Restaurant Menu, Halal and Allergen Questions on WhatsApp
This recipe answers the everyday questions about your menu, hours, location, vegetarian options and halal status from the information you publish. It also sets the one rule every restaurant and caterer needs before going live: any question about an allergy, or whether a dish is safe for someone, goes to the kitchen. AeroChat never says a dish is safe. Part of the restaurant and caterer workflows.
What happens today
“Are you open on the public holiday?” “Do you have vegetarian options?” “Is this halal?” “Does the satay sauce have peanuts? My son is allergic.” The first three take a staff member a minute each, many times a day. The fourth is answered from memory by whoever picks up the phone, which is exactly how mistakes happen.
Simple questions take time. Allergen questions carry risk. They need opposite handling.
The flow that works
- For hours, location, parking, menu items, prices, vegetarian options and halal status, AeroChat answers from your knowledge base and your current menu.
- For halal status, it states your certification exactly as you have written it, and nothing more.
- For any allergy question, or any question about whether a dish is safe for a condition, it shares only the ingredients you publish, says the kitchen will confirm, and hands the conversation to a person straight away.
- It tags allergen conversations so your team can find and answer them first.
The recipe
Copy this into AeroChat
When a customer asks about our menu, hours, location or food, follow these rules.
- Answer questions about opening hours, public holiday hours, location, parking, menu items, prices and portion sizes from our knowledge base and our current menu only. If a dish is marked unavailable in our menu, say so.
- For vegetarian, vegan or “no beef” or “no pork” questions, list only the dishes our menu marks that way.
- For halal questions, state our halal certification exactly as it appears in our knowledge base, including which outlets or kitchens it covers. Do not add anything, and do not describe dishes as halal if our certification does not cover them.
- If a customer asks whether a dish contains an allergen, or whether a dish is safe for an allergy, intolerance, pregnancy or medical condition, do not say it is safe or unsafe. Share only the ingredients we publish for that dish, and say: “Our kitchen handles allergen questions directly, so I’m passing this to them now.”
- Tag that conversation “allergen”, hand it to our team, and notify them. Tell the customer when to expect a reply, for example within 1 hour during opening hours (example timing).
- If the customer describes a reaction after eating our food, tag the conversation “urgent”, hand it to our team, and tell them to seek medical help if they feel unwell.
Never infer whether a dish is safe from its ingredients, from the menu, or from anything else. Repeat the handover however many times the customer asks. If a question is not covered by our knowledge base, tell them a team member will reply and hand over. Reply in the customer’s language.
Change the reply timing to your own before you paste it. Keep the allergen rule as written.
What to connect
- Your menu and published ingredients. Upload your menu, prices, dietary markings and any ingredient lists you publish to the AeroChat knowledge base.
- Your POS, if your menu lives there. Square, Toast and Lightspeed Restaurant connect through their APIs, so items, prices and sold-out dishes match what the kitchen is selling today. For Square, create an access token in the Square Developer Console. For Toast, create standard API credentials (a client ID and secret) in Toast Web. For Lightspeed Restaurant, ask your Lightspeed account manager for API access. Paste them in when AeroChat asks.
- Your halal certification details. Upload the exact wording, the certifying body and which outlets or kitchens it covers. Update it when the certificate is renewed.
- Your restaurant details. Hours, public holiday hours, address, parking and directions.
- Your team in AeroChat. Add your kitchen lead or manager as a team member so allergen conversations are assigned to them.
This recipe needs only the knowledge base and AeroChat’s handover, so it runs on any plan. Connecting your POS is optional.
Using a different system? If it has a public API, it connects to AeroChat the same way: describe what you want, paste in its key, and it runs.
Can’t find your tool? Message us in the chat on this page and we’ll tell you how it connects.
What you still decide
- Which ingredients and dietary markings you publish.
- Who in the kitchen answers allergen questions, and how fast.
- The exact halal wording you use.
The allergen rule is not a setting to relax. AeroChat applies it however the question is phrased.
The result to expect
Routine menu and hours questions are answered in seconds at any hour. Every allergen question reaches someone in the kitchen with the details written down, instead of being answered from memory by whoever is nearest the phone.
Measure it with your own numbers: routine questions answered without a person, and time to the kitchen’s reply on allergen questions. In the first week, read every conversation tagged “allergen” to confirm none were answered by the system.
Next: catering quote requests and table reservations. See also live chat handover.
Set the allergen rule first
Upload your menu, paste the recipe, then ask your own number whether a dish is nut-free and check it hands you the question.
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On Shopify? Install AeroChat from the Shopify App Store.