Instagram is an incredibly powerful tool for restaurant marketing. The best restaurant Instagram accounts lean on quality photography, gorgeous food, and well-designed “sets” for photoshoots to build a vibe of their own. Some even develop a following purely based on aesthetic, bringing in customers on their looks alone. Whether you’re trying to build your own Instagram following or just see what the greats do, you’re in the right spot today.
Why Follow Restaurant Instagram Accounts?
The best restaurant Instagram accounts are a great way for those who are new to restaurant marketing and social media to see what works. While it won’t be easy to fully recreate what some of these pages do, it can give an idea on what may work for your business. Beyond inspiration, they can help inform you of new trends in the industry, provide ideas for new menu items, and more.
Discover New Food Trends
Food trends come and go as quickly as you can blink. While this can mean that some outlast others, being in the know of what’s popular can be a major advantage both for your restaurant and social media account(s). Even if you’re not going to try to recreate the newest fad dessert, it’s entirely reasonable to take inspiration and try to make something different (if not outright better).
Beyond that, though, being up to date on food trends allows you to interact with a community of foodies that spans farther than your local scene may normally allow. People from all corners of the globe love food and, if you’re able to relate to some of them, you can build your following. This, in turn, gives you the opportunity to highlight your own cool concepts and eventually take advantage of your own growing following.
Gain Visual Inspiration for Your Own Social Media
Art is almost entirely subjective, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t take the time to find inspiration in what others do well. Whether that comes in the form of food, decoration, setpieces, or the general vibe of the account, don’t be afraid to pick and choose things that you like.
Take advantage of visual examples of what you’d like to do and use them to create something that’s entirely your own. This is also incredibly helpful for restauranteurs that are new to running a social media account, as it gives them clear examples of what works and what doesn’t.
Stay Updated on Restaurant Industry Innovations
Our industry is always changing. Trends come and go, technology constantly advances, and new techniques are developed every day. While you can certainly take the old-school approach of books and time spent with talented chefs, social media is a great tool for learning. You quite literally have the world at your fingertips with Instagram, so why ignore it?
Some of the best restaurant social media accounts don’t just highlight their food, but the people who make it. And when they do this, you’ll often get a glimpse into the world that these chefs have built for themselves — techniques and all. While you may not get to see how every technique or piece of tech works, knowing that they exist is often enough to begin the path of learning it yourself.
What Makes a Great Restaurant Instagram Account?
We all know that Instagram is a primarily visual medium, but there’s more to running the best restaurant social media than pretty pictures. You’ll need to develop your own look, feel, and following in order to create something truly special. Let’s take a look at how.
Engaging Visual Content
First things first, Instagram relies very heavily on visuals. Whether this comes in the form of graphics, videos, or photos, you’ll need to have something to catch the eye of potential followers. We’ll break down how to build your own look and feel shortly, but it all starts with photography.
Because of this, you’ll likely want to either hire a professional photographer/Instagram manager or get brushed up on your food photography skills. Proper composition and editing alone can make for an incredibly engaging and enjoyable Instagram account — but that’s not all that you’ll need.
Consistent Branding and Aesthetic
Branding is the name of the game on Instagram. The best restaurant Instagram accounts have built a very specific brand and look for themselves and do their damndest to lean into it with every post. We’ll take a look at a few specific examples in a little bit, but in the meantime, think about what makes your restaurant unique.
Does your food stand out visually? Is your location unique? Is the ambiance that you’ve created something that would translate well on a camera? Each of these (or all of them) can help you narrow down what your restaurant’s brand and aesthetic are — but none of that matters if people can’t find your account.
Effective Use of Hashtags and Location Tags
The best restaurant social media accounts are extremely tuned into the world of Instagram and social media. They understand how the platforms work, what helps get eyes on posts, and they take the time to tailor each post to those trends. More importantly, though, they make good use of hashtags and location tags.
Hashtags are one of the major ways that Instagram sorts content. Just like Google uses keywords, Instagram searches hashtags to help find content that it thinks will be relevant to you. By researching hashtags that are relevant to you and tagging your location, you’re able to bring in eyes that are close to you and that are interested in your type of content. In other words, learn your hashtags and stick by them.
Interaction with Followers
Once you’ve put the work in to build your following, it’s time to take advantage of it. And by that, we mean that it’s time to interact with them! The best restaurant Instagram accounts understand that interaction on posts helps boost visibility and, importantly, helps their followers to feel more connected to their brand.
Your Instagram should be no different. It doesn’t matter if you have one person commenting or ten thousand, you should take your time to respond to comments. While that’s not to say that you need to answer every comment, you should be aware of the fact that interaction is the lifeblood of social media.
Top 10 Best Restaurant Instagram Accounts
With that out of the way, it’s time to look at some of the greats — let’s dive in and find the best restaurant Instagram accounts out there.
Menagerie (@menagerie_restaurant)
Menagerie is a Manchester-based restaurant that understands how to highlight a unique aesthetic. While they generally don’t post images of their food, they highlight the bright vibe that they’ve built in an excellent way.
Bad Roman (@badromannyc)
New York-based Bad Roman is well known for their bright, in-your-face aesthetic, and they’ve taken that theme and run with it on Instagram. Their posts consist of bright images, charming moments, and more recently, a collaboration with Altoids. In short, should you take anything from them, it’s how to build an aesthetic that reflects your restaurant.
Alfred (@alfred)
Alfred is a Los Angeles-based restaurant with a wide range of posts that capture precisely what a trendy Instagram account should. From memes to restaurant collaborations with a sneaker company, they’ve found a niche and stick to it.
Venissa (@venissa_tenuta)
Venissa is a Michelin-starred Italian restaurant centered in Venice. They, like many accounts, have learned that the best restaurant social media often requires very little. That’s not to say that they don’t post much, but that their minimalistic style fits an aesthetic that many find approachable — and that’s precisely what we want from our social media.
Dill (@dillrestaurant)
Dill is an Icelandic Michelin-starred restaurant based out of Reykjavik. Their account consists of gorgeous shots of their city, the countryside surrounding it and, of course, their food. More importantly, though, it sticks to the concept of thoughtful food made by people who care more than most.
BaneGaarden (@banegaarden)
Based out of Copenhagen, Denmark, BaneGaarden is an incredibly stunning restaurant with an equally stunning Instagram account. Their account highlights the simplicity of their setup, the beauty of their location, and the incredible food that they make in equal parts. They make use of incredibly well-framed photos in tandem with the occasional drone footage to highlight the truly unique setting that they’ve built for themselves.
Ahime (@ahime_bologna)
Ahime is an account that I’ve personally followed for some time, though not for the reason that you may think. While their food is stunning and the photography on their Instagram unrivaled, what keeps me (and many of their followers) around is the content that they create that’s not centered around food. They highlight simple moments between guests, chefs, and servers alike, helping to remind us that food is about more than sustenance; it’s about the beauty of community.
Crumble (@crumblcookies)
Crumbl has gained popularity over the years thanks to their ever-changing menu of (massive) cookies. While their Instagram is notably pink and bright, their best tactic so far has been their weekly post announcing their new flavors. It’s simple, communicates what their customers want to know, and helps bring in engagement on a regular basis.
White Castle (@whitecastle)
In contrast with many of the accounts in this list, White Castle invests most of its energy into user generated content. In other words, they primarily share and use content that’s created by their followers! Ranging from photos of family outings to collaborations with other brands, they’ve formed something of an online burger-loving community, and it’s worked wonders for them.
Wendy’s (@wendys)
Anyone that’s ever gone on Twitter (we’re still not calling it X) knows that Wendy’s is occasionally out of control on social media. They’ve built a name for being unhinged, almost verging on the lines of a parody account — and it’s worked wonders for them. From starting beef (pun certainly intended) with other large brands to throwing shade at random followers, Wendy’s has taken the phrase “out for blood” as the guiding light to their brand.
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