Japanese restaurant website design for KIBOU

KIBOU began in Cheltenham as a small basement restaurant with seating for just 24 guests. Founded in 2013, it was one of the few Japanese restaurants operating in the Cotswolds — and it didn’t take long before the team set their sights on new locations.

By 2022, KIBOU had restaurants in Cheltenham, Battersea, Clifton and Solihull. Each venue has its own character, but all share the same KIBOU experience and love for Japanese food and drink.

With a growing portfolio across the UK, KIBOU needed a website that could support expansion while better representing their brand. They also wanted a functional, informative site that makes it easy for customers to book tables and view menus online.

What sets KIBOU apart is its authentic food, genuine passion, and vibrant décor — centred around the striking illustrations of artist Martyna Sabadasz.

Ultimately, a restaurant website needs to drive action. Strong visuals matter, but if customers can’t quickly book a table or find the right menu, the site isn’t doing its job — so UX and functionality lead the process.

We take a mobile-first approach because a large share of restaurant traffic comes from phones, and designing for smaller screens first helps prioritise clarity, speed and accessibility. It also supports SEO indirectly by improving performance and usability (both of which influence visibility through Google’s mobile-first indexing and page experience signals).

CTA placement is mapped to real user journeys, so booking, menus and key location details are always easy to find without unnecessary scrolling or clicks.
Before moving into visual design, we used wireframes to define page structure and user flows, and mood boards to align on the look and feel — reducing guesswork and keeping decisions grounded as we move into design.

We build with technical performance, SEO and schema markup in mind — because even the best website won’t work if people can’t find it, or if it’s slow to load.

We also include the essentials every restaurant website needs. While menus are available as PDFs, we prefer to build on-page menus that are searchable by users and easy for the client to update. Customers can filter by location, dietary requirements and dish information (including calorie details where needed), making it quicker to find the right options.

To keep things streamlined, we integrate best-fit third-party systems where it makes sense. Table bookings run through DesignMyNight, and contact forms plus newsletter sign-up connect to AirShip (KIBOU’s hospitality CRM and marketing platform), keeping customer data in one place.
A strong Careers page is also a key requirement. With hospitality recruitment often challenging, we make sure it’s clear, eye-catching and easy to use.