How to respond to reviews as a pub or restaurant, with reply templates

Reply to every review you can, quickly and in your own words. Thank people for good reviews and mention something specific. On mixed ones, thank them, own what went wrong and say what you've changed. On bad ones, apologise without arguing and give a named person to contact. Report only reviews that break the platform's rules, and never offer anything in return for a review.

#Should you respond to every restaurant review?

Yes, if you can keep it up, and at the very least reply to every review with written comments. Google's own help says that "helpful and positive replies to reviews can show that you're responsive to your customers" (manage customer reviews), and its page on local ranking says helpful replies "can help your business stand out", while more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking (local ranking tips).

How replies work on Google, from that first help page:

• Your business has to be verified before you can reply.
• Replies are public, posted under the review as a response from the business. Your personal name isn't shown.
• The reviewer is notified when you reply, and they can still change their review afterwards.
• Google checks replies against its content policies. Most go live within about 10 minutes, but some take up to 30 days.

The reviewer reads your reply once; people deciding where to book keep reading it for months. So I'd write for them, which mostly means staying calm and keeping it short.

Decide who replies, too. One or two people who write in the venue's voice is plenty; a reply that sounds nothing like your menus or your Instagram jars a bit. Our guide to finding your venue's brand voice helps here.

#How to reply to a five-star review

Thank them by name, pick up one specific thing they mentioned and add something new, such as who cooked it or what's coming up. Two to four sentences is plenty. The temptation is to paste "Thanks for the lovely review, hope to see you again soon" under everything, and after the fifth identical one it reads like nobody's home.

A template to adapt (and then change for each guest):

Thanks so much, [name]. [Specific thing they liked] is [the chef's name / the team's] favourite too, so I've passed this on. [Something useful or new: the next event, a seasonal dish, the quieter times]. See you soon.

#How to reply to a mixed review

Thank them, agree with what they liked, then own the part that went wrong without a "but" in sight. Say what you've done about it if you've done something, and give them a reason and a person to come back to. I think three-star reviews get read more closely than any others, because they look like the honest middle.

Thanks for this, [name], and sorry about [the specific problem]. You're right that [it shouldn't have happened / we should have told you]. Since then we've [what you changed]. Glad you enjoyed [the good bit]. If you give us another go, email me at [address] and I'll make sure it goes properly.

Don't explain your staffing problems at length. One short line of context is fine; three lines starts to sound like an excuse.

#How to respond to a one-star review

Wait an hour, check what happened, then reply in four or five sentences: apologise for the specific thing, skip the argument and give a name and an email address to take it further. Arguing the details in public rarely makes you look better, even when you're right about the timings.

A few rules I'd stick to:

• Never post booking details, what they ordered or anything else from your records that they didn't mention themselves.
• If you put things right privately (a refund, a meal on the house), never make it depend on them changing or deleting the review. The CMA's guidance gives offering a refund or gift card in exchange for removing negative comments as an example of commissioning a fake review.
• If you think the review is wrong, say so once and politely, then leave it.

[Name], I'm really sorry. [Restate the problem plainly] isn't the standard we work to, and I'd like to find out what happened. Could you email me at [address] with the date of your visit? [Your name], [role].

#What about fake or abusive reviews?

Report them, but only when they break Google's rules. Google's guidance on flagging reviews says: "Do not report a review just because you disagree with it or dislike it." You can report from your profile under "Read reviews", or through the Reviews Management Tool, where you can track progress; Google says decisions typically take several days. If a report fails, there's a one-time appeal covering up to 10 reviews.

Its prohibited content policy covers fake engagement and reviews based on a conflict of interest, which includes current or former employees. So a review from an ex-employee, or from someone who plainly never visited, is reportable. One from a real guest who had a bad night isn't, however unfair it feels at 1am after close.

#How can you get more Google reviews without breaking the rules?

Ask every guest, in the same way, whatever their visit was like. Google's tips page says to remind customers to leave reviews through a Google link or QR code, and its link and QR code page shows how: open your profile, choose "Read reviews", then "Get more reviews". Google suggests putting it on receipts and displaying the QR code in your venue. As of October 2026, the QR code can only be generated in a computer browser, not on a phone.

Google's prohibited content policy also rules these out for businesses:

• Offering incentives, such as payment, discounts or free goods or services, for a review, or for changing or removing a negative one.
• Discouraging negative reviews, or selectively asking happy customers for positive ones (often called review gating).
• Asking staff to collect a set number of reviews.

So no free shot for a five-star review, no prize draw for reviewers, no "only hand the QR card to the tables who were smiling", and no league table of reviews per server on the staffroom wall.

I think the best moment to ask is when the bill lands or as people leave, by a person, with the QR code on the bill folder or a table card. If you want to ask by email after a booking, read our guide to GDPR and PECR rules for UK venues first.

#What does UK law say about fake reviews?

Since 6 April 2025, fake reviews have been a banned practice under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, which means they're treated as unfair in all circumstances. The relevant part is paragraph 13 of Schedule 20, brought into force on that date by the commencement regulations.

It covers more than buying five-star reviews. Paragraph 13 bans:

• Submitting or commissioning a fake review, or a review that hides the fact it was incentivised.
• Publishing reviews in a misleading way, including removing negative reviews while publishing positive ones, or giving positive reviews more prominence.
• Publishing reviews without taking reasonable and proportionate steps to stop fake or misleading ones.

The CMA's fake reviews guidance (CMA208) explains how that applies in practice, and a few points hit venues directly. Emailing customers generally to ask whether they'd like to leave a review isn't prohibited. Encouraging only satisfied customers to leave reviews can count as cherry-picking. Reviews from employees can be misleading if that link isn't made clear. And interfering with negative reviews, for example by threatening legal action or by "arbitrarily stopping and starting review invitations", is something the guidance says traders should not do.

The guidance also says incentivised reviews are allowed under the law if they're clearly labelled and still genuine. Google's policy is stricter and bans incentives outright, so on Google the answer stays no.

This matters for your own website as well. If you show reviews there, the same rules on misleading publication apply, so a page of hand-picked five-star quotes that doesn't match your overall rating is risky. Showing your overall rating from a platform alongside a few quotes is the safer habit, in my view.

The CMA can enforce this itself. It said in January 2025 that the Act lets it fine firms that break the law up to 10% of global turnover, and it announced commitments from Google: warning alerts on UK business profiles found boosting ratings with fake reviews, the review function switched off for those businesses, and all reviews deleted for six months or more for repeat offenders.

This is general information, not legal advice. If you're unsure about a specific practice, read the CMA guidance or speak to a solicitor.

Reviews also feed how you show up in local search and in AI answers, which we cover in local SEO for pubs and restaurants and in getting recommended by AI assistants. The profile basics are in our Google Business Profile guide.