Mind the wok,
we'll mind the phone.

Yes. Zavo connects to your EPOS or online-ordering system for takeaway and your booking diary — OpenTable or ResDiary — for dine-in, so orders reach the counter and tables book against your live availability. Every order, booking, and deposit writes back in real time, so the kitchen has the order and your floor plan stays accurate. If you take orders on a paper pad or run your tables your own way, Zavo still captures each one cleanly and sends it to your counter or a shared sheet your team checks. Tell us how you take orders and bookings now and we'll set it up around your setup, rather than asking a busy kitchen to learn a new tool. The aim is to fit how your restaurant already runs in the rush.

Yes — this is where it saves the most. When a customer rings to order, Zavo takes the dishes, the quantities, the spice level, and whether it's collection or delivery, reads the order back to confirm, and sends it straight to your counter. It gives the collection time and confirms by text, so nothing is forgotten. For delivery it checks the postcode against your area before taking the order. The orders that used to be half-heard over a roaring wok or lost when the counter was slammed now land cleanly, so your peak hour earns what it should. A regular's Friday order no longer goes to the takeaway down the road because your line was engaged — it's taken every time.

Yes. For dine-in, Zavo reads your booking diary and reserves tables against live availability — a two-top for dinner, a family of six, a ten-seat round table — offering only what's genuinely free, so a full Saturday fills without double-seating the room. It takes the date, the time, and the numbers, confirms by text, and writes the booking back instantly. It can move or cancel a booking too, and sends a reminder before the night to cut no-shows. The table calls that used to ring out while the takeaway line was busy now get answered, so the dining room fills alongside the orders rather than losing bookings every time both phones go at once during the rush.

Yes — these are the bookings Zavo is keenest to catch, because a banquet or a big set-menu family table fills the back room and is the easiest to lose in the rush. For a large booking it takes the date, the numbers, and the set menu, then routes the enquiry to your manager with everything attached so you can confirm. When you want a deposit to hold a ten-seat round table, it sends a secure link. Because it works at peak and after close, the family planning a celebration late in the evening is captured rather than lost. Winning more of these banquet bookings — especially around festivals — is, for most Chinese restaurants, one of the quickest paybacks.

Yes — that's exactly when it earns its keep. Chinese New Year is your busiest week of the year, when banquet bookings and takeaway orders surge together and a single phone simply can't keep up, so customers hit an engaged tone and go elsewhere. Zavo answers every call at once through the festival peak, with no queue, taking orders and capturing the big set-menu tables while your kitchen stays at the wok. It carries the same load on any busy weekend or local event. So your peak nights are fully covered without rostering extra staff just to manage the phone, and the week that should be your best doesn't quietly turn paying customers away.

Yes — what reaches you is entirely your call. It spots the bookings that count — a twenty-seat banquet, a New Year set menu, a private function — and routes them to whoever you've named, with a short briefing on what was said. Routine orders and table bookings are handled or logged, so your team isn't pulled off the counter mid-rush for a table for two. You decide the thresholds — what rings through there and then, what waits, and who picks up which type of booking. A big family banquet no longer waits in voicemail until someone checks after close — your nominated contact is flagged in seconds and can call back while the family is still deciding where to celebrate.

Yes. Because the host only relays what you've set up, it stays within your food-safety duties. You tell it your menu, your spice levels, and the allergens in each dish, and it tells a customer straight — never guessing an ingredient or claiming a dish is free of something it isn't. Anything that needs the kitchen's judgement is noted and handed to you. Every call is logged with a transcript, so you have a clean record of what a customer was told, which matters for allergen compliance whether the order is collection or dine-in. The agent answers and takes the order within the rules you set, so your restaurant meets its duties consistently rather than relying on a rushed answer shouted across a busy kitchen.

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

That's the whole reason it exists. In the dinner rush your takeaway line and your table line ring hardest exactly when the kitchen is at full tilt and the counter is slammed — so orders and bookings both vanish. Zavo answers every one of those calls at once, with no queue and no hold music, taking orders and booking tables in parallel while your staff stay cooking and serving. It carries on after the counter shuts, picking up the calls that land late when customers plan the week ahead. You don't bring in extra staff to handle it. The busier the restaurant, the more calls a single phone — or two — would have dropped, and the more Zavo quietly keeps for you across both lines.

Yes. Zavo can greet callers and take orders in more than one language, so a customer who's more comfortable in Cantonese or Mandarin gets a natural conversation rather than struggling on the line, while English-speaking callers are answered just as smoothly. You tell us which languages help your customers and it handles each one in your restaurant's voice, taking the same accurate order or booking whichever language the call is in. It only ever says what you've configured, in any language, so your menu and prices stay correct. For many Chinese restaurants this is the difference between a regular feeling looked after and a caller hanging up — and it costs you nothing extra to switch on.

It works on two fronts that reinforce one another. First, the dropped calls stop: the takeaway orders, dine-in bookings, and banquet enquiries that used to ring out when both lines were busy now get answered and taken, so more of the demand you already have actually converts. Second, reminders and deposits mean the bookings you take actually arrive, so your real revenue rises even before your order volume does. Most Chinese restaurants see more orders captured and more banquets booked within the first few weeks, simply because nothing is being dropped. We'd rather your own takings decided: Zavo tracks every call, order, booking, and deposit across a month, so what it adds is there beside what you pay.

No. It says nothing you haven't configured it to say, and it reads every order back to confirm before sending it to the counter. Zavo works from your menu, prices, spice levels, and delivery area, so it won't invent a dish, quote the wrong price, or promise delivery to a postcode you don't cover. Anything outside what it knows is taken down and passed 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 menu changes. The everyday orders and questions get fast, accurate handling in your restaurant's voice, and anything needing the kitchen's judgement still reaches a person.

Yes. The moment an order is taken, Zavo sends a confirmation by text with the collection time, so a customer knows when to come and nothing is forgotten at the counter. For dine-in it confirms the booking and sends a reminder before the night, with a deposit on the banquets, so a ten-seat round table doesn't sit empty on your busiest evening. After a visit or a big order, it can follow up to invite the customer back, so a one-off becomes a regular. If a table cancels late, it can flag it so you can re-let it. All of this runs automatically, so your orders and tables hold firmer and your team spends the rush at the wok rather than ringing round to confirm.

Most Chinese restaurants are up and running within a few days. There's nothing to purchase and nothing to install. You route your existing number to Zavo, connect your till and booking diary, and brief it on your menu, your set menus, your spice levels, and your delivery area. From the first call it answers in your restaurant's voice — and in more than one language if that helps your customers — clear and quick whatever the kitchen is doing, and you can listen back to conversations and refine its answers as your menu changes. Connecting it to your ordering system is on us. Most owners find the main ongoing task is simply keeping the menu and delivery area current, which keeps the whole counter sharper anyway.

That's fine — plenty of restaurants do. Zavo integrates with the main till and booking platforms out of the box, yet it isn't reliant on one. If your orders go on a paper pad and your tables in a diary by the till, it can still take every order and booking, capture it as a clean, structured record, and route it to you however suits your counter — linked where it can be, or printed and sent to a shared screen your team checks — so nothing is lost and you keep control. Where an older system can't take a full integration, we'll build the nearest workable link as we onboard you. You're never forced to change how your restaurant runs to stop missing the orders that matter.