An effective social media strategy is vital to a restaurant’s growth and success today.

With an efficient social media marketing strategy, you can attract more guests who use social media or are friends of your existing customers. Brands should always be looking one step ahead and constantly try to grow their customer base.

Influencers are increasingly popular as social media consumption increases, making Instagram marketing a great social media marketing opportunity.

There is one powerful tool all marketers use, but it is rarely discussed when promoting restaurants on Instagram — hashtags. In 2022, if you do not use hashtags in your Instagram marketing, you will miss out on a lot of opportunities and potential guests.

Consistency and proper hashtag usage are key in promoting restaurants using Instagram, and that's what we'll be covering in this detailed guide.

How Can Restaurants Benefit from Instagram?

A proper marketing strategy will increase your chances of establishing yourself as a market leader in your local restaurant industry.

Consistently publishing engaging content on social media can increase new customer curiosity and encourage them to check out your restaurant and the dishes you offer. Instagram thrives on drool-worthy content, so if you use the right content for your restaurant, you instantly gain visibility.

It is also a good idea to experiment a bit to find out what works for you. Restaurants, bars, and other food places have different types of customers, and what works for one might not work for another.

It is therefore imperative to develop a restaurant marketing strategy sooner rather than later. One of the most important aspects of this strategy is using hashtags.

Best Practices for Restaurant’s Using Instagram Hashtags

Although there is no one answer to how to use Instagram hashtags, it remains a fact that hashtags can make or break a business or brand.

It is therefore important to adopt practices that help you grow and to avoid practices that can damage your content more than help it.

To help you get started, we've compiled a list of the best Instagram hashtag practices you need to know right now:

1. Don’t Overuse Hashtags

A pile of blue, green, and purple hashtags on a light blue background.

Instagram allows users to use up to 30 hashtags per post, and for restaurants seeking to attract more customers, it's natural to use the maximum number of hashtags.

However, there is always a possibility of your content being considered spam on Instagram if you use too many hashtags.

You should also use hashtags that are relevant to the content and don't lose focus on the subject. It is important to remember that hashtags are used by Instagram to ensure that users are directed towards posts they are interested in.

Using 30 hashtags is quite a bit confusing, and the algorithm does not know where to focus.

Ideally, it's best to use around 9 - 11 hashtags that are relevant to your Instagram content on every post.

In restaurant marketing, make sure you use hashtags that are relevant to your business. Include your specialties as hashtags, such as your restaurants' locations, signature dishes, celebrity patrons, and other relevant hashtags.

2. Find Popular Hashtags

Digital artwork of the Top Food Hashtags of 2022

There are some hashtags that are more popular than others, and have better chances of helping your content be discovered.

It is important that you find some of these popular hashtags and combine them with low volume hashtags to drive more customers to your restaurant.

There are a few ways to find out which hashtags are most popular.

The easiest way to find out what your competitors are doing is to check out their websites. You can also see which hashtags are being used by established restaurants that run similar restaurants to yours.

When it comes to developing your own hashtag strategy for Instagram, having a reference is very helpful.

For a better understanding of hashtag popularity and usage, you can also check out some of the popular hashtag generators.

In addition, you can read this Instagram hashtag guide to learn everything you need to know about hashtags.

3. Adding Hashtags to Your Restaurant’s Post

Overhead shot of a baking table. A hashtag is drawn in a pile of flour while a rolled up, unbaked roll of bread rests next to it.

Adding hashtags towards the end part of your captions makes your restaurant's Instagram page look more professional due to aesthetics rather than impact.

On Instagram, just like most leading social media platforms, you are only shown a preview of your entire caption with a "Show More" option that expands it.

Your hashtags can be grouped at the end of the caption, so that only text appears below the image. Only those who tap the "Show More" option will see the hashtags and the entire caption.

So, what will you do if the caption is too small?

In this case, adding line breaks or 5-6 lines with just a hyphen and adding hashtags after the line breaks is the best solution. Please note that some keyboards won't permit you to add line breaks on Instagram.

In such events, it’s always best to go for text editors or notepads and copy-paste text from there.

4. Search & Shortlist Hashtags

Various foot items laid out to spell #HOT

Restaurants deal in a highly competitive market; that means operators like you should do your homework when it comes to hashtags.

Like you, many restaurants will compete to win more customers and rise to the top.

Even though having an established restaurant and the hashtags they use to get engagement can be a great starting point, it does not necessarily mean that you can achieve the same results.

It is probable that the audience for both accounts is different, and this will have varying impacts on different restaurants.

If you don't have time to research various hashtags, then shortlist anything from 9-11 that seems relevant, and you will start getting engagement from the relevant audience.

Listed below are 30 of the most popular Instagram hashtags for #restaurant.

There are plenty of popular hashtags on Instagram that can help you attract more audiences consistently.

#restaurant (49.4M posts)
#restaurante (13.1M posts)
#restaurants (4.1M posts)
#restaurantes (2.8M posts)
#restaurantdesign (1.4M posts)
#restaurantlife (911K posts)
#restaurantparis (573K posts)
#restaurantweek (496K posts)
#restaurantaustralia (308K posts)
#restaurantdecor (223K posts)
#restaurantreview (227K posts)
#restaurantinterior (186K posts)
#restaurantstyle (166K posts)
#restaurantfood (151K posts)
#restaurantowner (128K posts)
#restaurantessp (115K posts)
#restaurantmarketing (112K posts)
#restaurantespanama (91.7K posts)
#restaurantfurniture (90.8K posts)
#restaurantphotography (89K posts)
#restaurantequipment (84.6K posts)
#restaurantitalien (86.5K posts)
#restaurantinterirors (53.3K posts)
#restaurantebh (74.1K posts)
#restaurantindustry (73.5K posts)
#restauranteur (70.6K posts)
#restaurantesvalencia (72.2K posts)
#restaurantsofinsta (69.4K posts)
#restaurantsupply (61.3K posts)
#restaurantebarcelona (60.2K posts)

5. Use Different Hashtag Combinations

3/4 overhead shot of a woman's hands holding a phone, taking a photo of a restaurant dish for social media.

When it comes to Instagram hashtag strategy, finding the right mix of relevant hashtags makes all the difference.

That does not necessarily mean that you should spend some time to find out the best performing hashtags and bombard them on your hashtags.

The right blend of hashtags requires you to find popular hashtags with hundreds and thousands of views along with low volume hashtags that are relevant to the food and beverage niche or more targeted to your theme, location, etc.

It also helps to switch up hashtags and try out different combinations so that you constantly reach out to bigger audiences from across the globe instead of being restricted to the same people who follow specific niche related hashtags.

People who search for #britishbreakfast might not necessarily be out there searching for #britishbreakfastinlondon or #britishbreakfastindublin. However, as a brand, you want people that search for all these hashtags to find you, and even people that search for #breakfast to find you.

That’s why it’s essential that you mix up hashtags, and try out different combinations to see which one works best. Mixing up hashtags will also help you access an audience that is diverse and varied every time.

How to Choose Location Hashtags for Your Restaurant?

Shot of an outdoor restaurant eating area with a large red location pin next to it.

Instagram is a platform that gives a lot of emphasis on hashtags to filter and direct content to the viewers.

The primary objective behind using hashtags is to make sure that your content gets the maximum visibility and discoverability rates when it reaches the intended audience.

When it comes to restaurant marketing, you must convert the audience that you drive through hashtags into potential customers who will end up visiting the restaurant to buy a meal.

That’s where location hashtags can help with your content on social media.

Location hashtags, or adding location-based hashtags, helps you direct more traffic to your restaurant and a target audience that live nearby.

When it comes to building a community on Instagram, it helps to have a global following. However, the likelihood of followers buying your food from an entirely different part of the world is very low in comparison.

By using location hashtags, you increase the chances of more people living in close proximity, finding your restaurant and visiting the place for a meal.

When it comes to using location hashtags for restaurants just make sure that you use hashtags that are relevant to your restaurant. It does not help to have a restaurant in London and use hashtags like #SydneyEats or #LAFood.

However, by using location hashtags like #LondonEats, and #LondonRestaurants, you can get the attention of people searching for restaurants in London.

Top 25 Best Hashtags for Food on Instagram

Now that we covered some of the widely used and most popular Instagram hashtags on restaurants, let's take a look at some of the popular food hashtags.

Why food hashtags?

Because it’s a good support topic that can help you market your restaurant. Food hashtags also combine well with restaurant hashtags to give you, even more, discoverability and engagement.

Let’s take a look at the some of the best hashtags for food on Instagram: