Link Mahal alternative for restaurants in Lebanon: your own ordering system
ala.menu is a restaurant’s own ordering system: your checkout with cards through your bank, delivery priced by area, an order board with eight statuses, a loyalty card in Apple and Google Wallet and an AI waiter, on your own domain, at 0% commission on every plan.
Six of Fakhani Gourmet’s Beirut branches run on one Page; The Protein Bar takes cards and runs the AI waiter on both its branches.
For a restaurant that takes card payments through its own bank, prices delivery by area, wants a loyalty card in the diner’s Wallet or an AI waiter, ala.menu is the stronger choice.
0% commission on every plan.
Why ala.menu, for a restaurant in Lebanon
Your own checkout
- Cards through your bank. The diner pays on your menu: cash, Whish Pay, a Whish, OMT or bank transfer you confirm, or a card through your own gateway (CyberSource with NetCommerce or another bank, Areeba MPGS, Stripe or PayPal). The money settles between you and your gateway, never through us. On Plus.
- Delivery priced by area. Price delivery by named area, distance ring, a shape drawn on the map or postal code, each zone with its own fee and minimum order. An address outside every zone is refused by default, or accepted with the fee confirmed by the shop if you choose. On Plus.
- Loyalty in the Wallet. A punch card or a spend reward that sits in the diner’s wallet and updates with every stamp; website orders stamp it by themselves. The rating and the written feedback come to you. You choose the mode: collect privately, send diners to your Google listing, or do both. Loyalty is on Pro, reviews on Plus. A diner who leaves a cart with a phone number is listed under Customers, one tap from a WhatsApp reminder. From Plus.
- Your domain, every branch. The menu lives at ala.menu/yourname, and on Pro at a domain of your own, the way The Protein Bar runs on theprotein-bar.com. A Locations block lists the branches, each opening its own menu, with call, WhatsApp and directions per branch. Fakhani Gourmet’s Page lists six of its branches. Pro for the domain, branches from Plus.
Delivery
- Distance by road. Distance rings measure in a straight line by default, or by road with Google driving distance, kept for 24 hours, falling back to a straight line if Google does not answer. On Plus. Joy Beirut prices its nine delivery bands by road.
- Postal codes. A postal zone holds 1 to 500 codes or prefixes, and an exact code wins over the longest matching prefix. On Plus.
- Delivery minutes and estimate. Delivery minutes, from 0 to 240, are added to the preparation time, and with the estimate switched on, a diner ordering for now sees a 10-minute window before ordering. Free.
- A minimum per zone. Each delivery zone has its own minimum order, and below it the order button shows the amount still to add. On Plus.
After the order
- Nobody misses an order. An order nobody has accepted keeps the order board chiming every 15 seconds and can re-alert the team’s phones every 20 seconds for 5, 10 or 15 minutes. On Plus.
- Kitchen ticket on Telegram. The kitchen ticket can go to up to 10 Telegram chats, staff groups included. It lists items with options, the address, totals and payment method, in English or Arabic. On Plus.
- Reject with a reason. A pending order can be rejected with one of five reasons, and a live order, items and delivery fee included, can be edited until it is completed. On Plus.
- Change for the driver. Cash-on-delivery checkout asks which note the diner will pay with ($20, $50 or $100 on dollar and lira menus), so the driver brings change. On Plus.
- Unpaid orders clear themselves. An online payment left unpaid for 30 minutes expires by itself, and any promo or loyalty reward it held goes back. On Plus.
AI that acts
- The waiter fills the cart. The AI waiter recommends up to 8 dishes at a time and up to 3 that go with them, adds dishes to the cart with size, add-ons and a kitchen note, up to 10 in one reply, swaps or removes a line, fills in the diner’s name and phone, and opens the checkout. On Plus.
- 13 voices, the diner’s language. The AI waiter can talk back in one of 13 voices, in the diner’s language. On Pro.
- No allergy promises. The AI waiter never tells a diner that a dish is safe for an allergy. It quotes the dish’s allergen tags and offers the restaurant’s WhatsApp. On Plus.
- Undo on every edit. Every change the AI editor makes has an Undo, and nothing goes live until you press Save. It can work across 36 kinds of edit, prices, hours, delivery zones and promo codes among them. Saving needs Plus.
- Prices in bulk. The AI editor changes prices in bulk by a percentage, a flat amount or a set value, with rounding to .99, .00 or .50 if you want; the sums are worked out in code. Saving needs Plus.
What you are told
- A Monday morning email. Every Monday at 09:00, Beirut time, you get an email with the week’s views, visitors, orders, revenue, top items, the peak time and the questions the AI waiter could not answer. On Pro.
- Searches that found nothing. Analytics shows what diners searched for on the menu, including the searches that found nothing. On Plus.
- Low ratings reach you. Any 1 or 2 star review emails you, and a diner who gives 3 stars or fewer can leave a phone number for a call back. On Plus.
- New, returning, lapsed. The customer list sorts every diner into New (one order), Returning (two or more) and Lapsed (no order in 30 days), with one record per phone number however the number was typed. On Plus.
- Every save kept. Version history keeps every save for 48 hours, then one checkpoint a day for 30 days, and any of them can be restored. On Plus.
Menu depth
- Diet and allergen filters. Diners can filter by 16 dietary tags (Halal, Vegan, Keto-Friendly and more) and exclude 9 allergens, sesame and shellfish included. Free.
- Price on request. A dish with no price reads “Price on request” and cannot be ordered, or, if you switch it, can be ordered with “Price confirmed by the shop”. Free.
- One add-on group, many dishes. One add-on group can serve many dishes, and per dish an option can be hidden, priced differently or given its own defaults and limits. Free.
- Designs on every plan. Every plan has 13 header styles, 11 category header styles, 6 category scroller styles, 30 colour palettes and 12 font pairings, on top of the 11 card layouts. Free.
- Wi-Fi card and socials. Every plan has a Wi-Fi card diners join by scanning, links to 11 social platforms, and a live “open now” status. Free.
Already running on ala.menu.
Kraft Signature
Bakery & pastry · Beirut
Uplifting Bites
Healthy snacks · Haret Sakher
six of its branches · Since 1941
Fakhani Gourmet
Gourmet deli · Beirut
Joy Beirut
Coffee, flowers & gifts · Beirut
Yoki Sushi
Sushi cloud kitchen · Baghdad
2 countries
Pegasus Pet Center
Pet shop & clinic · Beirut · Accra
Bunbastic
Burgers & subs · Zouk Mikael
Moving over
1. Send the catalogue
A PDF, a photo, or a screenshot of what you have. The AI builder rebuilds it, free.
2. Keep your WhatsApp flow
WhatsApp ordering is free here too, and it is the same habit for you and your staff.
3. Add the website checkout when you want it
Delivery zones, order board, tracking page, receipts. On Plus, still 0% per order.
What you get
Ordering
- Website ordering with delivery zonesPlus
- WhatsApp orderingFree
- Order board with statusesPlus
- Live order tracking for dinersPlus
Customers and marketing
- Loyalty stamps with Apple Wallet and Google Wallet passesPro
- Offers and promo codesPlus
- Review collectionPlus
- Customer listPlus
- Customer CSV exportPro
- Order and sales analyticsPlus
Design and menu
- More than 20 templatesFree
- 11 item card layoutsFree
- 53 fontsFree
- QR designer, 4 dot patternsPlus
- Arabic menus, right to leftFree
- AI translation, 21 languages including yoursPlus
- AI menu builder from a PDF or photoFree
Brand and domains
- Custom domainPro
- White label, no "Powered by" badgeBusiness
- Branches, priced per locationPlus
Team and integrations
- Team rolesPro
- POS sync and APIBusiness
- AI waiterPlus
Lebanon, spelled out
- Payment rails you can switch on
- Cash on delivery. Manual transfer with the Whish, OMT, bank and other presets: the diner sends, you confirm, and a manual transfer never marks the order paid on its own. Whish Pay as a live online gateway, in dollars and lira. Cards through CyberSource, with NetCommerce or any bank, or Areeba’s Mastercard gateway. Online payments are Plus.
- Currency
- USD base with LBP shown to diners, at a rate and a rounding step you set. Cash, transfer and WhatsApp orders carry on as normal.
- Languages
- Arabic with full native RTL, English and French. Publishing the menu in Arabic is free; offering diners a language switcher, with AI translation into 20 other languages, is Plus.
- Where the menu lives
- ala.menu/yourname on Free and Plus. Your own domain is Pro.
- Price
- Plus $49 a location a month, Pro $99, Free to start; 0% commission on every plan.
ala.menu, answered
What does it cost?
The menu, your Page, the QR and WhatsApp ordering are free, with no card and no trial period. Website ordering with delivery zones, Whish Pay and cards, the customer list and promo codes are Plus; a custom domain and the loyalty card are Pro. Plus is $49 a location a month and Pro $99. 0% commission on every plan.
Can diners pay by card, Whish or OMT?
Yes, on Plus. Cash, Whish Pay, or a Whish, OMT or bank transfer the diner sends and you confirm, and cards through your own gateway: CyberSource with NetCommerce or another bank, Areeba MPGS, Stripe or PayPal. The money never passes through ala.menu.
Can I price every area differently?
Yes, on Plus. Each delivery zone, a named area, a distance ring, a drawn shape or a postal code, has its own fee and minimum order, and an address outside every zone is refused by default, or accepted with the fee confirmed by the shop if you choose.
How does an order move once it is placed?
On Free it arrives in your WhatsApp. On Plus it lands on the order board and moves through pending, accepted, preparing, ready, out for delivery, completed, plus rejected and cancelled, and there is a live tracking page for the diner.
Can diners order from the table?
Yes, on Plus. Each table gets its own QR tent, up to 500 tables. Guests scan it and order, and they can call the waiter or ask for the bill from the same page.
Does the loyalty card work with Apple Wallet and Google Wallet? Do customers need an app?
Yes, both wallets, and no app: the card sits in the wallet the phone already has and updates with every stamp. Loyalty is on Pro.
Do I have to pay to have my menu in Arabic?
No. Publishing your menu in Arabic, with full native right-to-left rendering, is on the free plan. What is on Plus is offering the diner a switcher between languages, with AI translation into 21 of them.
Start with WhatsApp orders, grow into your own checkout
Send us the catalogue you already have and see it live before you decide anything.
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