Work the grill,we'll work the phone.

Yes. Zavo connects to the reservation system you already run — OpenTable, ResDiary, SevenRooms, or Tock for ticketed teppanyaki seatings — so it seats counters, tables, and sittings against your live availability and writes every booking straight back, with nothing to re-key. The diary your pass already trusts stays the single source of truth, and Zavo simply answers the calls you can't reach when the grill is full. If you run your counter and seatings your own way, it can still capture each booking in a clean, structured format and send it to a shared screen your team checks. Tell us how you take bookings and manage walk-ins now and we'll set it up around your service rather than asking a busy team to switch systems.

Yes — and it understands that these are different. Zavo reads your diary and seats covers against live availability, telling apart a counter stool that turns fast, a table, and a timed teppanyaki sitting that has to go out as a full group around the grill. It books each to the right rules, takes the party size and any preference, confirms by text, and writes the booking back instantly. It can move or cancel a booking, and reschedules update the diary in real time so a freed seat can be re-let. The booking calls that used to ring out while a chef would have had to leave the pass now get answered every time, so your counter and your sittings both fill from the phone rather than just the door.

Yes — for a ramen bar this is one of its most useful jobs. When the counter is full and someone rings or walks up, Zavo takes their name and party size, quotes an honest wait from how the counter is turning, and texts them when a stool frees up. It keeps the list in order and seats the queue as the counter clears, so a hungry walk-in stays with you instead of giving up and eating down the road. You set how it quotes waits and how long a seat is held once it's offered. The result is a queue that keeps moving on a busy night, managed calmly, even when every chef is on the pass and nobody could break off to handle the door.

Yes — these are the bookings Zavo is keenest to catch, because an izakaya sharing menu for ten, an office party, or a private-dining enquiry is high-spend and the easiest to lose to a missed call. For a big booking it takes the numbers and the date, talks the caller through your set or sharing menu, recommends from your sake and whisky list, and routes the enquiry to your manager with everything attached so you can confirm the detail. When you want a deposit to hold the table, it sends a secure link there and then. Because it answers at peak and after service, the group planning a celebration late in the evening is captured rather than lost — and winning more of these is, for most izakayas, one of the quickest paybacks.

Carefully, because a teppanyaki sitting only works if the group goes out together and full. Zavo books each seating to the count you set, so it fills a sitting to eight rather than letting it go out at four, and it won't oversell a slot the chef can't run. It takes the party size, confirms the sitting time clearly, and sends a reminder before the night, with a deposit held by secure link so a six-seat sitting doesn't collapse to a no-show. If a group wants a time you're already running full, it offers the nearest sitting that fits rather than squeezing them in. You keep control of the rules — how many seats per sitting, how tightly to schedule the grill, and what to do when a sitting is full.

Yes — and exactly what reaches a person is up to you. Zavo spots the bookings that warrant a human — a large izakaya group, a private-dining enquiry, a corporate teppanyaki night — and routes them to whoever you've named, with a short briefing on what was discussed. Ordinary counter and table bookings are simply seated, so your manager isn't interrupted mid-service for a two-top. You set the thresholds: the party size that rings through, what waits for a callback, and who handles which type of enquiry. A big group no longer sits in voicemail until someone checks after close — your nominated contact is flagged in seconds and can call back while the diner is still deciding where to book their celebration.

Yes. Because the host only relays what you've configured, it stays within your food-safety duties. Soy and gluten run through ramen broths and sauces, sesame appears in dressings, and shellfish hides in some stocks — so you tell Zavo the allergens recorded against each dish and it tells an allergic diner plainly which dishes are safe, never guessing an ingredient or claiming a dish is free of something it isn't. Anything that needs the chef's judgement is noted and handed to you. Every call is logged with a transcript, so you have a clean record of exactly what a diner was told, which matters for allergen compliance whether the booking is at the counter or a table. The agent works within the rules you set rather than relying on an answer over a noisy grill.

Yes. Calls are encrypted on the wire and in storage, access is gated and logged, and the host conveys only what you've configured. Diner names, numbers, and booking details are kept to enterprise standards and are never sold on or used to train third-party models. Where a deposit is taken to hold a teppanyaki or group seating, it runs through a secure payment link, so card details never pass over a busy booking call or sit on a pad by the counter. Every call keeps an audit trail, so meeting your data-protection duties and checking how a booking was taken is simple. If you have particular requirements about how long booking or deposit data is kept, we'll walk through Zavo's retention settings with you before you go live.

Always — and that's where much of the value lies. Zavo answers around the clock, including the dinner rush and late into the evening, which is precisely when the counter is full and a ringing phone goes unanswered behind the pass. The booking calls and walk-in enquiries that used to hit voicemail now get answered and handled, so you don't start the week behind a rival who happened to pick up. There's no rota to manage and no drop in service late on a Saturday — every diner gets the same warm, professional answer at 9pm as at 9am. For a restaurant that currently lets the phone ring out while the grill is roaring, this alone usually changes how many seatings and walk-ins it keeps.

Yes. If you run a group or a second venue, Zavo can answer for each restaurant with its own diary, menu, seatings, and routing, while giving you a single view of every call across the group. A caller reaches a host who knows that site's availability and specials, not a generic line. You can set different opening hours, different managers to escalate to, and different handling per site, so a ramen bar and a teppanyaki restaurant run completely differently under one system. Reporting rolls up, so you can compare seatings filled and calls answered site by site. Whether you're a single independent counter or a small group, every diner is answered consistently and their booking lands in the right restaurant's diary.

It earns its keep on two fronts that reinforce each other. First, the dropped calls stop: the booking enquiries, walk-in calls, and group bookings that used to ring out while the grill was full now get answered and handled, so more of the demand you already have converts. Second, deposits and reminders mean the seatings you take actually arrive, so a teppanyaki sitting goes out full rather than collapsing to a no-show. Most Japanese restaurants see more seatings filled and more groups held within the first few weeks, simply because nothing is being dropped. We'd rather your own takings decided it, so Zavo tracks every call, booking, deposit, and walk-in across a month — the covers it adds sit right beside what you pay, on your numbers rather than ours.

No. Zavo seats only against your live availability and your sitting counts, so it can't oversell a teppanyaki slot or double-book the counter, and it says nothing you haven't configured it to say. It works from your menu, your seatings, your sake list, and your rules, so it won't invent a dish, promise a seat you're holding, or quote a set menu you've changed. Anything it hasn't been briefed on is captured and forwarded to you rather than guessed, which matters most around allergens and special requests. You can listen back to any call, see exactly what was said, and refine its answers whenever your specials or sake list change. Routine seatings and questions are handled fast and accurately, while anything needing real judgement still reaches a person.

Yes. The moment a booking is taken, Zavo sends a confirmation by text, and it sends a reminder before the night, so a diner who booked a fortnight ago actually turns up. On teppanyaki and group seatings it holds a deposit by secure link, so a full sitting doesn't collapse and leave the chef cooking for empty stools. If a diner needs to cancel, the diary updates in real time and the seat or sitting can be re-let rather than lost. After a celebration it can follow up to invite the group back, so a one-off becomes a regular booking. All of this runs automatically, so your diary holds firmer and your chefs spend the night on the grill rather than ringing round to confirm.

Most Japanese restaurants are live within a few days, and there's nothing to buy or install. You redirect your existing number to Zavo, connect your reservation system, and brief it on your menu, your seatings, your sake list, and how you like the walk-in queue and group tables handled. From the first call it answers in your restaurant's voice, clear and calm whatever the grill is doing, and you can listen back to conversations and refine its answers as your specials change. Linking it to your booking system is on us. Most owners find the main ongoing task afterwards is simply keeping the specials and the sake list current, which keeps the whole counter running a little sharper anyway.

That's fine — plenty of Japanese restaurants do. Zavo connects to the main reservation and ticketing platforms out of the box, yet it isn't bound to one. If you manage the counter and the queue with your own system or a notebook by the pass, it can still take every booking and walk-in, capture it as a clean, structured record, and route it to you however suits your service — synced where it can be, or sent to a shared screen your team checks — so nothing is lost and you keep control. Where an older setup can't support a full integration, we build the nearest workable link during onboarding. You're never forced to change how your restaurant runs to stop missing the seatings that matter.