Imagine transforming an ordinary meal into an extraordinary event — that’s the power of creative restaurant entertainment.
But sometimes, it’s hard to think outside the box. Well, rest assured. There are endless restaurant entertainment ideas.
From dance classes and cooking battles to sensory tasting and creative workshops, there are so many ways to fully utilize a restaurant space, reach more customers, and increase your income.
At Eventbrite, we’ve seen creators launch thousands of events across the globe, so we know how important originality can be to event success.
Keep reading for some unique restaurant event ideas for 2024 and beyond. Learn how to attract more guests, market your events, and build long-lasting relationships with customers.
Ideas for restaurant events
Creative restaurant event ideas
Wellness restaurant event ideas
Game events and restaurant entertainment ideas
Fun (but educational) restaurant event ideas
Professional restaurant event ideas
Tips and Advice to Host a Successful Restaurant Event
Foodie restaurant event ideas
Food, glorious food. Who can resist a tasty bite to eat or a fruity cocktail? Let’s take a look at some unique ways to run foodie events and attract more customers!
1. Sommelier-guided wine-tasting events
Effort: 🏋️ 🏋️
Cost: 💰💰💰
Fun factor: 🥳 🥳
Give guests a glimpse into the pallet of a wine expert by hosting a sommelier-guided wine-tasting event, like the events run by Wine Bar George. Guests learn how to taste wine like a professional from a master sommelier and even do a “blind” tasting of six different wines.
Add a blindfolded tasting to your event, but make it a competition! Guests have to taste the wine and guess the location of the wine and the main flavor nodes. The team with the most accurate guesses wins a bottle to take home.
2. Guest chef dinner series
Effort: 🏋️
Cost: 💰💰💰
Fun factor: 🥳
Hire multiple guest chefs to prepare a series of dishes for a one-night-only dining experience. Each chef cooks a different style of food, allowing guests to try different cuisines at the same event.
Use Eventbrite to spread the word about your special guests and sell event tickets. You can create an events page and have our AI tools help you with all the writing, then list your event on the world’s largest events search engine.
Bring your restaurant event idea to life
3. Mystery cooking battles with a celebrity judge
Effort: 🏋️ 🏋️
Cost: 💰💰
Fun factor: 🥳 🥳 🥳
Spark competition between guests by hosting a mystery cooking battle. Guests sign up in teams and receive an identical mystery basket containing a recipe and ingredients. Then, a celebrity judge reviews the dishes based on creativity, taste, and presentation. Use your celebrity guest as part of your marketing campaign to increase your event’s profile.
To learn more about how to run a cooking competition, look at Kiwani’s Club of El Centro‘s Mystery Box, which gives guests a one-hour timer to prepare dishes under pressure.
4. Plot-to-plate cooking experience
Effort: 🏋️ 🏋️ 🏋️
Cost: 💰
Fun factor: 🥳 🥳
Visit a vegetable plot with produce that’s grown and ready to harvest. Have your guests unearth them and then return to a studio kitchen. The instructor can teach them how to cook a seasonal dish worth digging through the mud for!
Make this event educational, providing advice on cooking and growing food from scratch, and even add a sustainability slant to it for your greener guests. They’ll leave with a new appreciation of the food they’re creating and eating.
5. Food and drink festivals
Effort: 🏋️ 🏋️ 🏋️
Cost: 💰💰
Fun factor: 🥳 🥳
If you own a restaurant, you can scope out local food and drink festivals that suit your style of food and ask to take part. For example, if you’re big on plant-based food, the International Vegan Food Festival by the Orlando Bearded Vegan would be a good fit.
If you’re looking to rent a space or you run a larger restaurant, you could organize your very own themed food and drink festival. If you have a venue that offers both indoor and outdoor spaces, you can set up a combination of stalls and food trucks to accommodate all kinds of food options.
Upgrade your food festival planning with Eventbrite
6. Sensory tasting experience
Effort: 🏋️
Cost: 💰
Fun factor: 🥳 🥳
With a sensory tasting experience, guests can’t see what they’re eating. Instead, they use their heightened sense of taste to determine what’s on their plate and choose their favorite drink.
This can also make for a fun game where guests fill in tasting sheets to guess what they’re eating. The person with the most accurate guesses wins a prize.
You could also offer VIP tickets that allow guests to enjoy exclusive food and drink beyond the standard offerings at your event! Use Eventbrite to create multiple ticket types for various VIP experiences.
7. Design your own cocktail
Effort: 🏋️
Cost: 💰💰
Fun factor: 🥳 🥳
Host a cocktail-making party that allows guests to create their own concoction. At the end of the event, they get a bottle of their custom cocktail creation to take home!
Use a mixologist to guide the session, recommending pairings and flavor combinations. At the Create Your Own Cocktail Class from 1854 Cocktail Bar and Lounge, the mixologist teaches guests about cocktail ingredients and components.
8. Restaurant special events
Effort: 🏋️ 🏋️
Cost: 💰 💰
Fun factor: 🥳 🥳
If you own a restaurant, let people use your restaurant space to celebrate special occasions. This can open up an entirely new audience (like corporate event planners) and increase brand awareness.
You can also create your event around special occasions that matter to your community, whether you’re hiring a space or you have your own venue. For example, cultural celebrations, such as a Chinese New Year banquet or a Diwali-themed dinner, can be celebrated with traditional dishes and eye-catching decorations.
Live restaurant event ideas
Here are some distinctive ideas for restaurant events for guests who want a live event experience and delicious food all in one place.
9. Cultural live music experience
Effort: 🏋️
Cost: 💰
Fun factor: 🥳 🥳 🥳
Add a twist to a simple live music event and create a full-blown cultural experience for your guests. Choose a band that represents your style of food, or mix things up and choose a different culture for the evening. Create a one-off menu for the event and hire a band that represents your cuisine.
Take a look at Havana Nights by Sala’o Restaurant and Bar as an example. Their events transport guests into the streets of Havana, playing live Cuban music and serving hearty Cuban food.
10. Comedy festival
Effort: 🏋️ 🏋️ 🏋️
Cost: 💰 💰
Fun factor: 🥳 🥳 🥳
Get a range of comedians on the roster to appeal to different audiences, and give them each a chance to work their magic on the stage!
You can also partner with other venues to host a wider range of comedy events and reach a wider audience. If you use Eventbrite to manage and promote your event (like the Laugh Out Lounge), you’ll reach even more people by appearing in our events search engine.
11. Themed open mic nights
Effort: 🏋️
Cost: 💰
Fun factor: 🥳 🥳 🥳
Host a themed open mic night to appeal to your target audience. For example, if your events typically cater to comedy-goers, you might host an improv comedy night like the Drunk Theatre. A speaker picks random topics from a hat and rolls with the punches!
To cater to your audience, you need to understand your audience demographics — which you can do with Eventbrite’s Analytics Tool. Review your most popular events, find your top demographics, and figure out what sort of open mic night would appeal to them.
Create the perfect event for your audience
Creative restaurant event ideas
Spark your attendees’ imagination with these creative ideas for restaurant events.
12. Creative writing workshops
Effort: 🏋️
Cost: 💰
Fun factor: 🥳 🥳
Get the creative juices flowing with a writing workshop. Hire a local author to host the session, organize the workshop, and give local creatives a chance to discuss ideas and share inspiration. Focus on writing a short piece of fiction so guests have something complete to go home with!
If you’re hosting a large event, you can invite more than one author to split the session into groups.
13. Watercolour pint and paint series
Effort: 🏋️
Cost: 💰💰
Fun factor: 🥳 🥳
Give guests a chance to develop their creative skills with a series of watercolor paint nights. For example, the Joy of Watercolor 6-Week Series by Artascope Studios hosts a series of watercolor sessions that get people back each week and help them refine their watercolor skills.
Having a series instead of one-off events is much more rewarding for guests, as they get a chance to truly develop a skill, and it encourages repeat business.
14. Clay pot building
Effort: 🏋️
Cost: 💰💰
Fun factor: 🥳 🥳
Run a craft night where guests can build clay pots under the guidance of a pottery expert, like the Clay Experience from the Chestnut Center for the Arts. The instructor takes guests through different clay techniques, from hand-building to sculpting, to create a pot that guests can take home to air dry.
Combine this with a series of light “picking” dishes served using beautiful artisan pots to tie your food in with the event’s theme.
Guests vote for their favorite pot at the end of the session, and the creator wins a prize — perhaps a pot designed by the pottery expert!
Wellness restaurant event ideas
Food and health are intrinsically linked. Encourage some downtime and relaxation with these wellness restaurant event ideas.
15. Yoga and brunch sessions
Effort: 🏋️
Cost: 💰 💰
Fun factor: 🥳
Move tables and chairs out of the way, give the floor a good clean, and plug an oil diffuser in to create some ambiance for a yoga session. Hire a local instructor to run the session, and you’re good to go!
After the yoga class, host a brunch buffet (like the Fit and Fun Yoga Brunch from Bars And More Hospitality Staffing) to let guests chat, mingle, and replenish after the session.
16. Sound bath experience
Effort: 🏋️
Cost: 💰 💰
Fun factor: 🥳
Find a local sound healer and work with them to arrange the restaurant space with comfortable mats, cushions, and blankets. Dim the lights and use candles or soft lighting to enhance the relaxing atmosphere. Then, let the healer work their magic with instruments (like singing bowls and gongs).
Serve healthy food and drink as part of the event, like the Cacao Ceremony and Soundbath event from Free Will Healing. They served a cacao elixir as part of a Cacao Ceremony!
Party restaurant event ideas
Get people up on the dance floor (and get the cash register dancing, too!) with these party-inspired restaurant event ideas.
17. Casino party night
Effort: 🏋️ 🏋️
Cost: 💰💰
Fun factor: 🥳 🥳 🥳
A casino party night can be a great way to make your party nights more appealing to potential guests. It adds a huge element of ambiance and fun to a traditional party night, making it more fun, engaging, and enjoyable.
Instead of gambling for money, give guests a chance to play casino games and win vouchers for food at the restaurant. Or, they could collect chips to win a prize, like a spa day!
18. Taylor Swift karaoke night
Effort: 🏋️
Cost: 💰
Fun factor: 🥳 🥳 🥳
Hire a karaoke machine and let Swifties sing the night away. If you’re not feeling Taylor Swift, pick a different artist or genre, like the Emo Night Karaoke events, which only plays rock music.
Ensure this is a private, ticketed event — you don’t want to force regular diners to listen to karaoke while eating. Use Eventbrite to easily sell, track, and manage ticket sales in a central platform!
19. 90s pop-up events
Effort: 🏋️ 🏋️
Cost: 💰
Fun factor: 🥳 🥳
Run a ticketed 90s pop-up event and give guests a blast from the past. Prepare 90s food and drink, play hits from the decade, and encourage guests to dress for the occasion with mid-rise pants, jean jackets, and crop tops.
Enter all guests into a pool to win some 90s merch, like a Nirvana top or a Gameboy Colour. At one of the 90s parties from Futuristic Feels Entertainment, some guests won tickets to see the Jonas Brothers!
20. Costume parties
Effort: 🏋️ 🏋️
Cost: 💰
Fun factor: 🥳 🥳 🥳
Host a themed costume party at your restaurant, like an ugly sweater party, an enchanted garden theme, or a literary legends soiree.
You could also run seasonal and holiday events to attract more people during the holidays. For example, a Christmas jumper night that includes a meet-and-greet with Santa or an adults-only Halloween party that allows adults to let loose!
21. Viewing parties
Effort: 🏋️
Cost: 💰
Fun factor: 🥳 🥳
Host a viewing party for a popular event to appeal to a wider audience. It could be a live show or performance, a new documentary, a sports game, an election — anything people want to watch in a group setting.
Why not turn the event into a bingo game? If you’re hosting a Super Bowl party, create bingo cards with phrases like ‘handoff’ or ‘scramble.’ The first guest to fill their card wins a prize!
Community restaurant event ideas
Look through these community restaurant event ideas to inspire locals to turn up to your events and offer something fun for your community.
22. Fundraiser for a local community charity
Effort: 🏋️ 🏋️ 🏋️
Cost: 💰
Fun factor: 🥳 🥳
Host a fundraiser for a local charity. This could be a silent auction, a talent show, a comedy night, or a foodie event like the Community Brunch Fundraiser from Gather and Grow. Their community brisket and waffle fundraising event helps children in the South Mountain communities participate in school gardening programs.
An event like this can help you develop a good relationship with your local community, increase community engagement, and improve brand perception.
23. Film and movie nights
Effort: 🏋️
Cost: 💰
Fun factor: 🥳 🥳
Film nights allow people to enjoy the cinema experience in a unique setting. After all, how many times have you watched a film in a restaurant? It’s also an excellent way for the community to come together, especially if you’re screening a movie by a local filmmaker.
Theme your film snacks based on the movie you’re screening. Watching Ratatouille? Make French food. Showing Chocolat? Serve scrummy chocolate treats. This creates an immersive experience and makes it more enjoyable for your guests.
Improve community engagement to grow your business
Game events and restaurant entertainment ideas
Make things fun and exciting for your guests with these game restaurant event ideas!
24. Virtual group game nights
Effort: 🏋️
Cost: 💰
Fun factor: 🥳 🥳 🥳
Run a group games virtual event so teams can play on their phones without leaving their tables. Virtual Scrabble could work, where teams work together to choose their words and play against other teams.
Or a virtual adventure game, like the Online Clue Solving Game – Save the Titanic by Epic Experiences. Teams work together to be the first to solve a thrilling nautical whodunnit!
25. Recurring trivia nights with a themed twist
Effort: 🏋️ 🏋️
Cost: 💰
Fun factor: 🥳 🥳 🥳
Turn recurring trivia nights (weekly or monthly) into an unforgettable experience that encourages repeat business and transforms your event into a hub of excitement and camaraderie.
Infuse each event with a unique theme, like ’80s Nostalgia or Fantasy Worlds, complete with corresponding decorations, music, and even themed menus to match. Consider introducing special ‘Celebrity Edition’ trivia nights, where questions are based on famous personalities, and the decor mimics glamorous award shows.
By constantly reinventing the trivia concept, you keep your guests eagerly anticipating what’s next, turning an ordinary night out into an adventure in knowledge and fun.
26. Dating game show
Effort: 🏋️
Cost: 💰
Fun factor: 🥳 🥳 🥳
Add a fresh take on a traditional singles night and host a dating game show. It’s a fun, engaging, and memorable way for people to spend an evening.
Try to think of something unique for your game show setup. The Fooling Around: A Dating Comedy Game Show from Spark Tabor is a good example. It’s a comedy show but also a dating game. Single comics work with audience members to win prizes — and maybe love.
Fun (but educational) restaurant event ideas
Educational events don’t have to be a snooze fest! Here are some fun but educational restaurant event ideas that guests will enjoy.
27. Educational seminars
Effort: 🏋️
Cost: 💰
Fun factor: 🥳 🥳
When you think of seminar planning, you probably picture people sitting on chairs and watching a speaker deliver a presentation, right? That’s not the only way to host an educational seminar.
They can be fun, engaging, and even physical. In the Women’s Self-defense Seminar by The StrongHER® Initiative, guests learn and perform the foundations of self-defense.
You could also make a seminar interactive. Use technology so that guests can engage with the seminar from their phones! You can ask questions, and people can respond via an online poll. Then, you can discuss the results with the participants.
28. Dance lessons
Effort: 🏋️ 🏋️
Cost: 💰 💰
Fun factor: 🥳 🥳 🥳
Move the tables and chairs out of the way and get people grooving on the restaurant floor with dance lessons. Choose your style of dance, find a suitable instructor, and start planning your fun-filled dance event!
Most dance styles have a country or region of origin. Take advantage of that natural link to food and drink and offer regional cooking and cocktails to make the most of your dance experience.
Finally, give guests something to go home with by recording and sharing the lesson with all the participants. That way, they can watch the class back and practice what they learned.
Professional restaurant event ideas
Take a look at a couple of professional restaurant event ideas that suit the corporate world.
29. Team-building treasure hunt
Effort: 🏋️ 🏋️
Cost: 💰 💰
Fun factor: 🥳 🥳 🥳
A team-building treasure hunt gives guests a chance to work together in a fun and engaging way. If your venue is large enough, split guests into teams and send them around the restaurant looking for clues to complete the hunt. If you’re limited by space, consider a scavenger hunt instead.
Take a look at the Wild Scavenger Hunt in Sacramento by Questo – City Exploration Games for some inspiration. The event features puzzles, riddles, and challenges for guests to complete using a mobile app!
30. Professional networking events
Effort: 🏋️
Cost: 💰
Fun factor: 🥳
Let professionals mingle at a networking event. Serve snacks and drinks while they chat, and give them a chance to talk with professionals in a similar field.
Break the ice and make the event fun with a pop-up photo booth, or kick the evening off with a round of speed networking to get rid of awkwardness and encourage people to relax. When people feel more relaxed, their networking efforts will be more fruitful.
Tips and advice to host a successful restaurant event:
Read our top tips and expert advice to give your restaurant event the best chance of success.
Prepare your venue to match the theme of the event
Food and drink are important at any restaurant event, but so is the ambiance. It can help to establish the vibe of your entire event, which can make or break its success. Take Uncorked: LA Wine Festival as an example. This event takes place at LA’s iconic Union Station, a venue that instantly elevates the feel of the event.
If you’re looking to host an upscale event, consider how to prepare your restaurant venue accordingly. Get the right decor, prepare tables, and set the tone for the event from the second guests walk through the door.
Use unusual and exceptional ingredients
Set your foodie event apart by incorporating special ingredients in your food, especially if you’re hosting a cooking class. Think of a pre-release of a product that’s about to become hot or a rare, foraged seasonal mushroom handpicked by the chef. Don’t shy away from choosing some seriously out-of-the-ordinary ingredients to create a memorable experience for guests.
Think about sustainability, too. Choosing ingredients that are good for both your attendees and the environment can appeal to eco-conscious foodies in your area.
Go high-tech at your food and drink event
Radio-frequency identification (RFID) bracelets help you track where attendees are spending the most time, so you can hone in on the most (and least) popular parts of your event. RFID also speeds up entrance and purchasing lines, so there’s no barrier between your event-goers and the sundries. Attendees can pay for food and drinks with a simple tap of their wrist — and go home satisfied and impressed.
Use the Eventbrite Organizer App to track real-time data on your event. Monitor ticket sales, tap into ticketing data, and scan credit cards for easy purchases, all within the convenience of this versatile app.
Design complete experiential food events
More than half of food and drink festival attendees told us they’re more likely to choose a festival that has more to it than a great food spread.
So, think about adding experiential elements to your events — like live music, photo booths, or even horse-and-buggy rides. Your imagination is the limit, and the 30 restaurant event ideas above should spur some inspiration.
FAQs about restaurant activities
How do you host a food event?
Hosting food events requires carefully planning every element of the event. You’ll need to consider:
- Event logistics
- Event themes
- Food preparation
- Staffing requirements
- Pricing
- Promotion and marketing
- Venue decor
With these elements in place, you’re ready to use Eventbrite to your advantage.
Eventbrite can help you with every step of your event planning process. Attract attendees with a professional event page that you can promote across your social channels. You can even sell tickets and track ticket data using Eventbrite, making it your all-in-one resource for event planning.
What are some food and beverage considerations when planning an event?
When hosting a food and drink event, consider your target audience. What type of food, drink, and entertainment best suits them?
Next, consider the cost. Identify your budget for event-related expenses, like event marketing, ingredient costs, external hires, and ticket sales.
Establish any safety precautions before you start marketing the event. Will you need security? Are there any venue capacity limitations? What food safety precautions should you take?
Making these considerations early in the planning stage ensures you run a smooth and successful event.
How do you attract people to food festivals and other food events?
Start by identifying your target audience so you know who you’re trying to attract. For example, if you want to reach out to men between the ages of 25 and 34, consider using Facebook to reach them. Why? Because this demographic is Facebook’s largest audience.
After pinpointing your audience, you can start sharing information and promotional materials about the event via the right channels. Use email marketing campaigns and social media to share the details. Use Eventbrite’s marketing tools to create ads, send customized emails, build branded pages, and sell tickets in one convenient space.
Food sponsorship for events can also help you cross-promote your event to reach an even broader audience.
Use our restaurant event ideas to host unique food events like a pro
Restaurant events can raise your brand awareness, help appeal to more customers, and build a loyal customer base. Hopefully, this article has given you some inspiration for your own restaurant event ideas — including how to make them as original as possible.
Creating a quality restaurant event and nailing all the details requires a lot of planning. Make the event planning process smooth with the Eventbrite Organizer App. Build an event page, market your event, sell tickets, track data, and so much more. Spend less time on marketing the event and more time planning an unforgettable foodie event that your attendees will adore.
