Guest engagement for independent restaurants

Turn tonight's guests into next month's regulars.

Kudello texts your guests after they dine, collects their praise, posts it where the world can see it, and quietly invites them back when they've been away too long. One subscription. No enterprise anything.

Try it free Get a demo

Built by a restaurant owner. Running live in Brooklyn every night.
Start in practice mode — explore everything, and nothing texts anyone until you connect a number.

Sarah · guest since March

Thanks for dining with us tonight, Sarah! How was everything? Tap to tell us → kudello.com/r/x8f2

★★★★★ Everything was amazing!!

That made our night. Would you share it with the neighborhood? One tap → g.page/review

★ New 5-star Google review from Sarah M.

The platform

Four tools other companies sell separately. One subscription.

Two-way texting

Keep the number your guests already know — Kudello works with your existing phone line — or we'll set up a fresh local one. Guests text it, you answer from a simple inbox on your phone. No app for them to download, ever.

Review campaigns

Every guest gets a friendly post-visit text. Happy guests get a one-tap path to Google. Concerns come straight to you first, in private, instantly.

Win-back & promos

Kudello watches your POS. When a regular goes quiet for 60 days, they get a warm "we miss you" — automatically, with your offer attached.

Reservations

A clean booking page plus SMS confirmations, reminders, and cancel-by-reply. Replace the booking tool you pay for — or keep it and let Kudello read from it.

Missed-call text-back on any phone line VIP auto-tagging by lifetime spend Instant alerts on unhappy feedback Daily sales digest TCPA-safe out of the box

How it works

Plug in your POS. Kudello does the remembering.

Reviews, one guest at a time

Kudello syncs with your point of sale, spots tonight's diners, and sends each one a short, polite text — never more than one review ask per guest, ever. Requests drip out in small batches during business hours, so your number stays trusted with carriers and your guests never feel spammed.

One review request per guest, per lifetime
Daily caps and business-hours sending, enforced automatically
Click tracking so you know exactly which texts became Google reviews
A staff leaderboard that shows who's earning the praise

Hi Marcus! It was great having you at dinner Tuesday. Mind sharing how we did? kudello.com/r/k3n9

Done! Best lamb in Brooklyn 😻

★ Review posted · staff leaderboard updated: Dina +1

Regulars don't disappear on your watch

Every closed check updates a guest's story: what they spent, when they last came, whether they're becoming a VIP. When someone who used to come twice a month goes quiet, Kudello notices before you would — and sends the kind of message that fills a Tuesday.

Powered by live POS data, not a stale spreadsheet
Automatic VIP tagging when lifetime spend crosses your threshold
Win-back pauses itself the moment a guest orders again
Delivery-app relay numbers filtered out, so texts reach real guests

Guest quiet 60 days · win-back queued

We miss you at the restaurant, Alex! Come back this week and dessert is on us. Just show this text.

Ha! Ok you got me. Table for 2 on Friday?

Never lose the caller you couldn't answer

Dinner rush, phone rings, nobody free. With Kudello's missed-call text-back, any call you can't take gets an instant, friendly text from your number — with a booking link — while the craving is still hot. Works with the phone line you already have, on any carrier.

No new hardware, no phone-company projects
Different messages for open hours and after close
Repeat callers flagged to the owner automatically

Missed call · 7:42 PM · Friday rush

Sorry we missed you — it's packed in here tonight! Want a table? Book in 10 seconds: kudello.com/book

Booked for 8:30. See you soon

Your side of the screen

Everything above lands in one calm inbox.

Run it from your pocket, between tables

Guests get texts; you get a simple dashboard on your phone. Replies wait in an inbox with unread badges, saved customers get a trophy the moment a make-it-right works, and every Monday a plain-words digest tells you what last week earned. No back office, no laptop, no training day.

Every guest conversation in one inbox, answerable in two taps
🏆 alerts when an unhappy guest comes back — a save you can count
Home screen stats: reviews, win-backs, and the dollars behind them
Try all of it free in practice mode — nothing sends until you connect a number

Open the app — it's free to try

Demo BistroLIVE

12reviews this month

3guests won back

$1,840tracked return visits

Sarah M.

★★★★★ Everything was amazing!!

🏆 Guest saved — Marcus R.

Came back 11 days after a make-it-right

Alex R.

Ha! Ok you got me. Table for 2 on Friday?

Our story

Kudello wasn't founded. It was cooked.

Kudello started as one restaurant owner's fix for his own dining room: Samarkand Nights in Brooklyn needed more reviews, fewer no-shows, and a way to bring back the regulars who drifted. The software that now powers Kudello has been running that restaurant's guest list live — every reservation, every review request, every win-back text — before a single line of it was offered to anyone else.

“I built this because I needed it. Every restaurant owner I know needs it too — they just don't have time to duct-tape it together like I did.”

— Chaim Lebowits, founder of Kudello · owner, Samarkand Nights, Brooklyn

Pricing

One plan. Everything in it.

Lock in your rate for life

★★★★★

The whole platform, per location

$99/month per location

Or $1,089/year — one month free. Texting · reviews · win-back · reservations · missed-call text-back — all included, less than comping one table a month. No contracts, no per-text surprises. Early restaurants lock in their rate for life.

Start with 30 days free. Card up front, nothing charged until day 31, cancel anytime before then and it never is. Practice mode — the whole app with pretend guests — stays free forever.

Start your free 30 days Get a demo

Questions, answered

The things owners ask us first

Do my guests need to download anything?

No. Everything happens over regular text messages and one-tap web links. If your guest can text their cousin, they can use Kudello without knowing it exists.

Does it work with my POS?

Kudello is built to connect to Toast first, with more point-of-sale systems on the way. If you're on a different POS, tell us on the demo call — you can still use reservations, texting, review links, and missed-call text-back without a POS connection.

Do I have to change my phone number?

No — and this matters more than most companies admit. Kudello can text from the business number your guests already know and call, so nothing on your menus, your Google listing, or your window decal has to change. Don't have a textable line? We'll set up a fresh local number for you instead. Either way, guests just text the restaurant — not some stranger's short code.

Is the texting legal and carrier-compliant?

Yes — and this is something we obsess over. Kudello registers your restaurant's number properly with US carriers, honors opt-outs instantly (guests can text STOP at any time), respects quiet hours, caps daily sends, and never asks the same guest for a review twice. Compliance isn't your job; it's built in.

I already pay for a reservation system. Do I have to switch?

No. Kudello's reservation system can replace what you're paying for — that's usually an instant saving — but if you'd rather keep your current tool, Kudello can work alongside it and focus on reviews, texting, and win-back.

How long does setup take?

Most restaurants are live within days. You fill out one short form about your business, we provision your texting number and connect your POS, and you approve your message templates. Your part takes about twenty minutes.

How is Kudello different from Ovation?

Ovation is a strong product aimed at multi-unit and enterprise chains. Kudello is built for the independent: one subscription that bundles what independents actually need — reviews, two-way texting, win-back, and a reservation system — at a price that makes sense for a single location, from a founder who runs one.

Get a demo

See it on your own restaurant

Fifteen minutes, on a video call or at the pass. We'll show you the guest's side and the owner's side. Prefer to poke around alone first? Start free in practice mode — no card, and nothing texts anyone until you connect a number.