Barrio Restaurant

Overview

Barrio is a Latin-inspired restaurant in Ottawa known for its food, atmosphere, and loyal local following. Despite a strong reputation, their website was working against them — slow to load, difficult to navigate, and almost impossible to use on a phone. For a restaurant where the evening experience starts the moment someone decides where to eat, that first impression mattered.

The Challenge

The existing site had no clear reservation path. Customers had to dig through multiple pages to find a phone number or a booking option. The menu was presented as a static PDF — hard to read on mobile, impossible to update quickly. Photos were small and didn't capture what made the place worth visiting.

On mobile, the experience was essentially broken. Given that most people search for restaurants from their phones, this was a direct barrier to new business. The restaurant was also missing any local SEO structure, meaning it wasn't appearing for relevant searches in their area.

My Role

I handled the full project from strategy through to launch: content planning, design, and Webflow development. I also worked with the team to restructure how they communicated the experience — what makes Barrio worth choosing over a dozen other restaurants in the same area.

The Solution

The redesign put the reservation action front and centre. From the first screen, visitors could see what the restaurant was about and book a table without navigating anywhere. The menu was rebuilt as a clean, mobile-friendly HTML layout that the team could update themselves without needing a developer.

Photography was given proper treatment — full-width images, generous white space, and a layout that let the food and atmosphere do the talking. I also structured the page semantically to improve local search visibility, ensuring Barrio appeared for the searches their customers were actually making.

The Result

Within the first month after launch, daily table reservation inquiries through the website increased by 27%. The team was also able to update the menu independently for the first time — something that had previously required going back to their original developer each time. Mobile bounce rate dropped significantly as the experience became fast and clear on any device.