Social media post ideas for cafés and restaurants
Food is the easiest thing in the world to post about, which is why every café's feed looks the same. These ideas are about what only you can show: your kitchen, your people, your street.
→The short answer
The best social media for restaurants and cafés shows what's real and what's next: the dish just out of the kitchen, the people who made it, tonight's free tables and the dates people plan around. Below are 40 post ideas, a UK food calendar for the year ahead, and six templates you can copy.
(01)40 ideas
Eight themes, five ideas each.
40 social media post ideas for cafés and restaurants
Behind the pass
- The first job of the morning: bread out, coffee machine on, chalkboard written.
- A dish plated from start to finish, in a 20-second video.
- Where one ingredient comes from: the farm, the fishmonger, the bakery down the road.
- A prep job nobody sees: stock simmering, pastry being folded, herbs being picked.
- The kitchen at the end of the night, clean and ready for tomorrow.
The menu
- The new dish, photographed by the window, with its price.
- The dish you're known for, and how it got on the menu.
- A vegan, vegetarian or gluten-free dish that holds its own.
- "What we'd order": the team's own favourites.
- Last chance: a seasonal dish leaving the menu this week.
The people
- Meet the chef: one question, one honest answer.
- A new starter's first week, with their say-so.
- The supplier who's been with you longest.
- A team birthday or work anniversary, if they're happy to share it.
- What the team eats on their break.
Your guests, with permission
- A regular's usual order, if they're happy to be named.
- A review you're proud of, quoted exactly, with a thank-you.
- A celebration you hosted: the cake and the table, faces only if they've agreed.
- A question a guest asked that others probably wonder about too.
- The dog-friendly regulars, four-legged ones included.
Your street
- The view from your door on a good morning.
- Another local business you love, tagged.
- A local event, and how to fit you in before or after.
- Open early or late for the market, the match or the show.
- A local ingredient in season right now.
The calendar
- Christmas party bookings, posted early in the autumn.
- A Pancake Day special.
- Mothering Sunday lunch, with the booking link.
- The terrace or garden, the first warm weekend.
- Halloween or Bonfire Night specials for families.
Bookings and orders
- Tables still free tonight, when it's true.
- A quiet-weekday offer, with its end date.
- Gift vouchers, a few weeks before Christmas and Mother's Day.
- The private dining room, photographed set for a party.
- How to order for collection direct, without an app.
Conversation
- This or that: two dishes, guests vote.
- Guess the ingredient from a close-up.
- What should next month's special be?
- Caption this: a photo from the kitchen.
- Your perfect order here, in three words.
(02)UK food calendar
November 2026 to October 2027. Post ahead of the day; push bookings weeks ahead.
A year of UK food and drink dates
| Date | Occasion | Post idea |
|---|---|---|
| Thu 5 Nov 2026 | Bonfire Night | Something warming to eat after the fireworks |
| Mon 30 Nov 2026 | St Andrew's Day | A Scottish dish or dram on the specials board |
| December | Christmas | Party menus, opening hours and gift vouchers; last orders for festive bakes |
| Thu 31 Dec 2026 | New Year's Eve | Your opening hours, and any late bookings left |
| January | Dry and plant-based January | Alcohol-free drinks and plant-based dishes |
| Mon 25 Jan 2027 | Burns Night | Haggis, neeps and tatties, or your own take |
| Tue 9 Feb 2027 | Pancake Day | A pancake special for one day |
| Sun 14 Feb 2027 | Valentine's Day | A set menu for two, booked well ahead |
| Mon 1 Mar 2027 | St David's Day | Welsh cakes or cawl |
| Sun 7 Mar 2027 | Mothering Sunday | Sunday lunch bookings, pushed from mid-February |
| Wed 17 Mar 2027 | St Patrick's Day | Soda bread, stew or a pint, if it suits you |
| Fri 26 – Mon 29 Mar 2027 | Easter weekend and bank holidays1 | Opening hours, hot cross buns, Easter Sunday lunch |
| Fri 23 Apr 2027 | St George's Day | A British classic on the menu |
| Mon 3 May 2027 | Early May bank holiday1 | Long-weekend brunch or opening hours |
| Mon 31 May 2027 | Spring bank holiday1 | The garden or terrace, and summer menus |
| Sun 20 Jun 2027 | Father's Day | Sunday lunch or a gift voucher |
| Mon 30 Aug 2027 | Summer bank holiday1 | Last barbecue or outdoor menu of the summer |
| September | Back to school and work | Lunch deals, breakfast before the school run, and Christmas party bookings open |
| Sun 31 Oct 2027 | Halloween | Family specials and a themed bake |
Bank holidays shown are for England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland have some different dates.
(03)Post templates
Six designs for fictional businesses. Copy the structure, not the words.
Six post templates for cafés and restaurants
Tonight's catch
Hake, brown shrimp butter, samphire
Landed this morning in the harbour.
Today's bake
Cinnamon buns, out of the oven at eight
Baked here every morning, on Broad Street.
Meet the team
Marco makes every pizza base by hand
Two days from flour to oven.
This Sunday
Roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, proper gravy
Served 12 till 4. Booking recommended.
This January
A new plant-based special every week
Four Fridays, four new dishes.
Pancake Day · Tue 9 Feb
Chilli-chocolate pancakes, for one day
Eat in or collect, while the batter lasts.
(04)What not to post
What never to post
- Guests' faces, or anyone's children, without clear permission.
- Staff who'd rather not be on your feed.
- "Allergen-free" or "nut-free" unless your kitchen can truly guarantee it.
- "Only two tables left" or "last chance" when it isn't true: falsely claiming something is only available for a very limited time is banned outright under UK consumer law2.
- Reviews you didn't receive, or edited so they say something the guest didn't.
If you'd rather someone else planned, wrote and scheduled it all, that's social media management, and you approve every post before it goes out. For the wider picture, see websites for restaurants, cafés and hotels.
Questions
(05)Questions
Often enough to stay in mind, and no more than you can keep up: for many places that's three or four good posts a week plus stories on busy days. Consistency matters more than volume.
What's fresh today, the people who make it, and what's coming up. Real photos taken by the window beat polished stock images, and a short video of something being made usually beats both.
Only with their permission, and it's worth keeping a note that they agreed. Never post children without a parent's clear agreement. When in doubt, photograph the table and the food, not the faces.
Sources
(06)Sources
Every figure on this page comes from one of these. Checked on the date shown.
- 1UK bank holidays, GOV.UK. Checked 26 October 2026.
- 2Unfair commercial practices (CMA207), Competition and Markets Authority. Checked 26 October 2026.
(07)Start a project
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