A few years ago, Varun (Co-founder, Urban Company) gave me Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara. He told me it would be a good read. I fell in love with that book. It became one of the few books I keep applying again and again at Urban Company, while building Native, and even while designing everyday user flows. This book, along with Setting the Table by Danny Meyer which I picked up right after, has fundamentally changed how I think about product-building.
This document is a tactical reference made from notes I made over two years since I read the books. I published this today because I wanted to share my thoughts with my team.
Use it like a training manual. Product designers, product managers, marketers, and anyone in a customer-facing role should use this as a working framework. This is how you apply the operational principles of great restaurants to build consistently better digital products.
1. Menus: Clarify what to order first
Every restaurant begins with a menu. The purpose is simple. To tell the guest what they can expect, and guide them toward decisions. Digital products fail when they expose everything without prioritisation.
“A menu is not just a list of offerings. It’s a tool to tell a story.” — Will Guidara
Try these:
Visit 3 restaurants with distinct menu types: prix fixe (e.g., Indian Accent, Kappa Chakka Kandhari), buffet (e.g., Barbeque Nation), and casual multi-category (e.g., Smoke House Deli).
Take notes on which one made you confident in your choice quickly. Note why.
Apply those principles to your onboarding or feature prioritisation.
Example: I don’t use Notion anymore but Notion’s onboarding progressively reveals use cases (personal docs, team wiki, etc.) based on answers you give, instead of showing everything at once. That’s a clear digital menu.
What can you practice:
Create a product “menu” for new users. List the 3 primary paths clearly on the homepage or onboarding flow.
Remove everything that doesn’t need to be decided in the first 5 minutes.
Give one or two clear suggestion. Do not overwhelm with optionality.
2. Ambiance: Design the environment to frame the experience
The ambiance of a restaurant shapes how people behave and feel. This is not about visual style alone. It is the lighting, cushion of the chair, shape of the armrest. clarity, tone, and confidence.
“You have to give people a reason to want to be there beyond the food.” — Danny Meyer
Try doing these first:
Go to a high-end restaurant (e.g., The Leela’s fine dining) and a local diner. Don’t eat. Just observe what changes in your behaviour in each.
Document how lighting, music, script of the waiters, and seating affect your decisions.
Example: Superhuman has polished micro-interactions, motion speed, and typography that makes the user feel in control and elite.
30-60 minute exercise:
Define the mood of your product. Choose one word: playful, focused, professional, relaxed.
Audit every screen, copy, and interaction to make sure it aligns with that mood.
3. Service: Respond to every touchpoint proactively
Service is how the restaurant handles friction. Good service is planned and proactive. Products need to adopt the same model. This is one of my favourite quotes from the book:
“Hospitality is present when something happens for you. It is absent when something happens to you.” — Danny Meyer
Anticipatory service or proactive service examples from both the books were my favourites. To mention a few:
Danny Meyer personally called a couple visiting Gramercy Tavern for their 20th anniversary before their dinner, thanked them, and had a complimentary mid-course arranged before they arrived .
Danny’s teams recorded detailed guest preferences including allergies, favourite tables, prior issues (e.g., “spilled wine on purse 5/12”), and recurring requests (e.g., “ice on side with cocktails”) so no guest would ever need to repeat themselves .
Servers were trained to remove a disliked item from the bill without being asked. The rule: if the guest might be unhappy, act before they say anything. This became a non-negotiable team standard .
Will Guidara’s team created ready-to-use index cards that answered niche guest questions (e.g., where the plate was made, who did the floral arrangements). They then printed and filed so staff could respond with surprise detail instantly .
Since guests often stepped out to smoke mid-meal, the team at EMP (Eleven Madison Park) started handing them a splash of liquor in a branded to-go cup while they were outside. This frictionless, unasked-for touch delighted guests repeatedly .
To reduce the emotional friction of paying the check, EMP started bringing the bill with a full bottle of cognac and invited guests to pour a drink as they settled up. It turned a traditionally negative moment into a memorable one .
A simple thing you can do to create your own log is:
Dine solo at a restaurant. Ask for a specific allergy accommodation.
Measure how the team responds. Translate that into a checklist for your product support.
Example: Amazon’s refund experience rarely asks for questions. The system assumes good intent. This is not your default customer support but a designed service.
What can you do:
Map all breakpoints in your product (errors, delays, long steps, dead ends).
Write specific messages and actions for each. Make the response fast, respectful, and human.
Track response time for support tickets, abandoned flows, and refunds like you track NPS.
4. Taste: Focus on the core interaction
No restaurant survives bad food. No product survives a weak core loop. Most teams over-invest in features instead of improving the core experience.
“Technique is meaningless unless it serves the guest.” — Will Guidara
What to do:
Strip your product down to one key action. Time it. Measure it. Improve it until it is fast and satisfying.
Ask 5 users to describe your product in one sentence. If they don’t mention the core loop, you have a problem.
Do teardown of competitors weekly and benchmark their execution of the core task.
Practice this in real life:
Eat the same dish at 3 top restaurants in your city. Note the differences in texture, seasoning, consistency.
Discuss with a chef if possible. Understand how feedback cycles are used to improve the plate. Apply the same to feature iteration.
Example: Linear’s “create task” and “assign + move to sprint” flow is near-instant. That’s why users switch from Jira. It nails its core dish.
5. Team: Operate like front-of-house and Kitchen
High-functioning restaurants separate responsibilities clearly but operate as one unit. Miscommunication between kitchen and service breaks things. Product teams are no different.
“It takes an army to serve a table. But it should feel like a dance, not a war.” — Will Guidara
What to do:
Define roles for discovery, delivery, and servicing. Make one person accountable for each.
Run daily stand-ups focused on one thing: what are we serving today? Not what are we building.
Build release rituals that mirror service readiness: plating (QA), staff brief (release notes), floor walk (first user journey).
Fun practice:
Watch an open kitchen service on a Friday night. Count how many unspoken signals get exchanged.
Note the decision-making rhythm. Apply those learnings to your sprint reviews.
Example: Apple launches involve cross-functional precision: industrial design, hardware, software, support, store ops. All rehearsed.
6. Delight: Deliver one signature moment
Most hospitality businesses win repeat customers by doing one thing that people remember. You do not need 50 features. You need one moment that makes people feel seen. This is my second favourite section in the books. I apply these in personal life by observing deeply before selecting a gift for someone.
Some of my favourite examples from the books are:
A table of European tourists said the only thing they missed eating in NYC was a street hot dog. Will Guidara left the restaurant, bought one, and had it plated like fine dining. It became the highlight of their trip .
For a large regular guest, Barbara Lazaroff secretly had his favourite home chair measured and replicated by a furniture maker so he could sit comfortably every day. An unreasonable, unforgettable gesture .
A Spanish family’s kids were seeing snow for the first time. The team bought sleds mid-service and arranged an SUV to take them to Central Park for a late-night snow play session after dinner .
A couple came to EMP upset after a cancelled vacation. The staff transformed the private room into a beach with sand, beach chairs, umbrellas, and daiquiris. The guests were speechless .
At EMP, a couple realised mid-meal they’d left a special anniversary champagne bottle in the freezer. The maître d’ took a cab to their house, saved the bottle, and left caviar, chocolates, and a note next to it. They became lifelong regulars .
“If you want to be the best, you need to be unreasonable about how you care.” — Will Guidara
What can you do:
Identify one high-friction moment in your funnel. Design a gesture there. Something respectful, unexpected, and repeatable.
Track how many users notice or mention it. If they don’t, it’s not memorable enough.
Fun practice: Revisit the restaurant from your childhood you remember most. Write down what made it stick. Try replicating that emotional beat in a digital context.
Raise the standard of what you ship
“The service you provide is your reputation in motion. Design it that way.” — Will Guidara
Remember the question: did the product make someone feel respected and understood? That’s the core of hospitality.
Don’t operate like a designer, operate like a service professional. You’ll improve how it works end-to-end.
Pick any one of these and try it this week.
Build a habit of observation in everyday interactions.
Make notes of what worked.
Use this playbook to raise the bar.