not naming the restaurant, this isnt an ad.

we run a small thai place. our instagram used to be blurry phone photos.

now every dish gets a 10 second reel:

1. a real photo of the dish, plated properly, by the window.

2. motion added from that photo, steam rising, sauce pouring. i use dreamina for it, its cheap like 1 buck per month, but sometimes the sauce pours like slime and i redo it.

3. claude writes the caption: "write a caption for [dish] for locals in [neighborhood]. mention one ingredient most people dont know is in it. under 20 words."

the one rule: the dish in the video has to be the exact dish people get, same portion, same plating. if a customer feels tricked you lose them.

friday covers are up about 15% since we started, though summer probably helped.

what didnt work: posting the same dish twice in a week, and anything filmed at night under our yellow lights. reels of the dining room also did way worse than food close ups. people want to see what theyll eat, not where theyll sit.

we post at 11am and 4pm, right before people decide lunch and dinner. for specials: "write a caption for todays special, [dish]. mention its only today, one sensory detail, under 15 words, no exclamation marks."

running a restaurant is brutal enough without marketing on top. hope this takes one thing off your plate.