7 Ways to Make Your Restaurant More Fun!

Written by Justine Nightingale
Wednesday, July 12, 2023 at 08:00am CDT

People love to visit restaurants and not only for the food but for the customer service and the atmosphere. To really set yourself apart from the competition, it pays to have a really unique selling point.

So, in this article, we look at seven ways to make your restaurant more fun. You may just find it’s more fun for your customers and even your staff!

#1: Host Weekly Game Nights

People love to play games. By organizing a game night, you encourage more people to visit your restaurant for food and fun.

Here are a few ideas to bring into your restaurant on a weekly or even nightly basis:

• Board games: you can have several tables set out with board games like Scrabble, Chess, Backgammon, Monopoly, Catan, and others. If you have a dedicated space, you can even leave out long-playing games for people to pick up on a daily basis.
• Puzzles: Set out different puzzles and let diners work on these while they eat and hang out in your restaurant. Again, if you have space, leave the puzzles out and let your patrons work on them on an ongoing basis.
• Trivia night: This is an organized game like Jeopardy that you play with people in your restaurant. They can eat and drink while they play. Take the fun up a notch and offer prizes for the winners.
• Old school arcade games: this brings in a little extra ambiance for your diners, too.

#2: Host a Trivia Tournament

As we mentioned earlier, Trivia is a great game for restaurants. You can really capitalize on this by hosting a Trivia Tournament.

You can either do it all yourself or hire an outside host to do the tournament for you. The bonus with an outside host is they come with all their own questions.

Restaurants have the most success with a Trivia Tournament when it’s done on an ongoing basis. For example, you turn your basic trivia nights into a tournament, so points add up over time.

Consider advertising the formation of teams. Then, you have them compete for six to eight weeks. Have a great prize, such as a gift card for the winning team.

The bonus of a Trivia Tournament is that you get people into your restaurant consistently, eating, drinking, and having fun. During your next Trivia Tournament, you may even have to create a waiting list because so many teams want in!

#3: Add a Special Menu Item

You can do this on a seasonal basis, so you are always rotating out your special, highlighted menu item.

For example, offer S’mores in the summer. Grab some marshmallows, Hershey candy bars, graham crackers, and tabletop, small grills. Let diners make their own S’mores right at the table.

You’ll find that guests, both the young and the old, will think this is the “funnest” thing they’ve done in at a restaurant.

#4: Have an Anything Goes Day

Periodically let your customers order anything they want. This could be an anything goes day or week when your diners can ask for something special, and you’ll make it. (tweet this)

It’s super fun for diners, and the bonus for you is that you just might find your next menu item.

If this sounds too daunting, you can limit it to sandwiches, specific types of food, or a main ingredient. This way, you’ll be better prepared with ingredients.

#5: Have a Pick Your Discount Night

For this tip to make your restaurant more fun, you can have different discounts on slips of paper folded up in a bowl. Your customers can then stick their hands in to pick their discounts.

Or you can simply advertise a special discount night and announce it on social media, in your restaurant, through email marketing, and on your website. Then, right as the dinner service starts, you can announce the discount on social media and in your restaurant.

People who aren’t already there just might rush on over. Word of mouth will take over as your diners will share it with their friends.

Once people get used to these, they’ll look forward to them and frequent your restaurant more often.

#6: Have a Photo Booth

These are very simple and a little old-fashioned, but people still really love them. And since it’s retro, you can bet it’s “in” right now.

For you, the photo booth can garner you a lot of free publicity as your diners who use the photo booth will most likely share the photos on Instagram and tag your restaurant.

This is a fun experience that adds an extra layer of excitement to your restaurant.

#7: Have Tastings

On a regular basis, have tastings at your restaurant. These might include wine tastings, craft beer tastings, or a tasting for mixed drinks and specialty cocktails. (tweet this)

You can even take it one step further and have classes on how to make mixed drinks.

These draw in a crowd that will be sure to stick around for dinner. Make the event exclusive and offer appetizers, too, and you’ll have customers for life.

Ways to Make Your Restaurant More Fun

Now that you know our top seven ways to make your restaurant more fun, we leave you with one last tip.

You want to put some marketing dollars behind each of these activities to promote them and really get the word out. In addition, create a year-long calendar and make sure each activity is on it.

Post these on your website, in your restaurant, and on social media.

Get creative and start promoting your fun restaurant and grow your audience and your dining crowd. 

At Restaurant Engine, we create websites that help draw people in and increase sales. Your website is a pivotal piece of your success, and all your marketing leads to and from your website. You can count on us to create a website that shows just how fun your restaurant is. Let us help you make the perfect site that draws customers in, improves customer engagement and your conversion rate, and enables you to grow your business! 

Images: Elevate and Louis Hansel on Unsplash