Ask ChatGPT "where should we have a romantic dinner in Bangkok tonight?" and you do not get ten links. You get a short list, a sentence about each place and sometimes a booking link. For the restaurants on that list, it is free, high-intent traffic. For everyone else, the guest never hears your name.
This is what we call GEO, generative engine optimization: making sure AI assistants know your restaurant, understand what it is good for, and feel confident recommending it.
How an AI assistant chooses a restaurant
An assistant does not taste your food. It reads about you. Depending on the tool, it uses what it learned during training, what it finds in a live web search, or both. In practice, its answer is built from a few kinds of sources:
- Your own website: what you serve, where you are, when you are open, what occasions you suit.
- Your Google profile and other listings: TripAdvisor, Wongnai, Facebook, booking platforms.
- Guides and press: "best wine bars in Bangkok", "where to eat in Canggu", city magazines, food blogs.
- Reviews, and what people repeat about you in them.
When these sources agree, the assistant is confident and you get named. When they contradict each other, or say very little, it plays safe and names someone else.
AI assistants recommend the restaurants they can describe with confidence. Your job is to make that description easy, consistent and true everywhere.
Six things that make a restaurant easy to recommend
1. The same facts everywhere
Name, address, phone, opening hours and booking link should be identical on your website, Google profile, TripAdvisor, Instagram and every listing. We often find two phone numbers in circulation for the same venue, or old hours on one platform. To an assistant, that is doubt.
2. A menu that machines can read
A PDF or a photo of your menu tells an assistant almost nothing. A menu written as real text on your website, with dish names, sections and prices, tells it exactly what you serve. That is how you show up for "best crudo in Bali" and not only for your own name. More on this in why a PDF menu costs you guests.
3. Say clearly what you are good for
Assistants answer questions about occasions and moods: a birthday, a business lunch, a sunset, a date. If your website never says you have a private room, a terrace with a view or a sommelier, it cannot be repeated. Write it plainly, and add restaurant structured data so search engines read the same facts.
4. Be in the guides they read
Many AI answers lean on third-party "best of" lists and city guides. Being featured in respected local guides and press is one of the strongest signals you can earn. It takes outreach and something worth writing about, which most good restaurants already have. It is also where Novotize is strongest: we work directly with the media in Bangkok, Phuket and Bali (see press and media).
5. Answer the questions guests ask
A journal on your site that answers real questions, like where to celebrate New Year's Eve in your area or what to wear to dinner, gives assistants clear, quotable answers that mention you. This is what we publish every week for our clients.
6. Check what they actually say
Keep a fixed list of ten to twenty questions your guests would ask, and run them every month on ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude. For a first look, try our free AI visibility check. Note who gets named and why. It is the only honest way to know if your work is moving the answer.
What does not work
- Fake reviews. They break platform rules and usually read as fake to people and machines alike.
- Stuffing keywords into every sentence. Write for a guest, and be specific.
- Relying on one file. An llms.txt file is a useful summary for AI tools, but on its own it will not get you recommended.
Where to start this week
- Ask three AI assistants the question your ideal guest would ask. Write down who they name.
- Check that your name, phone, hours and booking link are the same on Google, your website and Instagram.
- Look at your menu on your phone. If it is a PDF, put it on your list.
If you would like us to do this properly, with the questions that matter for your venue and a clear list of fixes, ask for a free visibility audit.