Kochi startup Menuthere launches Zao, an AI agent that lets restaurant owners set up and run zero-commission online ordering just by chatting

PNN
Kochi (Kerala) [India], October 29: Menuthere, a restaurant technology startup from Kochi, has introduced Zao, an AI agent that lets restaurant owners set up and run their own online ordering by chatting with it in plain words, the way they would chat with ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity. More than 1,000 active restaurants in more than 70 countries use Menuthere to take orders directly from their customers, without paying a commission on each order.
No dashboard to learn
A new owner starts on menuthere.com by typing the restaurant’s name. Zao then asks a few questions and builds the store as the conversation goes: it reads the menu from a photo or PDF of the paper menu, takes the phone number, picks the store’s link, sets the brand colour and logo, and signs the owner in with an email code. When the chat ends, the restaurant’s ordering store is ready and its dashboard opens. The signup chat works in 10 languages.
After that, Zao keeps working inside the dashboard. An owner can type “add a weekend offer on biryani”, “change the delivery charge to ₹40” or “make QR codes for 12 tables”, and Zao makes the change, with an Undo if needed. It can add dishes and photos, change prices and sizes, set discounts and loyalty points, set working hours and delivery areas, connect a custom domain, edit WhatsApp replies and move orders along. Asked “How do I increase my sales?”, it answers from the restaurant’s own numbers.
“Most restaurant owners don’t want software, they want orders,” said Muhammed Rinshad S R, Co-founder and CEO of Menuthere. “A biryani shop owner shouldn’t have to learn twenty settings before taking the first order on their own website. With Zao they just say what they need, and it’s done.”
“Zao reads the restaurant’s own menu, settings and sales before it answers, so it is not giving general advice; it is working on that store,” said Thrisha K, Co-founder and CTO of Menuthere. “Every change it makes can be undone, so owners can try things without worrying about breaking anything.”
One restaurant, four direct channels
Behind Zao is Menuthere’s zero-commission direct ordering system. A restaurant takes orders through its own website (for delivery, takeaway and dine-in, with table QR ordering), its own mobile app listed under its name on the App Store and Google Play, and WhatsApp ordering, which answers customers with the menu and an order link. Instagram ordering is being rolled out next. Restaurants pay a monthly plan instead of a commission, and a free plan is available.
According to Menuthere’s data for the last 90 days, online orders arrive through all of these channels: about a third through restaurants’ own websites, about one in five through their own mobile apps, and the rest through WhatsApp. The same data shows that 52% of online orders from signed-in customers came from people who had ordered from that restaurant before.
“Customers don’t think in channels. One evening they open the app, the next week they reply on WhatsApp, and a new customer finds the website on Google,” said Muhammed Musthafa Ameen N M, Co-founder and CMO of Menuthere. “Our job is to make every one of those end in a direct order, and Zao makes looking after all of them as simple as sending a message.”
Built to be found
Menuthere also helps restaurants get found. Every restaurant site is open to Google and AI search crawlers, with structured data and a plain list of every dish and price, so AI answers can draw on the real, current menu. Restaurants can push their menu to their Google Business Profile with an order button, and a free Restaurant Report checks the health of their Google listing.
From a QR menu to an AI agent
Menuthere began in 2024 as a digital menu that diners opened by scanning a QR code on the table. Most of its restaurants are in India; the largest groups abroad are in the UAE, the United States, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Canada, Spain and Australia. For restaurants abroad, the timing matters: GloriaFood, the online ordering service owned by Oracle, stopped taking new sign-ups in April 2026, and its homepage says it will reach end of life on 30 April 2027. Menuthere is helping such restaurants move to their own zero-commission ordering store, set up by chatting with Zao.

A restaurant owner sets up a store by chatting with Zao, Menuthere’s AI agent (left); a restaurant’s own ordering website on Menuthere, Bakehouse, on a phone (right).
About Menuthere
Menuthere is a zero-commission direct ordering system for restaurants. Customers order directly from the restaurant through its own website, its own mobile app and WhatsApp, with Instagram ordering coming soon. Owners set up and run their store by chatting with Zao, Menuthere’s AI agent, and Menuthere helps restaurants be found on Google and in AI answers such as ChatGPT. Started in 2024 in Kochi, Kerala, Menuthere is used by more than 1,000 active restaurants in more than 70 countries and has a free plan. Learn more at menuthere.com.
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