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Best AI phone answering for restaurants in 2026
For most independent restaurants that take phone orders, Maple Pro is the best published-price choice at $350 a month ($220 paid yearly), and Serviio is the best choice with no monthly fee at 2% per order. Loman and Kea take the order and the card with a wide POS list but price on request. Slang.ai and Yelp Host are the picks for reservation-led dining rooms. Choose by the job your phone does.
Method in four lines
Best by job, with the reason
Best published flat price with POS ordering
$350 a month or $220 paid yearly. Orders into Toast, Square, Clover and Shift4 Dine, payment over the phone, OpenTable reservations, no per-minute fees. Its $150 Voice plan answers but does not take orders.
Best with no monthly fee
2% per submitted order, no monthly or setup fee, three-month free trial, no contract. Lists English, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Hindi, French and Italian. Does not say it takes payment on the call.
Best pay per completed order
$1.50 per completed order at list rate. Lists Toast, Square, Clover, Olo, SpotOn and NCR Aloha. Ask what counts as completed.
Best POS coverage with card on the call
Orders into Toast, Clover, Square, SpotOn, Shift4, Aloha and Olo, card on the call, reservations. Price on request; no per-minute fees.
Best flat rate with wallets on the call
Card, Apple Pay and Google Pay on the call, 11+ POS integrations. Flat rate with no per-order cost, price on request.
Best for reservation-led full service
$399 or $599 per location. Books in OpenTable, SevenRooms, Yelp and Resy; Premium switches among 97 languages. Texts an ordering link; no order on the call.
Best if you run Yelp Guest Manager
From $249 a month. Reservations and waitlist by phone; says it handles nearly any language. No orders on the call.
Best when you want it set up and run with you
Takes the order, texts a pay link and prints the ticket only once paid; catering intake; greets in Urdu, Hindi and Spanish. No price list. Proven at one restaurant, our own, so it ranks on fit, not scale.
The shortlist in one table
| Order into POS | Payment on call | Price (published) | Terms | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maple Pro | Yes | Yes | $350/mo ($220 yearly) | No complicated contracts |
| Serviio | Yes | Not mentioned | 2% per submitted order | 3-month free trial; no contract |
| Bitebuddy | Yes | Not mentioned | $1.50 per completed order | Pay-as-you-go or prepaid |
| Loman Premium | Yes | Yes | On request | No per-minute fees |
| Kea | Yes | Yes, incl. Apple Pay, Google Pay | Flat, on request | Not published |
| Slang.ai | No, texts a link | No | $399 / $599 per location | Not published |
| Yelp Host | No | No | From $249/mo | Not published |
| AZ phone host | Yes | Texts a pay link; prints once paid | Quoted per restaurant | Month-to-month; ~3 months alongside staff |
| Revmo | Yes | PCI payments on Enterprise | Quote after a free call audit | Annual agreement plus setup fee |
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
Revmo is listed for completeness: annual terms and a setup fee make it a better fit for groups. October 2026, vendor pages.
Five questions to ask any vendor
What counts as a billable order or call?
Cancelled tickets and question-only calls change per-order bills.
Show me a call in my guests' language
Most pages say "multilingual" without a list. Ask for a live demo in Urdu, Hindi or Spanish if that is who calls you.
Where does the order land?
Straight into the POS and kitchen printer, or a text link the guest may never open?
When is it paid?
Paid on the call or by link before cooking avoids unpaid pickups.
What happens in month one?
Every AI phone host needs tuning to your menu and regulars. Ask who does that work and how long it takes. With AZ, plan on about three months alongside your staff.
Our phone host on a real line
real calls answered by the AI phone host in its first three weeks on the line (Sep 25 to Oct 15).
of those calls became paid orders.
calls came outside posted opening hours. Every one was answered.
Our proof restaurant in Houston, counted from its call archive and Clover on Oct 15, 2026. Not every call goes smoothly: some callers hang up during the greeting and names get misheard. That is why a new restaurant runs the phone host alongside its staff for about three months.
Related comparisons
Eleven vendors in detail: AI phone hosts compared. Head to head: Slang.ai vs Loman and Maple alternatives. Costs: AI phone answering cost. The basics: never miss a phone order. How we work: what a forward-deployed engineer does.
Where these facts come from
- Maple pricing - read Oct 2026
- Serviio - read Oct 2026
- Bitebuddy - read Oct 2026
- Loman pricing - read Oct 2026
- Kea - read Oct 2026
- Slang.ai pricing - read Oct 2026
- Yelp Host - read Oct 2026
- Revmo pricing - read Oct 2026
Questions owners ask
What is the best AI phone answering service for restaurants?
It depends on the job. For phone orders with a published price, Maple Pro at $350 a month ($220 yearly). With no monthly fee, Serviio at 2% per order. For reservation-led dining rooms, Slang.ai from $399 per location. Loman and Kea take the order and card on the call but price on request.
Which AI phone answering is cheapest for a small restaurant?
Serviio has no monthly fee: 2% per submitted order after a three-month free trial. Bitebuddy is $1.50 per completed order. The cheapest flat plan is Maple Voice at $150 a month ($85 yearly), but it answers calls without taking orders.
Can AI phone answering take payment?
Maple Pro, Loman Premium and Kea list payment on the call. Slang.ai and Yelp Host do not take orders on the call. AZ texts a pay link while the host stays on the line.
Does AI phone answering work with Clover?
Maple, Loman, Serviio, Bitebuddy and Kea list Clover. Our own proof restaurant runs on Clover.
Is AI phone answering ready to run on its own from day one?
Plan on a ramp. With AZ the first three months run alongside your staff while we review calls and teach the host your answers; after that it carries nearly all calls.
Tell us what is hurting. We show you it working on your menu.
Same-day reply. No vendor commissions, so we recommend whatever fits, including a tool on this page that is not ours.
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