Best AI Voice Agents for Restaurant Phone Orders and Reservations (2026)
Friday, 7:15 pm. The line cook is plating, the host is seating a six-top, and the phone has rung four times without anyone picking it up. Each of those calls was a takeout order or a table, and most callers don't leave a voicemail: they dial the next place on Google Maps. Restaurant voice AI vendors that publish call data consistently report that a large share of calls go unanswered during peak service, and a typical phone order is worth $25 to $50. For an independent restaurant or a small group, an AI voice agent for restaurants is now one of the cheapest ways to stop that leak.
The category split in two over the last two years. On one side are restaurant-specific phone agents (Loman AI, Maple, Slang AI, Kea AI, Hostie AI) that arrive pre-trained on menus, modifiers and reservation flows and connect to the systems you already run: Toast POS, Square and Clover for orders, OpenTable, Resy and SevenRooms for tables. On the other side are general voice-agent platforms (ElevenLabs Agents, Retell AI, Bland AI, Synthflow) that can sound excellent and cost a few cents a minute, but expect you, or someone you pay, to build the menu logic, the POS hookup and the handoff rules yourself. Browse the wider AI chatbots and agents category and you'll see both kinds mixed together, which is how owners end up buying the wrong one.
The mistake we see most often is buying on voice quality. Every agent here sounds human enough. What decides whether it pays for itself is plumbing: does a phone order arrive in your POS as a paid ticket, with the right modifiers, or does the agent just text the caller a link to your online ordering page? Does it book directly into your reservation book or create a request someone has to re-key? What happens when an item is 86'd, when a caller wants half pepperoni and half mushroom, or when they ask for a manager in Spanish?
We compared each tool on the criteria that matter to an owner during service: native POS integrations (Toast, Square, Clover), reservation systems (OpenTable, Resy, SevenRooms), menu and modifier handling, upsells, payment capture, handoff to staff, multilingual callers, and how pricing scales (per minute versus flat per location). We confirmed plan names and prices against each vendor's live pricing page in October 2026 and flag where a vendor only quotes on request. We also say plainly which tools a non-technical owner can run without a developer.
If you mainly need a general answering service rather than ordering, our AI receptionists for small business guide covers that. Otherwise, the ranking below starts with the ordering-and-reservations specialists and finishes with the build-it-yourself platforms.
Full Comparison
Restaurant voice AI that takes phone orders, payments and reservations
💰 Quote-based (Starter and Premium); no per-minute fees
Loman AI is built around the problem this guide starts with: a ringing phone during the rush that nobody can answer. It picks up every call, handling up to 50 at once on its entry plan, and on the Premium plan it takes complete takeout and delivery orders, collects card payment on the call, and sends a paid ticket into your POS. Toast, Square, Clover and SpotOn are among the systems it syncs with, so the kitchen sees the order exactly like an online order, modifiers included.
What separates Loman from answer-only services is that it is designed to make money on the call, not just deflect it. A dynamic upsell engine suggests add-ons and combos, an out-of-stock engine keeps the AI from selling items you've 86'd, and smart guest memory recognizes repeat callers. The same Premium plan books reservations by phone, which makes it a fit for hybrid concepts that do both takeout and dine-in. Loman's onboarding takes 24 to 48 hours, with its team building the menu for you.
The trade-off is transparency: there is no public price, and you need a demo to get a quote. Loman's pitch is 'no per-minute fees', so expect a flat monthly fee per location. For an independent pizzeria, café or casual restaurant where phone orders are a meaningful share of revenue, it is the most complete package in this list for a non-technical owner.
Pros
- Phone orders land in Toast, Square, Clover or SpotOn as prepaid tickets, so there are no unpaid no-show orders
- Built-in upsell prompts and 86 handling protect both ticket size and accuracy
- Handles many simultaneous calls, so callers never get a busy signal during the dinner rush
- Ordering and reservations in the same plan, with vendor-led menu setup in 24 to 48 hours
Cons
- No published pricing; you need to sit through a demo for a quote
- Ordering, payments and reservations all require the Premium tier, not Starter
- Fewer documented reservation-platform integrations than Slang AI
Our Verdict: Best overall for independent restaurants that want phone orders to arrive paid and in the POS without hiring a developer.
AI phone answering, ordering and reservations for restaurants
💰 Maple Voice $150/mo ($85/mo billed yearly); Maple Pro $350/mo ($220/mo billed yearly); Enterprise custom
Maple is the restaurant phone agent to shortlist if you want to know the price before you take a sales call. Its pricing page lists Maple Voice at $150 per month ($85 billed yearly) for 24/7 answering, FAQs, call transfer and multilingual voice, and Maple Pro at $350 per month ($220 billed yearly) for ordering, reservations and POS integration. Pro takes phone orders into Toast, Square, Clover and Shift4 Dine, books, modifies and cancels OpenTable reservations, upsells, takes payment over the phone and texts order confirmations. Neither plan charges per minute.
For a non-technical owner, Maple is the easiest tool here to justify on a napkin. Maple's own example: at $10 margin per extra order, the $350 monthly plan pays for itself after 35 orders you would otherwise have missed. Onboarding on Pro is white-glove, so you won't be writing prompts. The Voice plan is also a sensible starting point for restaurants that only want the phone answered, not orders taken.
Watch the reservation side: OpenTable is the only reservation platform Maple lists, so if you run Resy, Tock or SevenRooms, confirm support before signing. Maple is also younger than Slang AI and has a smaller reference base, though it reports more than a million restaurant calls answered.
Pros
- Published, flat per-location pricing with no per-minute fees, which is rare in this category
- Pro plan bundles POS ordering (Toast, Square, Clover, Shift4 Dine) and OpenTable reservations
- Yearly billing drops Pro to $220 per month, among the lowest prices for full ordering in this list
- Answer-only Voice plan for restaurants that just need the phone covered
Cons
- OpenTable is the only reservation system listed; Resy and SevenRooms users should verify
- The entry Voice plan can't take orders or book tables
Our Verdict: Best value for independent owners who want ordering and reservations at a published flat price.
AI phone answering built for restaurant reservations and guest calls
💰 Quote-based per location (Core, Premium, Enterprise); third-party reviews cite roughly $399/mo for Core and $599/mo for Premium
Slang AI is the established name in restaurant voice AI, and it is strongest where the phone is mostly about tables rather than takeout. It reports more than 2,000 full-service restaurants and 35 million calls handled, and its integrations are the deepest on the reservation side: it books, modifies and cancels directly in OpenTable (including OpenTable Experiences), SevenRooms and Yelp, and it qualifies private-event and large-party inquiries into Tripleseat or Perfect Venue.
That focus shows in the feature set. Reservation cross-selling offers alternative times or sister locations when a slot is full, VIP call handling recognizes regulars, and the Premium plan adds 97 languages, custom branding, real-time alerts and a Smart Inbox that routes calls staff need to follow up. Callers who ask for a person are transferred immediately, or texted a link if nobody is free. Setup needs under 30 minutes of the operator's time, and most restaurants go live in the first week.
For takeout, Slang mostly texts callers a link to your online ordering rather than keying a ticket into the POS, which makes it a weaker fit for pizza shops and quick-service concepts. Pricing is quote-only (Core, Premium, Enterprise); third-party reviews cite about $399 per month per location for Core and $599 for Premium, which puts it at the top of this list for a single location.
Pros
- Deepest reservation coverage: OpenTable, SevenRooms and Yelp, plus Tripleseat and Perfect Venue for events
- Private-event lead capture turns 'do you do parties?' calls into qualified leads
- 97 languages on Premium and bilingual support on Core
- Mature product with SOC 2 compliance, call recordings and CSAT measurement
Cons
- Takeout is usually handled with a texted ordering link, not POS order injection
- Quote-only pricing that third-party reviews place among the highest per location in this list
- Broad multilingual support is reserved for the Premium tier
Our Verdict: Best for full-service restaurants and small groups whose phones are mostly reservations and private-event inquiries.
Voice AI for restaurant phone ordering with direct POS integration
💰 Quote-based; third-party reviews cite a flat ~$450/mo per location with unlimited calls and orders
Kea AI is the ordering specialist for menus that break simpler agents. Its customer stories are mostly pizza and quick-service operators, with half-and-half specialty pizzas, hidden modifiers, custom substitutions, coupons and daily specials, which is exactly where phone orders go wrong when a busy cashier takes them. Kea connects to 11+ POS systems directly, including Toast, Square, Clover and Olo, and the vendor says a menu can be connected in under 15 minutes with tickets printing instantly.
Kea also handles the operational edge cases owners worry about: unlimited concurrent calls on a dedicated Kea number, 86 detection with substitution suggestions, order throttling when the kitchen is slammed, PCI-compliant card saving with pay-on-arrival limits, and loyalty integrations such as Thanx. A Text AI channel lets regulars reorder by SMS. Kea reports more than $3.6 million in phone-order revenue processed since January 2025.
The gaps are reservations, which are not its focus, and pricing, which sits behind a demo form. Third-party reviews put it at a flat rate of around $450 per month per location with unlimited calls and orders. If you run a takeout-heavy concept with a complicated menu, Kea is worth a demo alongside Loman AI.
Pros
- Built for complex takeout menus: half-and-half pizzas, hidden modifiers, coupons and specials
- Direct integrations with 11+ POS systems including Toast, Square, Clover and Olo
- Order throttling and 86 detection protect the kitchen during the rush
- Unlimited concurrent calls on a flat fee, so a busy night costs the same as a quiet one
Cons
- Not designed for reservation-heavy, full-service dining rooms
- Pricing is only available after a demo request
Our Verdict: Best for pizzerias and quick-service restaurants whose phone orders are high-volume and modifier-heavy.
AI concierge that answers restaurant calls, texts and emails
💰 Quote-based (Essential, Premium, Hospitality Plus); third-party reviews cite ~$199/mo Essential and ~$399/mo Premium per location
Hostie AI, formerly Maitre-D AI, is a restaurant AI concierge founded by operators in San Francisco. It treats the phone as one channel among several: calls, texts and emails land in a single mobile-first platform, and an operator app alerts staff in real time and lets them reply to guests by text. For restaurants where guests increasingly text rather than call, that matters as much as voice quality.
On reservations, Hostie is reported to book and modify through OpenTable, Resy, Tock, SevenRooms and Yelp, which makes it one of the few options for restaurants on Resy or Tock. The Premium plan adds full reservation integrations, takeout ordering by phone or text, 24/7 support and 20 languages, and Hospitality Plus adds cross-booking across a restaurant group, event inquiry capture and marketing texts. Hostie also publishes live transcripts so managers can see exactly what the AI told a guest.
The weak spots: the pricing page shows plan features but no prices (third-party reviews cite about $199 per month for Essential and $399 for Premium per location), and the Essential plan texts links for booking and ordering rather than completing them. If takeout ordering into the POS is your main goal, Loman AI and Kea AI are more proven there.
Pros
- Reservation support that reportedly covers Resy and Tock alongside OpenTable and SevenRooms
- Calls, texts and emails in one operator app, with real-time staff alerts
- 20 languages on Premium
- Group cross-booking recommends a sister venue when one location is full
Cons
- No prices on the website
- Essential plan only sends links; completed bookings and orders need Premium
- Takeout-to-POS ordering is less proven than ordering-first rivals
Our Verdict: Best for full-service restaurants on Resy or Tock that want phone, text and email handled in one place.
AI voice generator and voice agents platform
💰 Free tier with 10k credits/month; Starter $6/mo, Creator $22/mo, Pro $99/mo, Scale $299/mo, Business $990/mo, Enterprise custom
ElevenLabs Agents (ElevenAgents) is the strongest general-purpose platform for a restaurant that wants a custom phone agent and has access to a developer or agency. ElevenLabs' voices are widely considered among the most natural available, which helps in upscale rooms where the phone is part of the brand. The platform includes a visual workflow builder, a knowledge base for your menu and FAQs, multilingual conversations, SMS, and telephony through its own numbers, Twilio or SIP trunks from providers such as Vonage, RingCentral and Telnyx, so you can keep your existing restaurant line.
Pricing is the most accessible of any tool here. The live pricing page shows a free plan with 15 call minutes, Starter at $6 per month (75 minutes), Creator at $22 (275 minutes), Pro at $99 (1,238 minutes) and Business at $990 (12,375 minutes), with extra minutes at $0.08 and burst minutes at $0.16 when you exceed your concurrency limit (from 4 concurrent calls on Free to 40 on Business). A restaurant taking a few hundred phone minutes a month could run on the Creator or Pro plan, well below any restaurant-specific subscription.
The catch is that ElevenLabs has no native Toast, Square, Clover, OpenTable or Resy integration. Menu sync, order injection, payments and booking all require custom tools or webhooks, and modifier handling is only as good as the logic you build. It is the right pick for multi-location groups with tech help, agencies building for restaurant clients, or owners who want full control; it is the wrong pick for an owner who wants to switch it on this weekend.
Pros
- Top-tier natural voices and multilingual conversations suit brand-conscious restaurants
- Low entry cost: free plan, then $6 to $99 per month for most single-location call volumes
- Keeps your existing number through Twilio or SIP trunking
- Visual workflow builder and knowledge base for menu and FAQ content
Cons
- No native restaurant POS or reservation integrations; ordering and booking need custom development
- Concurrency caps by plan (4 to 40 calls) and burst pricing at double the standard rate during spikes
- Too much setup work for a non-technical owner on their own
Our Verdict: Best general platform for groups or agencies that want a custom, premium-sounding restaurant agent and can build the integrations.
Developer-first voice AI platform with low-latency LLM-powered phone agents
💰 Pay-as-you-go from $0.07-$0.31/min voice; chat $0.002+/msg; $10 free credits; Enterprise custom
Retell AI is a developer-first voice agent platform with true pay-as-you-go pricing: $0.07 to $0.31 per minute depending on the LLM and voice you choose, $10 in free credits, 20 free concurrent calls and no contract. The rendered pricing page breaks costs down by component, for example $0.055 per minute for Retell's voice infrastructure, $0.015 for its platform voices and $0.015 for US Twilio telephony, plus the LLM of your choice, so a restaurant can tune cost against quality.
For restaurants, Retell is appealing to agencies and tech-savvy groups building an ordering or reservation agent with custom functions that call a POS API or reservation system. It includes pre-built agent templates, call analytics and transcripts, simulation testing to try the agent against scripted callers before launch, webhooks and API access, knowledge bases and add-ons such as PII removal and denoising. Simulation testing is useful here, because you can test awkward orders repeatedly before a real guest ever calls.
Like ElevenLabs, Retell has no native restaurant integrations, and per-minute billing means a long Friday night costs more than a quiet Tuesday. A non-technical owner should only consider it through an agency that has already built a restaurant template on Retell.
Pros
- Pay-as-you-go from $0.07 per minute with no contract and $10 in free credits
- 20 concurrent calls included, enough for most single-location rush periods
- Simulation testing lets you test tricky orders before going live
- Choose your own LLM and voice (including ElevenLabs voices) to balance cost and quality
Cons
- No native POS or reservation integrations; you build them with custom functions
- Costs scale with call minutes, so busy periods raise the bill
- Developer-oriented setup that is impractical for most owners without help
Our Verdict: Best for agencies and tech-savvy groups that want usage-based pricing and full control over a custom restaurant agent.
Enterprise infrastructure for AI phone agents at scale
💰 Usage-based, enterprise pricing on request. Public rate ~$0.09/minute on standard tier.
Bland AI is voice-agent infrastructure aimed at teams that run calls at scale. Its pricing is all-in per minute, with no separate LLM or speech charges: the Start plan is $0.14 per minute with no platform fee, 10 concurrent calls and 100 calls per day, while Build is $0.12 per minute plus a $299 monthly platform fee with 50 concurrent calls and 2,000 calls per day. Transfer minutes cost $0.04 to $0.05. The free start includes an inbound number.
The feature most relevant to restaurants is Conversational Pathways, a visual designer for deterministic call flows. That is useful for ordering, where you want the agent to follow a fixed sequence (item, size, modifiers, pickup time, confirmation) instead of improvising. Bland also supports bringing your own Twilio account or SIP trunk, integrations and automations, and is SOC 2, HIPAA-eligible, GDPR and PCI DSS compliant. Several features that matter for restaurant phones, including warm and live transfers, SMS nodes and appointment scheduling nodes, are listed in the plan comparison as Enterprise-only.
For a single independent restaurant, Bland is more infrastructure than you need. It fits a regional chain or an ordering-platform vendor that wants to build its own phone channel on predictable per-minute pricing, with Bland's forward-deployed engineers available on Enterprise.
Pros
- All-in per-minute pricing with no separate LLM or speech charges
- Conversational Pathways enforce a strict order-taking flow
- Bring your own Twilio or SIP trunk to keep existing restaurant numbers
- PCI DSS compliance matters if you plan to take payments by phone
Cons
- Warm and live transfers to staff and in-call SMS are listed as Enterprise features
- Daily call caps on self-serve plans (100 on Start, 2,000 on Build)
- No restaurant-specific integrations or templates out of the box
Our Verdict: Best for chains and ordering-platform vendors that want to build a high-volume phone ordering channel on per-minute infrastructure.
No-code AI voice agents for automated phone calls
💰 Enterprise only: contracts from $30,000/year, scoped by call volume, concurrency, telephony, integrations, and security. No self-serve or pay-as-you-go plan for new customers (legacy plans grandfathered for existing workspaces).
Synthflow used to be the go-to no-code voice agent builder for small businesses, and many older 'AI receptionist' guides still recommend it with a $29 starter plan. That is no longer accurate. Synthflow's live pricing page now lists only an Enterprise offering, with contracts starting at $30,000 per year, scoped by call volume, concurrency, telephony, integrations and launch support. The self-serve tiers are gone.
What you get for that commitment is a managed deployment: Synthflow native telephony, SIP trunking, custom concurrency planning, routing, escalation paths and handoffs to staff, plus CRM, calendar, webhook and API integrations, and implementation, testing and ongoing optimization from Synthflow's team. The platform reports more than 65 million calls per month across 30+ countries, and its marketplace and partner program are used by agencies that build agents for clients.
For restaurants, that makes Synthflow relevant only to larger groups or franchise systems that want a managed, custom voice program and can justify a five-figure annual commitment. An independent restaurant will get faster results and far lower cost from Maple, Loman AI or Kea AI, which are built for restaurants and come with POS and reservation integrations included.
Pros
- Fully managed implementation, testing and optimization from Synthflow's team
- Custom routing, escalation and staff handoff logic scoped to your locations
- Proven scale, with more than 65 million calls per month reported
Cons
- Enterprise-only, with a $30,000 per year minimum and no self-serve plan
- No restaurant-specific POS or reservation integrations out of the box
- Overkill for a single location or a small group
Our Verdict: Best for large restaurant groups or franchise systems that want a managed, custom voice agent program and have the budget for an enterprise contract.
Our Conclusion
Quick decision guide. If most of your phone revenue is takeout and you want paid tickets landing in Toast, Square or Clover, start with Loman AI or, for pizza and quick-service menus with heavy modifiers, Kea AI. If you want a restaurant-built agent with prices you can see before a demo, Maple is the clearest value at $220 to $350 per location per month. If your phone is mostly reservations and private-event inquiries in a full-service dining room, Slang AI has the deepest OpenTable, SevenRooms and Tripleseat coverage, and Hostie AI is the pick if you book through Resy or Tock and also want texts and email in one inbox.
For non-technical owners, stick to the five restaurant-specific tools. They onboard your menu for you, connect the POS and reservation book, and charge a flat monthly fee. The general platforms, ElevenLabs Agents, Retell AI, Bland AI and Synthflow, are the right call only when you have a developer or agency partner, an unusual workflow, or many locations where per-minute pricing and full control beat a per-location subscription.
Our top pick for an independent restaurant losing orders during the rush is Loman AI: prepaid tickets in the POS, built-in upsells and reservations in one plan, with no per-minute fees. Maple is the runner-up and the easiest to budget for.
What to do next. Book demos with two vendors and call each live demo line yourself. Order something awkward: a modified item, a substitution, an item you've marked out of stock. Then check exactly what prints in the kitchen, ask to be transferred to a person, and try it in a second language if your guests speak one. Confirm your exact POS and reservation platform are supported natively, not by texting a link.
What to watch. Pricing is moving quickly: Synthflow dropped its self-serve plans for an enterprise minimum this year, and POS vendors are signing partnerships with voice AI companies, so recheck terms at renewal. If you run several sites, pair this with our guide to tools for restaurant owners with multiple locations, and see the best AI voice agents for customer service for the wider voice AI market.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can an AI voice agent send phone orders straight into Toast, Square or Clover?
Yes, but only the restaurant-specific agents do it out of the box. Loman AI, Kea AI and Maple Pro inject orders into Toast, Square and Clover (Maple also lists Shift4 Dine, Loman lists SpotOn, Kea lists Olo). General platforms like ElevenLabs Agents or Retell AI need a developer to connect to the POS through webhooks or APIs.
Which AI phone agents book directly into OpenTable, Resy or SevenRooms?
Slang AI books, modifies and cancels in OpenTable, SevenRooms and Yelp. Hostie AI is reported to support OpenTable, Resy, Tock, SevenRooms and Yelp. Maple Pro documents OpenTable. Confirm your exact platform during the demo, because some tools fall back to texting a booking link.
How much does an AI voice agent for a restaurant cost?
Restaurant-specific agents usually charge a flat fee per location: Maple publishes $150 to $350 per month on monthly billing ($85 to $220 billed yearly), while Slang AI, Loman AI, Kea AI and Hostie AI quote on request (third-party reviews cite roughly $199 to $600 per month). General platforms charge per minute: ElevenLabs Agents bills $0.08 per extra minute on top of a plan from $6 per month, Retell AI runs $0.07 to $0.31 per minute, and Bland AI charges $0.14 per minute on its free-to-start plan.
Can AI phone agents handle callers who speak Spanish or other languages?
Most can. Slang AI includes bilingual support on Core and 97 languages on Premium, Hostie AI supports 20 languages on Premium, Maple offers multilingual voice, and general platforms like ElevenLabs Agents support dozens of languages. Test with real callers, because accuracy on menu items in a second language varies.
What happens when the AI can't handle a call?
Every tool in this list can transfer the caller to staff. Restaurant agents typically transfer on request or when they don't recognize a question, and some (Slang AI, Hostie AI) can text a link or alert staff instead when nobody is free. On general platforms you define the transfer rules yourself.
Is ElevenLabs Agents a good choice for a small restaurant?
It is a good choice if you or a developer will build the agent. ElevenLabs Agents has excellent voices, a visual workflow builder and a free plan with 15 call minutes, but it has no native restaurant POS or reservation integrations, so menu sync, order injection and booking require custom tools. A non-technical owner will get running faster with Maple, Loman AI or Slang AI.