to choose a better version of what they're already ordering: the 500-gram steak instead of the 300-gram one, or the premium gin in their gin tonic. Cross-selling is adding something that complements: a side dish with the main course, or the right glass to go with the plate. When done right, they improve the customer's evening and the bill together; when done wrong, they turn dinner into a negotiation. The difference lies in how it's done.

The Rules of the Game

• Suggest, don't push. One suggestion per course, maximum. If the customer says no twice, you smile and close the deal.
• Be specific. "Do you want an appetizer?" is worthless. "Would you like a raw fish platter while you wait for the pizza? We can prepare it in five minutes" works because it's concrete and solves the wait.
• Suggest what's really good. If you recommend a dish to get rid of it and it disappoints, you've burned the trust for all your next suggestions.

Examples You Can Use Tonight

1. When ordering a steak: "I recommend it with our rosemary roasted potatoes, we make them in-house".
2. When ordering a gin tonic: "With a botanical like Mare, it gains a lot, shall I make it with that?"
3. When ordering a pizza: "With buffalo mozzarella instead of fiordilatte, it changes a lot, shall I put it on?"
4. When ordering coffee: "A bitter with your coffee? We have a Braulio reserve that's worth the trip".

Note the common structure of these phrases: a concrete detail, a reason, a closed proposal. It's a scheme that anyone in the dining area can learn in a week of service.

The Menu is the Silent Salesman

Half of the sales work isn't done by the dining area: it's done by the menu, if built to suggest. The pairings written next to the dishes — the recommended glass under the main course, the proposed sides near the meats — sell without anyone having to say a word, and without putting pressure. On a digital menu, this is easier than on paper: add the suggestion in the description, change it when the wine cellar changes, translate it for tourists. If you're about to create your digital menu, write the pairings right away: it's the zero-cost sales function that's most underrated.

Training the Team Without Stress

Staff sell willingly when they know what to say: let them taste the dishes and wines, agree on two or three proposals per service, and at the end of the evening, look together at what worked. With orders from the table on Ordinami, some of the suggestions are already in the menu itself, and the dining area can focus on high-value proposals, where the human factor really makes a difference. The result to aim for is not the big hit on the single table: it's half a euro more per cover, every evening, without any customer feeling oversold. Avoid aggressive sales competitions between waiters: they produce forced sales in the short term and annoyed customers immediately after, which is the worst possible trade.