The Rush
At peak, whoever answers the phone is also on the register or expo. Calls ring out right when guests want to order.
TARA answers every call to your restaurant, 24/7. She answers questions, takes orders straight into your POS, and hands callers to your team when they need a person. No busy signals, no voicemail, no commissions.
Guests call at the same moments your team is slammed. Every call that rings out is a guest who orders somewhere else.
At peak, whoever answers the phone is also on the register or expo. Calls ring out right when guests want to order.
Guests call before you open and after you close to ask about hours, catering or tomorrow's order. Nobody's there to pick up.
A voicemail captures a message, not an order. By the time someone calls back, the guest has eaten.
Hours, location, parking, the menu, “are you open on Sunday?” Your team answers them all day instead of serving guests in the building.
Generic answering services take a message. TARA knows your menu, your hours and your locations, and finishes the call.
Every call is answered on the first ring in your restaurant's name, with your greeting, even when ten guests call at once.
Questions get answered from your FAQs. Orders are built from your menu, with an add-on suggested along the way.
Orders go straight into your POS like any other ticket, and the guest gets a text confirming the details.
Every call is transcribed and tagged in your dashboard: orders, complaints, catering, refunds and more.
Most restaurants handle the phone with voicemail, an outsourced call center, or another person on shift. Here's how they compare.
| What matters | HeyTARA | Voicemail | Call center | Extra staff |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Answers at peak | ✓ Every call, at once | ✗ Rings out | ~ Hold times | ~ One call at a time |
| After hours | ✓ 24/7 | ~ Takes a message | ✓ Yes | ✗ No |
| Takes the order | ✓ Straight into your POS | ✗ No | ~ Re-keyed by hand | ✓ Yes |
| Knows your menu | ✓ Synced from your POS | ✗ No | ~ Reads a script | ✓ Once trained |
| Cost | ✓ Flat, from $99/mo | ~ Free, but loses orders | ~ Per agent or minute | ~ Hourly wages |
Full comparisons: vs. voicemail ·
vs. call centers ·
vs. hiring ·
vs. other AI ·
vs. Loman AI ·
vs. Slang AI
Choosing a vendor? Read the restaurant AI phone agent buyer's guide.
Every plan includes unlimited calls and no commissions. We handle the setup.
TARA answers every call, handles your FAQs, transfers guests who ask for a person, and texts callers a link to your online ordering site.
Adds phone ordering into your POS (NCR Aloha, Square, Olo/Omnivore), upselling, Spanish, warm handoffs, reservations, payments by text and call transcripts.
For multi-unit groups: a multi-location dashboard, custom branded voice, help-desk workflows and custom integrations, managed by our team.
It's an AI agent that picks up your restaurant's phone line and handles calls the way a trained host would: answering questions about hours, location and the menu, taking orders, handling reservation and catering calls, and transferring callers to your team when they need a person. HeyTARA's agent, TARA, is built specifically for restaurants and answers every call, 24/7.
No. There's no "press 1 for hours." Guests just talk, and TARA understands natural conversation, including combos, substitutions and pickup times. She answers from your own FAQ documents and menu, which you can edit anytime in the dashboard.
Yes. On the Main Course plan, TARA takes takeout orders by phone and sends them straight into your POS. HeyTARA connects to Toast, Clover, Square, SpotOn, NCR Aloha, SkyTab and any POS that uses Olo, with real-time menu sync, and can text guests a secure payment link. On the Starter plan, TARA texts guests a link to your online ordering site instead.
TARA transfers the call to your team. On the Main Course plan, she briefs your team member on why the guest is calling before connecting them, and smart routing can send calls to managers, district managers or a specific store.
As many as come in. TARA handles unlimited calls at the same time with no monthly call caps, so guests never hear a busy signal, even during the dinner rush.
Yes. TARA answers around the clock, including after hours, holidays and peak rushes, and recognizes holiday orders so she can route them to your seasonal menu.
Yes. You choose the agent's name, greeting and terminology, so callers hear your brand, not ours. Repeat spam callers are blocked automatically.
HeyTARA's Starter plan is $99 per month and Main Course, which adds phone ordering, POS integration and upselling, is $199 per month. Both include unlimited calls and charge no commissions on orders. Multi-unit groups can build a custom Chef's Special plan.
Yes. On the Main Course plan, TARA understands and responds to callers in Spanish.
See how TARA works for quick service, pizza and fast casual, or estimate your missed-call revenue with the ROI Calculator.
Book a 30-minute demo and hear TARA take a real call using your menu.