Built for the kitchens where nobody's free to answer the phone.
Porchlight started with a simple, familiar problem: a table booking lost because the phone rang during the Friday night rush and nobody could get to it.
Independent restaurants answer to no one but their guests — and their phone.
Big chains have call centres and online booking systems built by teams of engineers. Independent restaurants and cafes usually have a landline, a notebook by the till, and a team that's already stretched thin during service.
Every unanswered call is a booking that goes to a competitor instead — not because the food or the welcome would have been any worse, but because nobody was free to pick up.
Give every independent the phone answering a big chain would have.
Porchlight is an AI phone agent — we call him Thomas — who answers your restaurant's line day and night, takes the booking against your real availability, and briefs your team on anything they need to know before the guest arrives.
No app for the guest to download, no change to how anyone calls you. It just sounds like your best host picked up.
Live, working, and learning from real service
Porchlight is currently answering the phone for The Kings Head in Tealby, taking real bookings during real service — not a demo, the genuine thing.
Built with a real pub
Every feature — the floor plan, the kitchen cap, the allergy handling — came from a real service, not a spec sheet.
Answers around the clock
Late booking requests, lunchtime rushes, quiet Tuesday afternoons — Thomas is on the line for all of it.
Growing one kitchen at a time
Rather than launching everywhere at once, we're getting it right with independents first — starting close to home in Lincolnshire.
Curious whether Porchlight fits your restaurant?
We're happy to talk through how it'd work for your service, your hours, and your team.