Restaurant Feedback Form: 40 Questions, QR Codes and Timing

A good restaurant feedback form asks guests to rate the food, the service, the atmosphere and the value, asks how they dined (dine-in, takeout, delivery), and ends with one open question about what you could do better. At the table, keep it to five to eight questions behind a QR code; save longer surveys for email. Below are 40 questions to pick from, a short and a long version ready to copy, and practical advice on QR placement, timing and handling complaints.

The five questions every restaurant feedback form needs

If you only ask five things, ask these:

1. How did you dine with us today? (dine-in, takeout, delivery, event or private dining)
2. How was your food? (1-5 stars)
3. How was the service? (1-5 stars)
4. Overall, how was your visit? (1-5 stars)
5. What one thing could we have done better? (open text)

Visit type comes first because it changes what the other answers mean. A two-star service rating from a delivery guest is about the driver or the packaging, not your floor staff.

40 restaurant survey questions by category

Pick from each group based on what you want to improve. Don't use them all in one form.

Visit and context

1. How did you dine with us? (dine-in, takeout, delivery, catering, event)
2. What was the occasion? (everyday meal, business, celebration, date, family)
3. Which day and time did you visit? (useful if you run one form across all shifts)
4. How many people were in your party?
5. Is this your first visit?
6. How did you hear about us?

Food and drink

7. How was your food overall?
8. What did you order?
9. Was your food served at the right temperature?
10. How was the portion size? (too small, about right, too large)
11. How would you rate the presentation of your dish?
12. Did we meet your dietary needs? (yes, no, not applicable)
13. How would you rate the drinks?
14. Was there anything on the menu you wanted but we didn't offer?

Service

15. How was the service overall?
16. How long did you wait to be greeted or seated?
17. Was your order correct?
18. How would you rate the speed of service?
19. Was your server friendly and attentive?
20. Did staff know the menu well enough to answer your questions?
21. Did you get your bill when you wanted it?

Ambience and cleanliness

22. How was the atmosphere?
23. How clean was the dining area?
24. How clean were the restrooms?
25. How was the noise level? (too quiet, about right, too loud)
26. Was your table comfortable?
27. Was the temperature comfortable?

Value

28. How would you rate the value for money?
29. Were the prices what you expected?
30. Compared with similar restaurants nearby, are we better value, about the same, or worse?

Takeout and delivery

31. Did your order arrive on time?
32. Was everything in the order?
33. Was the food still at the right temperature?
34. Did the packaging hold up? (spills, soggy, crushed)
35. How easy was it to order?

Overall and loyalty

36. Overall, how was your visit?
37. How likely are you to recommend us to a friend? (0-10)
38. How likely are you to come back?
39. What did you enjoy most?
40. What could we have done better?

Finish with an optional "Would you like the manager to contact you?" and an email field that only shows if they say yes. That turns a complaint into a conversation instead of a public review.

Short vs long: two ready versions

	Table QR form	Email or loyalty survey
Where	QR on the table, bill folder or receipt	Email after a reservation or online order
Length	5-8 questions, under a minute	10-15 questions, two or three minutes
Focus	This visit: food, service, overall, one fix	Patterns: occasions, menu gaps, value, return intent
Best for	Catching problems while the guest is still there	Menu and pricing decisions

Short version (at the table):

1. How did you dine with us? (dine-in, takeout, delivery)
2. How was your food? (stars)
3. How was the service? (stars)
4. How was the atmosphere? (stars)
5. How was the value for money? (stars)
6. Overall, how was your visit? (stars)
7. What could we have done better? or What did you enjoy most? (depending on the score)
8. Would you like the manager to contact you? (yes/no, then email)

Long version (email): add the occasion, what they ordered, wait times, dietary needs, noise, price expectations, recommend (0-10), return intent and a menu-gap question.

Every question you add costs some responses, so keep each one only if someone will act on its answer.

Where to put the QR code

A QR code linking to the form is the easiest way to get feedback from dine-in guests, because they answer on their own phone while the meal is fresh.

• Bill folder or receipt. The best moment: the meal is over and they're waiting for the card machine.
• Table tent or sticker. Visible all meal, but guests may answer before dessert, so ask about the visit "so far" or put it on tables only at lunch when turnover is fast.
• Takeout bags and delivery packaging. A sticker or printed insert with a QR code reaches guests you never see.
• Counter or exit. Works for quick-service and cafes where there's no table service.

Print a short line next to the code that says how long it takes ("2 quick questions, 30 seconds") and what you'll do with it ("we read every one"). Make the code big enough to scan from a seat, with good contrast.

If you have several locations, give each its own link or tag the link so you can tell them apart (see the FlowyForm section below). Avoid printing a code that leads to a long URL you might change; once tents are printed, the link has to keep working.

When to ask

• Dine-in: at the end of the meal, when the bill arrives. Asking mid-meal interrupts; asking days later gets fewer and vaguer answers.
• Reservations: email the same evening or the next morning.
• Takeout and delivery: right after the order is delivered or collected. For delivery-specific questions (arrival time, condition, packaging), use a dedicated delivery feedback form.
• Events and private dining: within a day, to the organizer, with questions about planning and communication as well as food.

Run the form continuously rather than in occasional bursts. That's how you notice that Tuesday dinner service slipped after a staff change, or that a new dish isn't landing.

Handling complaints from the form

A low score on your own form is a gift: the guest told you instead of telling a review site. Handle it fast.

1. Watch for low scores daily. Have each response sent to a manager by email or a team Slack channel.
2. Reply within a day if they asked to be contacted. Thank them, apologize for the specific thing, and say what you'll change. Don't argue about whether the steak was really overcooked.
3. Offer something proportionate if it was a real failure: a replacement dish, a credit on the next visit. You don't need to compensate every mild complaint.
4. Log the theme, not just the incident. Five "cold food" comments in a week is a kitchen pass problem, not five unlucky tables. For serious complaints that need an order number, photos and a record of the fix, a separate complaint resolution form keeps the details together.
5. Tell staff what's coming in, including the praise. Named compliments for servers are good for morale.

On public reviews: it's tempting to ask only happy guests for a Google review and send unhappy ones to a private form. Google's contribution policy prohibits businesses from discouraging negative reviews or selectively soliciting positive ones (Google Maps prohibited and restricted content). If you invite reviews, invite everyone, and keep the private feedback form available to all guests too.

Turning answers into changes

• Compare food, service, atmosphere and value scores side by side. The lowest one is usually where to start.
• Read the open answers weekly and tag them (kitchen, floor, wait, price, noise, cleanliness).
• Break results down by visit type, shift and location if you capture them.
• Track one or two numbers over time, such as average overall rating and the share of 1-2 star visits, instead of watching every question.
• Close the loop publicly when you can: "You told us the patio was too loud, so we added..." on a menu card or social post.

For broader satisfaction surveys beyond the restaurant floor, see our guide to customer satisfaction survey questions and the feedback form templates hub.

How to do this in FlowyForm

The restaurant feedback form template already covers visit type, star ratings for food, service, atmosphere and value, what they ordered, an overall rating, follow-up questions based on that rating, and an optional manager callback.

1. Open the template and trim it. For a table QR form, keep the ratings, overall score and one open question. Edit wording to match your restaurant.
2. Branch on the overall score. Rules like "if overall rating is less than 3, go to What could we have done better?" and otherwise "What did you enjoy most?" keep the form short for happy guests and get detail from unhappy ones.
3. Download the QR code. Every form has a QR code you can download as PNG or SVG; SVG scales cleanly for table tents and posters.
4. Tag tables, locations or shifts. Add hidden fields to the link, for example ?location=downtown&table=12, and make one QR code per location (or per table if you want that detail). The values are stored with each response and you can use them in logic.
5. Get alerted. Turn on email notifications, or post each response to a Slack channel. Slack posts every response; if you only want alerts for low scores, send responses by webhook to Zapier, Make or n8n and filter there. Google Sheets gives you a running log to sort by location or date.
6. Match your brand. Use your colours, fonts, logo and a photo of the dining room as the background. Forms are designed for phones, which is where QR traffic comes from.

Two honest limits: FlowyForm doesn't run one form in several languages, so if you serve guests in two languages, make a copy per language with its own QR code. And it needs a connection to load and submit, which is fine on a guest's phone but means it isn't an offline tablet kiosk app.

FAQ

What questions should be on a restaurant feedback form?

Visit type, food, service, atmosphere and value ratings, an overall rating, and one open question about what to improve. Add what they ordered, dietary needs or wait times only if you'll act on them.

How many questions should a restaurant feedback form have?

Five to eight for a QR form at the table, which takes under a minute. Ten to fifteen is fine for an email survey sent after a reservation or online order.

Where should I put the QR code for restaurant feedback?

In the bill folder or on the receipt, since guests are waiting anyway and the meal is over. Table tents, takeout bags and the exit also work.

Should restaurant feedback forms be anonymous?

Make contact details optional. Guests answer more honestly when they don't have to identify themselves, and those who want a reply can leave an email.

Can I offer a discount for filling in the feedback form?

You can offer a small thank-you for completing your own feedback form. Don't tie incentives to leaving positive public reviews; review platforms generally don't allow it.

How do I collect feedback from delivery customers?

Put a QR code or link on the packaging or in the order confirmation, and ask delivery-specific questions: on time, complete, temperature and packaging. A separate delivery feedback form keeps those answers apart from dine-in.