Guide
How to promote your restaurant on TikTok: post three food videos a week and say your city
Updated
TikTok shows your videos to people nearby who do not follow you yet. Post three food videos a week, open on the food, and say your city in every video.
In short
- TikTok shows your videos to people nearby who do not follow you yet, which is why it works for restaurants.
- Open on the food in the first three seconds, never on a logo or an intro.
- Rotate five formats, from making-of clips to staff picks.
- Post three times a week, with your city in every caption.
- Answer questions from the comments with a new video, not a text reply.
- The time a video has before the swipe
- 3s
- Posts a week the plan asks for
- 3
- Vertical, the only shape TikTok takes
- 9:16
How TikTok brings you customers
Instagram mostly shows your posts to followers. TikTok mostly shows them to people who do not follow you.
- A restaurant with 12 followers can still reach thousands of locals.
- People type a city and a craving into search, then eat where the videos took them.
- You are not keeping fans happy. You are showing strangers in your city what you make.
- Say your city and the dish out loud, and put both in the caption. Search reads both.
How one video reaches locals
You post
City and dish in the caption
Shown to new viewers
Mostly people who do not follow you
TikTok watches what they do
Did they stop, watch and rewatch?
Found in search
City plus craving
The first 3 seconds
Viewers decide in about three seconds. Open on the best-looking second you filmed.
- "This is the busiest dish in the building on a Friday." Then show the kitchen.
- "We make 200 of these before noon." Then show the tray.
- "You keep asking if we do walk-ins. Here is the honest answer."
How to open a restaurant TikTok
First second
- Do
- The cheese pull, the pour, the knife through the crust
- Don't
- An intro card or a logo animation
First line
- Do
- What the dish is, or the question you will answer
- Don't
- Hey, welcome back to the channel
| Do | Don't | |
|---|---|---|
| First second | The cheese pull, the pour, the knife through the crust | An intro card or a logo animation |
| First line | What the dish is, or the question you will answer | Hey, welcome back to the channel |
This is the whole editor
Highlight a phrase and a clip lands on those exact words. No timeline, no keyframes, no layers.
5 TikTok video ideas for restaurants
Rotate them. Posting the same format every time trains viewers to skip it.
Five formats that work for food
| Idea | What to film | Why it works |
|---|---|---|
| The making-of | One dish from pan to plate, 20 to 40 seconds, changing shot every 2 to 3 seconds | The most reliable format in food |
| The owner answers | You answer one real question from the comments or the dining room, 30 to 60 seconds | Straight answers build trust |
| The order, start to finish | The camera follows one order from ticket to table | Viewers order the dish they watched being made |
| The staff pick | A team member names the dish they eat after shift, and why | A different face each week |
| The 6am video | The delivery, the dough, the first coffee | The lunch crowd feels like insiders |
Idea: The making-of
- What to film
- One dish from pan to plate, 20 to 40 seconds, changing shot every 2 to 3 seconds
- Why it works
- The most reliable format in food
Idea: The owner answers
- What to film
- You answer one real question from the comments or the dining room, 30 to 60 seconds
- Why it works
- Straight answers build trust
Idea: The order, start to finish
- What to film
- The camera follows one order from ticket to table
- Why it works
- Viewers order the dish they watched being made
Idea: The staff pick
- What to film
- A team member names the dish they eat after shift, and why
- Why it works
- A different face each week
Idea: The 6am video
- What to film
- The delivery, the dough, the first coffee
- Why it works
- The lunch crowd feels like insiders
How often to post, and how to reach locals
Post three times a week. TikTok rewards accounts that keep showing up over one-off hits.
- Open a TikTok Business account and claim your restaurant as a location, so there is a place tag to add to a video.
- Put your city in every caption, say it in the video, and tag the location.
- Answer a question from the comments with a new video. TikTok has a button for exactly that.
- Good questions to answer are is it halal, do you deliver, and what is in the green sauce.
- Leave slow videos up, because a video can find its viewers days later.
- An account with 40 posts looks like a real restaurant to someone choosing where to eat tonight.
How to edit TikToks fast
TikTok videos need captions, short shots and clips over the talking. By hand that is about 90 minutes a video.
- You can edit them yourself in a phone app, which takes about 90 minutes a video.
- You can hand it to a staff member who already edits their own videos.
- You can use an AI editor, which is what the rest of this section covers.
- Cutroom takes one clip of you talking, up to 3 minutes, and returns a finished 9:16 video in about a minute.
- You get the edit, captions in one of 40 caption styles, and clips placed on your words.
- Highlight the phrase where you name the dish and your clip lands on exactly those words.
One clip to posted
Two of the five steps cost credits.
Film yourself talking
Up to 3 minutes
Upload in the browser
No app
Edit
100 credits: transcript, first edit, clip search
Check it on the text
Highlight a phrase
Export and post
20 credits per finished minute
What it costs
Posting on TikTok is free. With Cutroom you pay credits for the edit and the export.
Cutroom costs
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Edit | 100 credits |
| Export | 20 credits per finished minute |
| 30 second TikTok | About 110 credits |
| First video | Free within 7 days, 600 credits, no card, Cutroom mark across the middle |
| Lite plan | $19.99 a month for 1,250 credits, about 11 videos, no mark |
Item: Edit
- Cost
- 100 credits
Item: Export
- Cost
- 20 credits per finished minute
Item: 30 second TikTok
- Cost
- About 110 credits
Item: First video
- Cost
- Free within 7 days, 600 credits, no card, Cutroom mark across the middle
Item: Lite plan
- Cost
- $19.99 a month for 1,250 credits, about 11 videos, no mark
Questions people ask
- Do restaurants get customers from TikTok?
- They can. TikTok shows videos to non-followers nearby, and its search serves food videos for city and craving searches. Nobody can promise your numbers, so post three a week for eight weeks before you judge.
- Do I need to dance or follow trends?
- No. Food carries itself, and the five formats above need no trending sound. Business accounts get a limited sound library anyway, so use your own voice and kitchen sounds.
- How often should a restaurant post on TikTok?
- Three times a week, filmed in one 20 minute session. Daily is only better if you can still keep it up in December. A steady three beats ten in a week followed by silence.
- Should I run TikTok ads or stay organic?
- Start organic. The videos that hold attention on their own are the ones worth paying for later. TikTok lets you put budget behind a post once it has proven itself.
- What time of day should I post?
- When your city is hungry. Late morning, before lunch plans, and late afternoon, before dinner plans, are good defaults. Your own analytics will show better times within a month.
- What equipment do I need?
- A phone, a window or the kitchen lights, and a clean lens. A small tripod helps for talking videos. Nothing else until the account earns it.
Open on the food, say your city and post three times this week. Your first video is free.