Stay with the fish,we'll take the booking.

Yes. Zavo connects to the reservation system you already run — Tock or SevenRooms for prepaid omakase seatings, OpenTable or ResDiary for tables — so it books the counter against your live availability and writes every seating straight back, with nothing to re-key. The diary your counter already trusts stays the single source of truth, and Zavo simply answers the calls you can't reach while plating. If you take platter orders through your own website or a spreadsheet, it can still capture each one in a clean, structured format and send it to a shared screen your team checks. Tell us how you handle seatings and collections now and we'll set it up around your service rather than asking a busy counter to switch systems.

Yes — and the omakase counter is the booking it most helps with, because a handful of high-value seats per sitting have to sell and there's no room to oversell. Zavo books the counter against live availability, holds each sitting to its exact count, and takes a prepayment or deposit by secure link where you ask. It captures the seats, the sitting time, any allergies, and a special occasion the chef should know about, confirms by text, and writes it back instantly. If a diner wants a sitting that's already full, it offers the nearest one that fits rather than squeezing them in. So a tasting goes out with every seat sold rather than a gap because a late enquiry couldn't get through, and your most profitable cover stays full.

Yes. Alongside the counter, Zavo runs your platter and collection trade — the office lunches and party orders that fill an otherwise quiet afternoon. When a customer rings, it takes the platters, the rolls, and any swaps — a vegan tray, no sesame — reads the order back to confirm, gives a collection time, and sends it to the counter. It checks any dietary swap against your menu before it confirms, so the chef isn't surprised. The platter orders that used to ring out at lunch while the chef was plating now land cleanly, so a customer ordering for the office doesn't give up on a busy line and order from the sushi bar down the road instead.

Yes — these are the orders Zavo is keenest to catch, because a six-platter office order or a party booking is worth a lot and the easiest to lose to a missed call. For a big order it takes the numbers, the platters, and the time, then routes it to you with everything attached so you can confirm and prep properly. When you want a deposit to hold a large order, it sends a secure link there and then. Because it answers at peak and after you've closed, the office planning tomorrow's lunch the evening before is captured rather than lost. Winning more of these party and office orders is, for most sushi bars, one of the quickest ways the system pays for itself.

Carefully, because a prepaid omakase seat is your highest-value cover and a no-show costs you a whole tasting place. Zavo books each sitting to the count you set, so it can't oversell the counter, and it takes the prepayment or deposit by secure link at the time of booking where you ask. It confirms the sitting clearly and sends a reminder before the night, so the seat is protected. If a diner needs to move or cancel within your rules, the diary updates in real time and the seat can be re-offered rather than going out empty. You keep control of the rules — how many seats per sitting, what you charge upfront, and your cancellation window — and Zavo applies them consistently on every booking.

Yes — you set exactly what reaches a person. Zavo spots the orders and bookings that warrant a human — a large office platter order, a private omakase buyout, a party booking — and routes them to whoever you've named, with a short briefing on what was discussed. Ordinary seatings and small collections are simply handled, so you're not interrupted at the counter for a two-seat booking. You set the thresholds: the order size that rings through, what waits for a callback, and who handles which type of enquiry. A big order no longer sits in voicemail until someone checks after service — your nominated contact is flagged in seconds and can call back while the customer is still deciding where to place it.

Yes. Because the host only relays what you've configured, it gives careful, consistent answers rather than guesses. You tell Zavo which rolls are vegan or vegetarian, which are gluten-free, what carries shellfish or sesame, and your own guidance on raw fish — including the questions diners ask around pregnancy — and it relays exactly that. It never claims a roll is free of something it isn't or offers advice you haven't set; 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 what a diner was told, which matters for allergen and dietary compliance. For a cuisine built on raw fish, a clear, careful answer every time genuinely protects your diners and your restaurant.

Yes. Calls are encrypted in transit and at rest, access is locked and logged, and the host relays only what you've configured. Diner names, numbers, and booking details are handled to enterprise standards and never sold on or used to train outside models. Where a prepayment or deposit is taken for an omakase seating, it runs through a secure payment link, so card details never pass over a busy booking call or sit on a pad behind the counter. Every call keeps an audit trail, so meeting your data-protection duties and checking how a seating or order was taken is simple. If you have particular requirements about how long booking or payment data is kept, we'll walk through Zavo's retention settings with you before you go live.

Always — and that is where a great deal of the value sits. Zavo answers around the clock, including the dinner service and late into the evening, which is precisely when the counter is full and a ringing phone goes ignored behind the pass. The reservation and platter calls 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 Friday — every diner gets the same warm, careful answer at 9pm as at 9am. For a sushi bar that currently lets the phone ring out while the chef is plating, this alone usually changes how many seats and platter orders it keeps.

Yes. If you run a group or a second venue, Zavo can answer for each restaurant with its own diary, menu, sittings, 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 menu, not a generic line. You can set different opening hours, different managers to escalate to, and different handling per site, so an omakase counter and a casual sushi bar run completely differently under one system. Reporting rolls up, so you can compare seats sold and calls answered site by site. Whether you're a single counter or a small group, every diner is answered consistently and their seating or order lands in the right restaurant's diary.

It works in two ways that reinforce each other. First, the dropped calls stop: the omakase enquiries, platter orders, and party bookings that used to ring out while the chef was plating now get answered and taken, so more of the demand you already have converts. Second, prepayment and reminders mean the seats you sell actually turn up, so a tasting goes out full rather than collapsing to a no-show. Most sushi bars see more omakase seats sold and more platter orders caught within the first few weeks, simply because nothing is being dropped. We'd rather your own takings decided it, so Zavo tracks every call, seating, prepayment, and order across a month — the seats it adds sit right beside what you pay, on your numbers rather than ours.

No. Zavo books only against your live availability and your sitting counts, so it can't oversell the omakase counter or double-book a seating, and it says nothing you haven't configured it to say. It works from your menu, your sittings, your platters, and your dietary guidance, so it won't invent a roll, promise a seat you're holding, or quote a platter you've changed. Anything outside what it knows is taken down and passed to you rather than guessed, which matters most around raw fish and allergens. You can listen back to any call, see exactly what was said, and refine its answers whenever your menu or sittings change. Everyday seatings and questions get fast, accurate handling, while anything needing real judgement still reaches a person.

Yes. The moment a seating is booked, Zavo sends a confirmation by text, and it sends a reminder before the sitting, so a diner who booked weeks ago actually turns up. On omakase and large orders it holds a prepayment or deposit by secure link, so a counter seat doesn't sit empty when a no-show would cost you a whole tasting place. If a diner cancels within your rules, the diary updates in real time and the seat can be re-offered rather than lost. After a tasting it can follow up to invite the diner back, so a one-off becomes a regular at your counter. All of this runs automatically, so your diary holds firmer and your chef spends the night with the fish rather than ringing round to confirm.

Most sushi bars 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 omakase sittings, your platters, and your dietary guidance. From the first call it answers in your restaurant's voice, clear and careful whatever the counter is doing, and you can listen back to conversations and refine its answers as your menu changes. Connecting it to your booking system is something we handle. Most owners find the main ongoing task afterwards is simply keeping the platter menu and the sittings current, which keeps the whole counter running a little smoother anyway.

That's fine — plenty of sushi bars do. Zavo works with the main reservation and ticketing platforms out of the box, yet isn't tied to any one of them. If you take platter orders through your own website, a spreadsheet, or a notebook behind the counter, it can still take every order and booking, 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 take a full integration, we'll build the nearest workable link while onboarding you. You're never forced to change how your sushi bar runs to stop missing the seats and orders that matter.