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Restaurants

WhatsApp customer service for restaurants in Malaysia

By Clement, founder of ReplaiPublished Updated 3 min read

Quick answer

A restaurant assistant on WhatsApp answers menu prices, halal status and allergens, opening hours, delivery areas and reservation questions from the menu you paste in, in Bahasa Malaysia, English or Mandarin. It reads a photo of your menu with an arrow on an item. Reservations and orders are logged to a Google Sheet for staff to confirm.

  • Menu screenshots with an arrow on an item are read, so no clarifying question is needed.
  • Voice notes in Bahasa Malaysia, English and Mandarin are answered in the same language.
  • Reservations become sheet rows: date, time, party size and contact for the floor manager.
  • It is not a POS: no card payments, no kitchen tickets, no rider dispatch.

At a glance

It answers

  • Menu and prices
  • Halal status and allergens
  • Reservations
  • Delivery and pickup

It hands to you

  • Large group events
  • Complaints
  • Catering quotes

10 min

to set up

New chats

only, by default

Any

language

R

Restaurants

answered by Replai, after hours

  1. Boleh book 10 pax Sabtu malam? Ada surau?21:14
  2. Boleh, 10 pax Sabtu 8 malam ada. Surau di tingkat 1. Set menu RM38 seorang atau a la carte. Nak saya confirm?21:14
  3. Confirm please, under the name Faizal21:16
  4. Noted: Faizal, Saturday 8pm, 10 pax. Ten covers needs the floor manager to okay it, so I have passed it on and they will confirm here shortly. Tables are held 15 minutes past the booking time.21:16

Illustrative exchange. Your bot answers from your own prices, hours and rules.

Replai knowledge base screen with pasted prices, hours and policies
Your prices, hours and rules live here. Paste them once; every answer comes from this.
Replai leads table showing captured customer details
Every enquiry that shows intent lands in a sheet with the name, number and what they asked.

If you run a restaurant in Malaysia, your WhatsApp Business inbox probably looks like this: a stream of "masih buka tak?", photo screenshots of the menu with arrows pointing at items, voice notes asking about pork-free options, last-minute table reservation requests, and order-status pings from delivery riders.

Most of those messages have the same five or six underlying questions. You're answering them on a Saturday night between checking on tables.

Replai pairs to your existing restaurant WhatsApp Business number and answers them for you — in your language, from your real menu, around the clock.

What do customers ask a restaurant on WhatsApp?

The volume is not an accident. DataReportal counted 25.1 million active social media user identities in Malaysia in January 2025, 70.2 percent of the population (DataReportal, Digital 2025: Malaysia), and a restaurant's WhatsApp number sits at the end of every one of those stories and listings. The messages below are what arrives.

  • Opening hours / today's status — "Are you open?", "Sampai pukul berapa?", "Open lunch ke?"
  • Menu questions — pricing, dietary (halal, no pork, vegetarian, no spicy), availability of specials, allergens
  • Reservation requests — table for 4 at 7pm, party booking, outdoor seating
  • Order enquiries — "Ada delivery ke Mont Kiara?", "Boleh order untuk besok?", "Set lunch masih ada?"
  • Photo-of-menu screenshots — customer sends a photo from your Instagram or your printed menu, arrows pointing at items, "this one how much?"

What can a WhatsApp bot handle for a restaurant?

  • Menu Q&A from your real menu. Drop in your menu as a Google Doc, PDF, or even a photo. Replai answers from your source of truth — prices stay right, dietary tags stay right, and out-of-stock items don't get over-promised.
  • Voice notes in Bahasa Malaysia, English, and Mandarin. Older customers and the "easier to record than type" crowd both get answered. Auto-detected per message, no setup.
  • Menu screenshot reading. Customer sends a photo of your menu with an arrow on the laksa? Replai's vision reads the image and answers in context — no "please tell me which item" friction.
  • Reservation logging. When someone asks for a table, Replai captures the details (date, time, party size, contact) to a Google Sheet so your floor manager has it for the day's booking sheet.
  • Operating hours awareness. If you've set hours, Replai can respond with "we're closed, kitchen opens at 11am" automatically outside service times.

Where to draw the line

Replai isn't a POS replacement. It doesn't take card payments, doesn't push to your kitchen ticketing system, and doesn't dispatch riders. For the actual order flow, you'd still want your existing channels (GrabFood / foodpanda / your own ordering site).

What Replai does is take the inbound conversation load off you — the questions that come before and after an order, the reservation requests that pile up between 6 and 8pm, the "ada masih?" pings from people who saw your story.

Setup in 5 minutes

  1. Pair your restaurant's WhatsApp Business number via QR code — 30 seconds, no Meta application needed
  2. Drop in your menu (Google Doc URL works fine) and any policies you want surfaced (delivery zones, reservation rules, halal certification details)
  3. Pick the General template (or build from scratch — we'll help)
  4. First customer message answered minutes later

What it costs

From $19/month, AI included. No per-message fees, no API keys to manage, no surprise OpenAI bills. 7-day free trial — pair your number, see how it handles one busy Saturday, decide.

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Frequently asked questions

Can a WhatsApp bot take orders for a restaurant in Malaysia?

Yes, within limits you set. It answers menu and price questions from the menu you paste in, collects the order, pickup or delivery details and the customer's number, and logs it to a Google Sheet for the kitchen. Payment stays with your existing process.

Can it handle reservations?

It collects party size, date, time and contact and logs the request for staff to confirm. For most restaurants that is safer than letting a bot commit tables, and it still removes the back-and-forth from your staff's phones.

Does it answer in Bahasa and English?

Yes, message by message, including voice notes. A customer who opens in Bahasa Malaysia and switches to English gets replies that switch with them.

What does it cost for a restaurant?

On Replai the Starter plan is $19 a month for one WhatsApp number and 120 conversations a cycle, where a conversation is one customer thread of up to five bot replies; Growth is $49 for up to three numbers, 300 conversations and campaigns. The AI is included, there are no per-message fees because it pairs to your existing number, and the 7-day trial needs no card.

Sources

  1. Digital 2025: Malaysia, DataReportal, 2025-03-03
  2. Lead Response Management Study, InsideSales.com and MIT, 2007
  3. Making voice messages better, WhatsApp blog, 2022-03-30

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