How To Get More Views as a Restaurant

Almost every restaurant I look at is making the same mistake, and it's costing them a huge amount of views.

That elegant, dimly lit shot of your signature cocktail - the one your content team spent three hours lighting and your GM called "so premium" - nobody is stopping the scroll for it. Nobody cares. And before anyone gets defensive: that's totally fine, because this is an easy fix.

I see it constantly, and high-end restaurants are the worst offenders. Beautiful venue shots. Arty slow-motion. A dancer, for some reason. Mood lighting that screams "we are a serious establishment." It looks fantastic. Your boomer boss loves it. But "looks great in the marketing meeting" and "gets views and fills tables" are two completely different jobs, and almost every restaurant is chasing the wrong one.

Here's the part everyone forgets. People don't go to restaurants because the lighting is nice. They go because they're hungry. So let me hand you the one question that should decide every piece of content you ever post. Once it clicks, your whole strategy changes.

Restaurant: STK Ibiza - Know for Steaks but the video with their huge cocktail is the video that got views

The Emotion Is the Entire Game

Every industry has one emotion that actually drives a customer to buy. For a gym it's the discomfort of being out of shape. For a travel brand it's the urge to be anywhere but their desk. For you, it's hunger. That's the whole list.

Your job on social media is not to look premium. Your job is to make a stranger lying on their couch suddenly, physically hungry. Because a hungry person does two things almost instantly. They start thinking about where they could eat, and they think of exactly who they'd drag along. Then they send your video to that person with three words: "we need to go." That DM, fired off at 9pm on a Tuesday, is worth more than every branded venue film you will ever produce.

So the whole strategy comes down to one ruthless filter: does this make someone hungry? If yes, post it. If no, it can wait. The moody cocktail shot fails. The close-up of the cheese pull passes. That's the framework, and restaurants hate it, because it means putting the food in front of the brand.

Go Straight to the Hunger

Stop burying the food. I watch restaurants open with a logo sting, then a slow pan across an empty dining room, then the staff lining up, then the bartender shaking a tin, and the actual food doesn't show up until second eight. By then the hungry person you were aiming at is three videos down the feed and emotionally committed to someone else's lunch.

Lead with the most appetizing thing you've got, in the very first frame. The cheese pull. The knife going through a steak with the juice running out. The sizzle as it hits the pan. The cross-section of the burger. The spoon cracking the top of a crème brûlée. Get close. Fill the entire frame with it. The viewer should practically smell it before their brain has decided whether to keep watching.

This is the restaurant version of a smart real estate agent opening on the front door instead of talking to camera. You go straight to the thing the viewer actually came for. No intro, no logo, no "welcome to our restaurant." Just food, immediately, shot to trigger the one response you need. The vibe, the story, the premium positioning - all of that can come once they're already drooling.

The Visual Does the Translating

Here's a bonus you get for free when you lead with food: it works on the entire planet.

A close-up of a great burger needs zero translation. Someone scrolling in Seoul, São Paulo, Dubai or Berlin sees that cheese pull and feels exactly what an English speaker feels. Hunger. No narration filtering anyone out, no "hey guys welcome back" that only lands in one language. You're speaking the most universal language there is, which is really good food, so the algorithm can push your video to way more people than any talking-head review ever could. More people get it instantly, so more people react, so it travels.

This is exactly why food is some of the strongest organic content on the internet right now. It's emotional, it's universal, and people physically cannot stop sending it to each other. You're not fighting the algorithm. You're handing it the exact thing it loves to push.

This will make viewers more hungry than the sun glistening through palm trees near your venue

The Nobu Problem

Let me name names. Nobu is one of the most recognizable restaurant brands on earth, and they make this mistake on a loop. Scroll their feed and you'll find gorgeous venue photography, atmospheric interiors, cocktails, design. All of it screaming premium. None of it making me hungry.

And this is the part that genuinely kills me, because I know their food. A tight, well-shot video of their black cod miso - the flake of the fish, the glaze, the steam coming off it - would do millions of views. People would lose their minds. Instead, here's a moody photo of an empty bar stool.

It isn't a Nobu problem. It's an industry-wide reflex that comes from confusing brand prestige with marketing that actually works. And the maddening part is you never had to choose. You can be a prestige brand AND make food content that triggers hunger. The prestige comes through in how incredible the dish is and how well it's shot. You lose nothing by showing the food. You lose everything by hiding it behind your branding.

The 50% Rule

Here's my actual recommendation if you own or market a restaurant. At least half of everything you post should trigger hunger. Raw, close, clean shots of your best dishes. Not over-produced, not drowning in filters and text and whatever audio is trending this week. Just your food, looking as good as it genuinely looks, shot to make a mouth water.

The other 50%? Go ahead, build your brand. The venue, the team, the atmosphere, the story behind a dish. That content earns its place. It builds trust, it tells people what kind of night they're walking into. But it can't be allowed to bury the food, because the food is the thing that makes a stranger pick up a phone and book a table.

Most restaurants run this backwards. 90% brand, 10% food. Flip it to roughly 50/50, weight your openings hard toward hunger, and you'll feel the difference in your bookings, not just your view count.

How To Actually Film It

You don't need a crew. You need decent natural light, a clean surface, a steady hand, and to get close enough that the food fills the frame. That's the whole kit.

The mistakes I see on repeat: shooting from too far away so the dish looks small and sad; harsh artificial light that turns food gray and flat; over-editing with filters that wreck the real color (nothing kills an appetite like a radioactive-orange steak); and piling on so much text and music that the food disappears under your own production.

The food is the star. Everything else exists to get out of its way. Film it the second it leaves the kitchen, while the steam is still rising and the colors are at their richest. Catch the texture, the sizzle, the pull, the cut. Get close enough that the viewer can almost taste it. That's the whole technique. The reason it works isn't complicated, it's just that almost nobody commits to doing it every single time.

What To Actually Do

Your next post opens on a tight, gorgeous shot of your single most crave-able dish, in good light, no intro, no logo, the food filling the frame inside the first half-second. Let it sizzle or pull or get sliced into on camera. Keep it short, ten to twenty seconds is plenty. Add a simple line of text if you like ("our 14-hour short rib") but don't drown the dish in it. End on the food too, so the last thing they see is the thing that made them hungry.

Then ask the only question that matters before you post: would this make a stranger, on an empty stomach, text someone "we need to go here"? If yes, you've got it. If no, get closer to the food and go again.

People follow restaurants because they want to eat. Give them a reason to want to eat. Stop showing them the empty room and show them the food. Trigger the hunger, and the tables fill themselves.

Frequently asked questions

Why aren't my restaurant videos getting views?

Because you're filming the venue instead of the food. People don't scroll-stop for a nice dining room, they stop for hunger. Lead with the most mouth-watering shot you have, in the first second.

What should the first frame of my restaurant video be?

The food, at its most tempting - cheese pull, sauce drip, steam, the pour. Not your logo, not the storefront, not a slow pan of the tables. Go straight to the hunger.

What is the 50% rule?

Roughly half your content should be pure food shot to trigger appetite, not polished brand-film footage. The hunger-trigger stuff is what travels; the pretty venue stuff is what dies.

Do I need an expensive camera to film food content?

No. A modern phone shot close, in good light, with steam or motion beats a cinematic "brand video" every time. The emotion does the work, not the gear.

Should I hire a videographer for a Nobu-style brand film?

That's the Nobu Problem - beautiful, expensive, and dead on arrival. Polished brand films don't trigger hunger and don't get shared. Shoot the food, not the mood.

Let's get more views.

Remember, you can sign up for our free newsletter to stay up to date with my blog posts. Or, if you want to take it a step further and level up your game, you can join our Creator Quest - our $25/month platform with Masterclasses, a Gamified Platform and Powerful AI tools trained by Sergi Galiano (www.howtogetmoreviews.com/creatorquest). Let's get more views!

-Sergi Galiano