FoodPerfect / Best time to post for restaurants
Best Time to Post for Restaurants
The best time to post for restaurants is just before people decide where to eat. Below is the exact table FoodPerfect’s planner uses to schedule posts for restaurants, cafés, bars and quick-service places, by platform, in each brand’s local time.
| Type of place | Weekday post | Weekday reel | Weekend post | Weekend reel |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Café or bakery | 7:30 am | 11:30 am | 9:00 am | 10:30 am |
| Restaurant | 11:30 am | 5:30 pm | 10:30 am | 5:00 pm |
| Bar or pub | 4:30 pm | 8:00 pm | 3:00 pm | 8:30 pm |
| Quick service or food truck | 11:00 am | 6:00 pm | 12:00 pm | 7:00 pm |
Why these times
- Restaurants: feed posts late morning, when people pick lunch; reels late afternoon, when they pick dinner; weekend posts at brunch time.
- Cafés and bakeries: early posts for the morning coffee run, reels before lunch.
- Bars: late afternoon for after-work plans, reels in the evening.
- Quick service: just before the lunch and dinner rushes.
Watch: the times FoodPerfect schedules at
The recommended times for your type of place, and a month scheduled at them.
Other platforms
TikTok, YouTube and Snapchat use the same post times, but reels go out an hour after the reel time above, never later than 9:30 pm:
| Type of place | Weekday reel | Weekend reel |
|---|---|---|
| Café or bakery | 12:30 pm | 11:30 am |
| Restaurant | 6:30 pm | 6:00 pm |
| Bar or pub | 9:00 pm | 9:30 pm |
| Quick service or food truck | 7:00 pm | 8:00 pm |
LinkedIn and Google Business Profile follow office hours for every type of place: weekday posts at 8:30 am, weekday videos at noon, weekend posts at 10:00 am.
Pinterest is for planning where to eat: weekdays 8:00 pm (pins) and 8:30 pm (videos), weekends 2:00 pm and 3:00 pm.
Two posts on one platform on the same day? The second goes 2.5 hours after the first, never after 10:30 pm.
Where these times come from
These are FoodPerfect’s starting defaults, based on restaurant-industry research and on when people decide where to eat. They are not measured on your account, and we haven’t run our own study. Any table is a starting point: after a few weeks, check your Instagram and Facebook insights and move posts to when your followers are online.
FoodPerfect picks the type of place from your brand profile. Words like bar, pub, cocktail, wine, brewery or lounge mean bar; café, coffee, bakery, patisserie, brunch or donuts mean café; burgers, pizza, takeaway, delivery, food truck or street food mean quick service. Everything else is a restaurant. Times follow your brand’s time zone, including daylight saving.
Let FoodPerfect post at these times
FoodPerfect plans the month, makes the photos, reels and captions, and puts each post in the calendar at the recommended time for your type of place and platform. Move any post by dragging it. See social media management for restaurants, or the pages for cafés, bakeries, food trucks and bars.
Questions
What is the best time to post on Instagram for restaurants?
FoodPerfect schedules restaurant feed posts at 11:30 am on weekdays, as people choose lunch, and reels at 5:30 pm, as they choose dinner. At weekends: 10:30 am and 5:00 pm. Cafés, bars and quick-service places get their own times (table above).
What is the best time to post on Facebook for restaurants?
The same as Instagram in FoodPerfect’s table: it depends on the type of place, not on the platform.
What is the best day to post?
The table only separates weekdays from the weekend. Post on the days you have something to say, and keep a steady rhythm.
Are these times based on my own followers?
No. They are starting defaults for your type of place. Check when your followers are online in Instagram or Facebook insights, and move posts if your audience differs.
Post at the right time, automatically
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