The Restaurant Phone Report 2026
How Missed Calls Cost Aussie
Hospitality Venues Thousands
Hospitality Venues Thousands
Published by Otto / HungryHungry / MOBI · March 2026
The Phone Problem Most Restaurants Don't See
What the data shows
- Restaurants miss around
1 in 3 calls
- Over 70% of those calls relate directly to revenue
- 67% of restaurant revenue now comes from remote ordering — phone and online combined
Why it's invisible
Missed calls leave no record in your POS or platform data. They simply appear as customers who ordered somewhere else — or never ordered at all.
Most venues have no way to measure what they're losing. That's the real problem.
1 in 3 Calls Goes Unanswered
1 in 3
Calls Missed
Industry average across
Australian restaurants
Australian restaurants
70%
Revenue-Related
Of missed calls are orders, bookings,
or catering requests
or catering requests
$52K
Lost Annually
From missing just
5 revenue calls per day
5 revenue calls per day
This report analyses ordering behaviour across 1,067 Australian restaurants and cafés — combining public data signals, website analysis, review insights, and aggregated platform order data. Most operators never see this loss. Missed calls leave no record.
Source: Slang AI Industry Research, 2025 · HungryHungry Platform Analysis, 2026 dis
Phone Customers Are Your
Highest-Value Customers
Highest-Value Customers
Average order value
61
High
Volume
Volume
56
Moderate Volume
Volume of phone orders at venue
Why phone orders are bigger
Phone orders are typically family meals, group takeaways, catering requests, and complex orders customers prefer to talk through. That drives a higher basket size on every single call.
At 70+ orders per week, that $5 difference compounds to over $19,000 in additional annual revenue — from the same number of customers.
Peak Trading
The Friday Night Problem
40%
of venues peak on Friday
37%
of venues peak on Saturday
63%
of high-phone venue orders arrive Friday–Sunday
These are also the moments when staff are busiest. When phones ring during peak service, calls go to voicemail and customers simply call another restaurant. The venues solving this treat the phone channel as infrastructure, not a staffing problem.
The $1,000 Phone Call Problem
If a restaurant misses just five revenue-related calls per day, the maths adds up quickly:
$40-60
Average Order Value
5
Missed Daily Revenue Calls
$1,000
Estimated Weekly Loss
$52,000
Projected Annual Loss
And remember:
- Restaurants miss around one in three calls
- For many venues, the real number may be even higher
Estimate based on industry average order values and Slang AI call volume benchmarks
Case Study:
A Busy Coastal Italian Restaurant
One venue in our study receives roughly:
149
Total orders per week across all channels
64
Of those orders come via phone
43%
Of their total out of venue order volume via phone
Now consider what happens if those calls aren't answered. Industry data suggests restaurants miss around one in three calls…
The Impact:
Revenue Lost Per Week
If this venue missed just one third of their phone calls:
64
Phone Orders
21
Missed Calls
$61
Avg Order Value
$1,281
Weekly Loss
$66,600
Annual Loss
And that's from a single venue.
Most operators never see this loss — because missed calls leave no record.
Most operators never see this loss — because missed calls leave no record.
The Results: 1
How Venues Break Down
Across the 1,067 venues analysed their phone orders were:
32%
HIGH VOLUME
59%
MODERATE
8%
LOW
In other words:
Nearly one in three restaurants depends
heavily on the phone to capture orders.
Nearly one in three restaurants depends
heavily on the phone to capture orders.
Source: HungryHungry internal dataset combining Google Business Profile signals, website analysis and review keyword analysis across 1,067 venues
Top Cuisines by Phone Order Reliance
The cuisines most reliant on phone ordering:
These cuisines commonly serve group meals, where customers prefer to talk through their order rather than click through an app. For these venues, the phone isn't optional. It's a core ordering channel.
Quick Operator Check
Could this be happening in your venue?
1
Do you hear the phone ring during service?
2
Does it ever go unanswered?
3
Do staff sometimes say "we'll call them back?"
If yes, you're likely missing revenue calls every week
What This Means for Restaurant Operators
Phone ordering isn't going away. Customers still call restaurants to:
- place complex takeaway orders
- organise catering or group meals
- confirm bookings
- ask questions before ordering
The challenge isn't demand. The challenge is capturing those calls when your team is busiest.
Industry data suggests restaurants miss around one in three calls, and most of those calls relate directly to revenue. When phones ring during peak service, even great teams simply can't answer every call.
The venues performing best in this report recognise this reality. They treat the phone channel the same way they treat online ordering — as infrastructure.
In other words: They capture every order, regardless of how the customer chooses to place it.
How Some Restaurants Are
Solving the Phone Problem
Solving the Phone Problem
To address the missed-call problem, many restaurants are beginning to adopt AI phone agents designed specifically for hospitality.
One example is Otto, a voice AI system built for restaurants and takeaway venues.
Otto answers incoming calls instantly, takes full orders, handles bookings and enquiries, and sends everything directly to the kitchen — even during peak service.
Capture orders that might
otherwise be missed
otherwise be missed
Keep staff focused on
in-venue service
in-venue service
Increase order value through
natural upsell prompts
natural upsell prompts
Handle multiple calls at once
Most importantly, the phone channel becomes something restaurants can measure, manage, and grow, rather than something that gets overwhelmed during busy periods.
About This Report
This report analyses ordering behaviour across more than 1,000 Australian restaurants and cafés, combining public data signals, website analysis, review insights, and aggregated platform order data.
The aim of the report is to better understand how restaurants capture phone orders — and where revenue is being missed.
Sources
- Slang AI. Restaurant Phone Call Trends Report, 2025.
- Paytronix / Lavu. Restaurant Industry Ordering Trends, 2023–2024.
- HungryHungry. Internal platform analysis of 1,067 Australian hospitality venues, 2026.
- Otto AI platform call and order analysis, 2025–2026.