Before reading your menu, before checking your rating, someone deciding where to have dinner looks at a photo. Often just one. In a few seconds, they decide whether they want to walk through your door.
We will not give you a magic percentage for the effect of photos: we have no study to cite, and we will not invent one. What we can explain is how Keila handles a restaurant’s images, why it distinguishes between them, and what makes a photo genuinely useful when choosing.
The problem with photos you did not choose
On most platforms, your restaurant’s photos mainly come from customers. Some are very good. Others show your menu from three years ago with prices that have changed, a plate under fluorescent light or the dining room before renovation. Nobody dates them or says who took them.
For a kosher restaurant, there is another trap: a blurry photo of an old certificate still circulating, or a dish photo from another branch of the same brand. The customer does not know what they are looking at, and has no way to know.
And you do not really have control. You can add your own photos, but they get lost among the others, with nothing to distinguish them. An official photo and a flash snapshot taken during a wedding evening have the same status.
Every photo carries a credit, and a date when known
In Keila, a photo never arrives alone. It carries a credit: who took it, where it comes from and the shooting date when known. Here is how the app puts it:
Available photos carry a credit; a brand’s dish photo is distinguished from a photo of the venue. A listing without a photo remains accessible.
An old photo is not hidden: it is presented for what it is, an archive. It helps people discover the venue without guaranteeing its current appearance. When a verified link exists, View the restaurant’s photos opens your official gallery.
One final point matters: a listing without a photo is still a complete listing. We prefer no photo to a misleading one. The customer can then read the menu, sources and scope, and form an opinion from facts rather than a poorly chosen image.
Dish photo, venue photo: why the listing distinguishes them
Many restaurants belong to a brand or share its visuals. A beautiful burger photo supplied by the brand shows the dish as the brand presents it. It does not show your dining room, terrace or counter.
| Photo type | What it tells you | What it does not tell you |
|---|---|---|
| Venue photo | What this address looks like: dining room, frontage, atmosphere. | Necessarily what is on the plate today. |
| Brand dish photo | What a dish from the brand looks like. | That this particular branch is identical to the others. |
For a family looking for room for a pushchair, the venue photo matters more than the dish photo. For someone choosing between two halavi pizzerias, it is the opposite. For a business meeting, they mainly try to gauge the room and noise level. The listing provides both, labelled, and lets everyone look at what matters to them.
And of course, no photo says anything about your kashrut. Dietary status comes from a documented source displayed separately, as we explain in how to read a kosher certificate.
What makes a good restaurant photo
You do not need a studio. A few principles are enough:
- Daylight, near a window, rather than evening fluorescent lighting.
- Your signature dishes, the ones people come for, not the whole menu.
- The dining room empty but ready, with tables set, to show the space.
- The frontage, so people recognise you from the pavement.
- A date: if you renovate the dining room, update the photos.
Avoid using a photo of your certificate as the main image. We understand the intention, but a document image does not replace the source: certification appears separately on the listing, with the organisation and date. A photographed document also ages very badly.
You can send your own photos to thomas@keila.app, with the photographer’s name and your permission to use them. They will be credited like the others.
Production packages, if you do not have time
Between lunch and dinner service, finding an hour for a shoot is rarely the priority. That is why we offer to come and do it ourselves, with three packages:
| Package | Price | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | 150 € | Photos of five dishes and the dining room. |
| Essentiel | 350 € | The photo shoot, plus a short video. |
| Premium | 700 € | Photo shoot, video, chef interview and distribution on Keila’s social channels. |
These packages are independent of visibility offers and do not change what your listing says about your dietary status. They have one purpose: someone who discovers your listing should see your restaurant as it is today. Details are on the restaurant owners page; for the broader visibility question, read how to get found. To understand why a beautiful photo does not raise a rating, see how Keila displays reviews. The customer app is presented on the home page.