The Best Domain Names for Hospitality & Food Services
Running a restaurant, café, pub, or catering business in London? Your domain name needs to make people hungry, thirsty, or both. It should tell them what you serve, where you are, and why they should choose you over the place next door. Here’s what actually works.
Why Your Domain Matters in the Food Business
Here’s the thing about hospitality: people make decisions fast. Someone’s walking down the street, Googling “pizza near me” or “best coffee Shoreditch,” and they’ve got about three seconds to decide if your place is worth visiting.
Your domain is part of that decision. authenticitaly.restaurant tells them exactly what you do. londonfoodservices247.com tells them nothing except you probably registered your domain in a panic at 2am.
We’ve been doing this since the early 2000s, hosting websites for restaurants, cafés, and caterers across London. The ones that succeed have domains that are clear, memorable, and make you want to book a table. That’s it.
The Best Domain Extensions for Restaurants
.restaurant
Perfect for: Any restaurant, from fine dining to casual eateries
This is the most straightforward domain you can get for a restaurant. When someone sees yourname.restaurant, there’s zero confusion. You’re not a café. You’re not a takeaway. You’re a proper sit-down restaurant.
It works particularly well if you’re a new restaurant trying to establish yourself. The domain extension immediately legitimizes you.
Real example: italian.restaurant or shoreditch.restaurant
.pizza
Perfect for: Pizzerias, Italian restaurants specializing in pizza
If pizza is your thing, this extension is brilliant. It’s specific, it’s memorable, and it immediately tells people what you serve. Plus, everyone loves pizza, so the domain itself is appealing.
It’s also great for SEO. When someone searches “pizza Hackney,” having .pizza in your domain doesn’t hurt.
Real example: authentic.pizza or woodfired.pizza
.menu
Perfect for: Any restaurant, especially if you want to highlight your menu online
This is clever because it works as both a domain and a call to action. yourrestaurant.menu suggests people can view your menu online, which is exactly what they want to do before deciding where to eat.
Real example: italian.menu or vegan.menu
Domain Extensions for Cafés and Coffee Shops
.cafe
Perfect for: Cafés, coffee shops, brunch spots
Simple, clear, and it works. If you run a café, this extension immediately tells people what you are. It’s particularly good for independent cafés competing against the big chains.
Note: It’s .cafe not .café (without the accent), which is slightly annoying but that’s how domain names work.
Real example: corner.cafe or organic.cafe
.coffee
Perfect for: Coffee shops, coffee roasters, specialty coffee places
London’s coffee scene is massive. If you’re serious about coffee—specialty beans, proper equipment, trained baristas—this extension positions you as a coffee specialist, not just a café that happens to serve coffee.
Real example: speciality.coffee or londonroast.coffee
Domain Extensions for Pubs and Bars
.pub
Perfect for: Traditional pubs, gastropubs, pub restaurants
This is perfect for London pubs. It’s quintessentially British, and it immediately tells people what you are. Works brilliantly for traditional pubs, gastropubs, or anywhere that serves food and drinks in a pub setting.
Real example: thekings.pub or corner.pub
.bar
Perfect for: Cocktail bars, wine bars, any bar that’s not a traditional pub
If you’re more cocktail bar than traditional pub, .bar works better than .pub. It suggests something a bit more upmarket or specialized.
Real example: cocktail.bar or wine.bar
.beer
Perfect for: Craft beer pubs, beer gardens, brewpubs
Craft beer is huge in London. If beer is your specialty—craft beers, local breweries, beer tastings—this extension immediately connects with beer enthusiasts.
Real example: craft.beer or local.beer
.wine
Perfect for: Wine bars, wine merchants with tasting rooms
If wine is your focus, this extension positions you as a specialist. It works for wine bars, wine shops with tasting areas, or restaurants with serious wine programs.
Real example: natural.wine or italian.wine
Domain Extensions for Catering and Food Services
.catering
Perfect for: Catering companies, event caterers, corporate catering
If you do catering, this is the most specific domain you can get. It immediately tells potential clients what you do, which is exactly what you want when someone’s searching for “wedding caterers London.”
Real example: events.catering or corporate.catering
.kitchen
Perfect for: Ghost kitchens, delivery-only restaurants, catering kitchens
This works well for modern food businesses that don’t have a traditional restaurant front. Ghost kitchens, delivery-only operations, or catering companies operating from commercial kitchens.
Real example: delivery.kitchen or ghost.kitchen
Specialty Food Domain Extensions
.cooking
Perfect for: Cooking classes, chef services, recipe sites that sell products
If you teach cooking, offer private chef services, or run a food business that’s about the cooking process, this extension works well.
Real example: italian.cooking or classes.cooking
.recipes
Perfect for: Food blogs that sell products, meal kit services, recipe subscription services
This is more niche, but if your business model involves recipes—meal kits, recipe subscriptions, food blogs with product sales—it can work well.
Real example: quick.recipes or vegan.recipes
Should You Still Use .com or .co.uk?
The .com and .co.uk aren’t bad. They’re familiar, people trust them, and .co.uk is cheap. But here’s the problem: all the good ones are taken.
If your restaurant is called “The Italian Kitchen,” good luck finding theitaliankitchen.com available. You’ll end up with theitaliankitchenlondon.com or theitaliankitchenrestaurant.co.uk, which is too long and nobody will remember it.
Meanwhile, italiankitchen.restaurant is probably available, shorter, and actually tells people what you do.
Our advice: Use a hospitality-specific extension as your main domain, but also register the .co.uk version if it’s available. Redirect it to your main site. That way you catch people who type .co.uk out of habit.
Budget Options That Still Work
Not every hospitality business has money to spend on premium domains. Here are some alternatives:
.food – Generic but clear. Works for any food business.
.eat – Short and memorable. Good for casual dining.
.place – Broad but works for restaurants, cafés, or any hospitality venue.
.house – Works well for steakhouses, alehouses, or any “house” style name.
.london – Perfect if you want to emphasize your London location.
Common Mistakes Hospitality Businesses Make
Mistake 1: Making it too complicated
I’ve seen domains like the-authentic-italian-restaurant-london.com. By the time someone’s typed that into their phone while walking down the street, they’ve already walked past your restaurant.
Keep it short. Two words maximum if you can.
Mistake 2: Using “the” at the start
Your restaurant might be called “The Corner Café,” but your domain shouldn’t be thecornercafe.com. It’s awkward to say and people will forget the “the” anyway.
Just use corner.cafe. It’s cleaner and easier to remember.
Mistake 3: Not thinking about pronunciation
Can you tell someone your domain over the phone without spelling it? If you’re called “Café Noir,” is your domain cafenoir.restaurant or cafe-noir.restaurant?
Test it. Say it out loud to someone and see if they can spell it correctly.
Mistake 4: Forgetting about delivery platforms
If you’re on Deliveroo, Uber Eats, or Just Eat, your domain should match your name on those platforms. If people see you on Deliveroo as “Mario’s Pizza” but your domain is mariospizzeria.com, you’re confusing them.
Consistency across all platforms matters.
Mistake 5: Not considering your neighborhood
Most hospitality businesses serve a local area. If you’re in Shoreditch, shoreditch.pizza or shoreditchcafe.coffee works better for local SEO than just marios.pizza.
People search by location. Use it.
How to Choose Your Hospitality Domain (Quick Exercise)
Step 1: What do you serve? Pizza? Coffee? Cocktails? Write it down.
Step 2: What’s your neighborhood or your unique angle? Shoreditch? Organic? Authentic Italian?
Step 3: Combine them. shoreditch.pizza or organic.cafe
Step 4: Check availability. If it’s taken, try variations. shoreditchpizza.restaurant or organicfood.cafe
Step 5: Say it out loud. Can you tell someone at a party without spelling it? If yes, you’re done.
Real Examples That Work
I can’t share actual client domains, but here’s what works in practice:
Instead of: theauthenticitalianrestaurantlondon.com
Try: authentic.restaurant or italian.pizza
Instead of: specialtycoffeeshopshoreditch.co.uk
Try: shoreditch.coffee or speciality.cafe
Instead of: craftbeerbareastlondon.com
Try: craftlondon.beer or eastlondon.bar
Instead of: weddingcateringserviceslondon.com
Try: wedding.catering or events.catering
See the pattern? Shorter, clearer, more specific.
Why Register With Us?
We’m not going to give you a sales pitch. Here’s the actual difference:
We’re cheaper: Significantly less than the big registrars on UK domains.
We actually help: When you need to set up email, connect your domain to your booking system, or sort out DNS settings, we’ll walk you through it. No ticket systems, no three-day waits.
We’re local: London-based servers, UK support, green energy hosting.
No nonsense: You want a domain? Here’s a domain. We won’t try to upsell you on website builders or “premium” features you don’t need.
Setting Up Your Hospitality Domain
Once you’ve registered your domain, here’s what happens next:
Day 1: Point your domain to your website. Whether you’re using WordPress, Squarespace, or a custom site, we’ll help you connect it.
Week 1: Set up professional email. bookings@yourrestaurant.pizza looks infinitely better than yourrestaurant123@gmail.com when customers want to make reservations.
Week 2: Update everything. Menus, business cards, Instagram bio, Facebook page, Google Business Profile, table tent cards. Everywhere your old domain appears, update it.
Week 3: Set up redirects from any old domains. We’ll help with this so you don’t lose traffic from people who bookmarked your old site.
Questions Hospitality Businesses Ask
“Will this work with my booking system?”
Yes. Whether you’re using OpenTable, ResDiary, or something else, your domain will work with it. We’ll help you connect everything properly.
“What about Google Maps and reviews?”
Your domain and your Google Business Profile are separate things, but they should match. If your domain is corner.cafe, your Google Business listing should be “Corner Café” not “The Corner Café London Ltd.”
“Do I need a website or can I just use social media?”
You need a website. Instagram and Facebook are great, but they’re not yours—the platforms control them. Your website is yours. Plus, you need a proper domain for professional email, which you definitely need.
“Can I change my domain later?”
Yes, but it’s annoying. You’ll have to update all your marketing, tell all your customers, and you might lose some Google rankings. Better to get it right now.
“What if I want to open more locations later?”
Think about this now. If you’re shoreditch.pizza and you open in Camden, that domain doesn’t work anymore. Consider yourname.pizza instead, or register multiple domains—one for each location.
Right, What Now?
Stop overthinking it. Here’s your action plan:
Pick 3-5 domain options based on what you serve
Check if they’re available (we can help with this)
Register your favorite one
Connect it to your website and booking system
Set up professional email
Update all your marketing materials
That’s it. Your restaurant, café, or bar now has a domain that actually tells people what you do.
If you need help choosing or you’re not sure which extension works best for your specific business, just ask. We’ve been setting up domains for London hospitality businesses since the early 2000s. We’ll tell you what works.
No pressure, no upselling, just honest advice from someone who’s been doing this longer than most restaurants stay open.
