LINE OA for a restaurant: menu, booking, promotions and the staff routine
Updated
Put the menu, booking and location on the rich menu, answer repeated questions with keyword replies, and send promotions only to your regulars. A restaurant with a few hundred regulars can often stay on the free plan.
Written for: You run a restaurant or cafe in Thailand, customers ask for the menu, hours and tables by LINE all day, and you want it to take less of your evening.
The six buttons for a restaurant
- Menu: a link to a PDF or page, or a message that sends the menu.
- Book a table: your booking link, or a button that sends a message to staff.
- Opening hours and map: a link to your map pin.
- Today's special: the one slot you change often.
- Delivery or takeaway: your delivery partner link or a message.
- Ask a question: sends a message to a person.
What to automate and what not to
| Tool | Use it for | Not for |
|---|---|---|
| Rich menu | Menu, booking link, map, hours | Long prices that change daily |
| Keyword reply | Hours, parking, do you take reservations | Special requests and allergies |
| Response by hours | We open at 11:00, here is the menu | Confirming a booking |
| Chat tag | Regular, birthday month, vegetarian | Anything sensitive |
| Broadcast | A new menu, a closing day, a promotion | Daily reminders |
Allergies are a case for a person. If a customer writes about an allergy, a keyword reply should hand over to staff, not answer.
Worked example: promotions to regulars only
800 friends, 250 regulars, one offer a month
- Option 1, send two offers a month to everyone: 800 x 2 = 1,600 messages. Free includes 300, so you need Basic at 1,280 baht before VAT, 1,369.60 baht with 7% VAT.
- Over a year that is 1,369.60 x 12 = 16,435.20 baht.
- Option 2, send one offer a month to the 250 tagged as regulars: 250 messages. That is inside the 300 on Free, so the cost is 0 baht.
- Targeting needs a target reach of at least 100, and 250 is above that.
- Option 2 saves 16,435.20 baht a year in plan fees and only reaches people who come anyway.
The staff routine
One person owns the chat each shift
Write the name on the whiteboard. Unowned chats go cold.
Answer within the hour in opening hours
Outside hours the automatic reply says when you will answer.
Tag after answering
Tag a regular after their third visit so next month's offer can find them.
Review replies weekly
Look for a question you answered by hand five times. Make it a keyword reply.
LINE also lists coupons and reward cards as Official Account features. They fit a loyalty card for a cafe. Check their current limits in Manager before you plan around them.
Set this up in one afternoon
Menu and booking buttons
Make the menu link and the booking link work on a phone before you design anything.
Three keyword replies
Hours, parking and reservations. Test each from another phone.
The regulars tag
Tag anyone who has booked or visited three times. Aim for 100 tags, because targeting needs a target reach of at least 100.
One monthly offer
Send it to the tag only, on a quiet weekday, and count the replies.
One habit pays off more than any feature: read the last ten chats on a Monday and ask which answer a menu button or a keyword could have given. Fix one a week. After a month, most repeated questions answer themselves, and the staff chat phone gets quiet.
Questions people ask
Does LINE OA take table bookings by itself?
We found no official LINE page that says Thai LINE has a built in table booking feature. Use a booking link on the rich menu or let staff confirm.
How much does it cost a small restaurant?
It can be 0 baht on the Free plan if you send under 300 messages a month. Basic is 1,280 baht before VAT.
Can customers order delivery from the rich menu?
Yes, a button can open a link, for example to your delivery partner, or send a message to staff.
What to do next
Keep reading
- LINE rich menu: how it works and what to put on it
How a LINE OA rich menu works, its real limits, where it does not show, and a six button layout for a Thai small business.
- LINE auto reply without AI: keywords, business hours and the double reply trap
Set up LINE OA auto replies with keywords and business hours, learn how they rank against the AI chatbot, and avoid replying twice.
- LINE broadcasts that do not burn your quota or your followers
How to plan a LINE OA broadcast: counting, targeting by group, message types, and a worked example that saves 500 baht a month.
This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Prices are before 7% VAT unless we say otherwise. LINE can change fees and screens at any time.