How to increase restaurant sales in Nepal

When someone nearby searches for momo, coffee or a place for dinner, Google shows a map of businesses first. Google says local results depend mainly on how well a business matches the search, how far away it is and how well known it is, and that more reviews and positive ratings can help it rank higher.

Claim your free Google Business Profile and fill in everything: the right category, address, phone number, opening hours, menu and photos. By Google's own figures, customers are 2.7 times more likely to consider a business reputable, and 70% more likely to visit it, when its profile is complete. Add new photos regularly, which Google says also helps your ranking, and set special hours for Dashain, Tihar and other holidays so nobody arrives to a closed shutter.

Reviews bring in money, not just praise. A US study using Washington State restaurant data found that one more star on Yelp brought 5% to 9% more revenue for independent restaurants, though not for chains (Harvard Business School, 2011). Ask happy guests for a review with a QR code on the table or the bill folder; Google can make one for you. Reply to every review, good or bad, politely and by name. Never offer a discount or a free dish for a review: Google treats that as fake content and prohibits it.

This week: complete every field of your Google profile, add ten good photos, and reply to every review you haven't answered.

Nepal had 16.6 million internet users at the end of 2025, about 56% of the population (DataReportal). Facebook reached 14.8 million people, about three in four adults, Messenger 11 million and Instagram 4.35 million. TikTok has no official count; Nepali business press puts it at more than 2.2 million users (New Business Age, 2025). Most people are online on their phones: of almost 31 million broadband subscriptions the Nepal Telecommunications Authority counted in the three months to mid-May 2026, nearly 89% were mobile (Nepal News, 2026).

That makes Facebook, Instagram and TikTok the cheapest shop window you have. Short phone videos work: momo being folded, a sizzler arriving at the table, the day's special in good light. Post before people decide where to eat, in the late morning for lunch and the late afternoon for dinner. Put your phone number, Google Maps link and opening hours on every page, and answer messages quickly.

This week: film three short clips of your best-selling dishes, and post the day's special every day for a week.

Business in Nepal follows the calendar. Nepal received 1,158,459 foreign visitors in 2025, the most from India, then the United States and China (Nepal Tourism Board). They come in two seasons, autumn and spring. In the twelve months to September 2026, October was the busiest month and July the quietest:

Seasons only help if you are ready for them. For the tourist months, add a few dishes visitors look for, such as a set breakfast, and an English menu, and make sure your Google profile shows the hours you keep. For Dashain and Tihar, sell family sets and sweets to take home, and decide early which days you will close. For the wedding months, list what you can cater, for how many guests and at what price per plate.

Staff go home for the festivals too, so agree on leave early and plan who covers which days. Order stock for the busy weeks in advance, and cut back for the quiet ones so less goes to waste.

This week: mark the next three months of festivals, wedding dates and tourist peaks on a calendar, and write the menu, stock and staff plan for each.

Office workers eat out every working day, and they are short of time. Office-goers in Kathmandu complain there aren't enough lunch places that are convenient, affordable and healthy all at once (Onlinekhabar, 2022), which is why weekly and monthly meal plans have found buyers.

Offer a fixed lunch set at one clear price, such as a dal bhat or khaja set, served quickly, with tea or a soft drink as an add-on. Keep most of it the same every day, with one dish that changes. Take a printed menu with your phone number to nearby offices, banks and schools, and take orders by phone or message before noon for pick-up or delivery. A weekly or monthly lunch plan gives you sales you can count on.

This week: price one lunch set, and leave a menu at five offices within walking distance.

Selling one more drink or dessert to each table is often easier than finding new guests. Train staff to suggest one specific thing at the right moment: a lassi or lemon soda with the order, another plate of momo for a group, dessert or coffee when the plates are cleared. Name the item; a clear suggestion is easier to say yes to than 'Anything else?'

Combos make the choice easy: a main, a side and a drink together at a small saving. Some popular Kathmandu franchises have added combo meals and new recipes (Kathmandu Post, 2024). Price each combo so it still earns you money, and suggest it to groups and families.

This week: choose one drink and one dessert for staff to suggest, and count how many they sell each day.

Hospitality courses teach a method called menu engineering. List every dish with how many you sold last month and what each one earns you after ingredients, which is its price minus its food cost. Then sort the dishes into four groups and act on each:

At busy times, the number of tables you can serve sets your sales. The trick is to save time where guests don't mind. A Cornell study found that diners accept a brisk pace when they are greeted and order, dislike being rushed once the meal is under way, and are most tolerant of speed at the end, when they pay and leave; in fine dining, guests prefer not to be rushed at all (Cornell Quarterly, 2007).

So seat people quickly, take the order within a few minutes, and send drinks out first. Let the meal take its time. Then make paying fast: bring the bill as soon as it is asked for, with a QR code ready, and clear and reset the table at once. Keep a shorter menu at peak hours so the kitchen can keep up. As a rough guide from abroad, a US ordering platform puts a typical table turn at about 1 hour 15 minutes in full-service restaurants and 2 hours in fine dining (ChowNow, 2025).

This week: time ten tables at lunch, from seating to leaving, and see where the minutes go.

Delivery apps such as Foodmandu and Pathao Food bring new customers; Foodmandu now delivers in Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Pokhara, Chitwan and Butwal (ShareSansar, 2025). But they take a cut of every order. In 2022, a Kathmandu cloud-kitchen operator told The Record that the apps charged about 14% to 22% of each order, and that restaurants pay around 20% on average. In 2025, a Kathmandu restaurateur told Business 360 the commission is significant, and that relying on the apps alone may not be sustainable.

Do the sums before you list a dish. On a Rs 500 order at 20% commission, Rs 100 goes to the app, and the box, bag and spoon come out of what is left. Work out what each dish earns after commission and packaging, set app prices that cover both, and keep the delivery menu to dishes that travel well. Ask each app for its current rate in writing.

Then win app customers over to ordering from you. The same restaurateur uses the apps for reach, then encourages people to order directly or visit in person. Put your phone number and a take-away menu on your Google profile and social pages, and in the bag where your agreement with the app allows. A take-away order by phone or message carries no commission.

This week: work out what your five best delivery sellers earn after commission and packaging.

QR codes were Nepal's most widely used digital payment instrument in 2024/25, Nepal Rastra Bank's latest payment systems report says: the number of QR transactions grew by 92.5% that year, and about 2.9 million merchants had a QR code (Himal Press, 2026). In the month to mid-June 2026, QR payments passed 59.26 million transactions worth more than Rs 162 billion; in the same period of 2020/21 they came to about Rs 2.5 billion (Kathmandu Post, 2026).

Make paying easy. Put a QR code on every table or bill folder and at the counter, keep taking cash, and make sure staff can split a bill quickly. Check that each payment has arrived on your own phone or merchant app before the guest leaves, and don't accept a screenshot as proof.

This week: check that every table has a working QR code, and that the phone getting payment alerts stays at the counter.

Regulars come on quiet days and bring their friends. Learn their names and usual orders, and greet them by name. A simple stamp card, such as the tenth coffee free, costs little and gives a reason to return; one Kathmandu food business told Business 360 it plans loyalty programmes and direct online ordering to deepen its customer relationships (2025). Give people a reason to come on slow days: a quiz or live music night, a match on a big screen, a happy hour on snacks and drinks in your quietest hours, or a family set on Saturdays. Check your local rules on closing times and noise first, and send offers by Viber or WhatsApp only to guests who ask for them.

Then keep score. Five numbers tell you most of what you need, and they take a few minutes a day from your bills and purchase slips: