Case Study

The Big Zen

A restaurant website that puts The Big Zen’s Hakka Chinese and Thai cuisine, browsable menus, food photography, lunch specials, and Whitby visit details within a clear desktop and mobile experience.

IndustryRestaurants & Hospitality

ServicesWeb Design & Development

PlatformWordPress, PHP, HTML5 +5 more

The Challenge

Make a Wide Restaurant Offer Easy to Explore

The Big Zen’s first website had to represent two cuisines and several ways to enjoy them without reducing the experience to a single long food list. Visitors needed a quick first impression, a detailed menu when ready to choose, practical takeout and lunch information, and reliable directions or phone contact for the Whitby restaurant.

Two cuisines create a dense menuThai and Hakka dishes span appetizers, soups, noodles, rice, entrées, vegetarian choices, and set dinners; visitors need recognizable routes into that breadth.
Dine-in and takeout need different formatsA browseable on-page menu and a shareable takeout sheet serve different moments in the decision journey.
Food choices need visual contextThe restaurant’s dishes and presentation needed room to make the cuisine tangible beyond text descriptions.
Specials and terms can changeLunch information and its conditions need a distinct destination that can be reviewed without confusing it with the full menu; published prices and offers may change.
A visit depends on practical detailsAddress, opening hours, phone numbers, and delivery-partner information have to be findable, especially from a phone.

Project Overview

A First Website for the Whitby Dining Experience

Saiftec is publicly credited for designing and developing The Big Zen’s website, and the project owner identifies the engagement as a new build. The finished site introduces the restaurant’s Indian Hakka Chinese and Thai cuisine, separates the full HTML menu from a PDF takeout menu, gives lunch specials and food photography their own pages, and brings the Whitby address, hours, phone numbers, and embedded map into the visitor journey. A responsive homepage preserves the brand, food imagery, and primary actions on mobile.

First Website Build

The Big Zen website displayed on desktop

Cuisine-led menu browsingThai and Hakka sections organize the detailed on-page menu into recognizable dish families.
Visit and call essentialsThe Whitby address, hours, phone links, and location map create a practical next step.
Takeout menu in two formsVisitors can view the takeout PDF in an embedded flipbook or use the PDF download link.
Food and lunch discoveryA dedicated gallery and lunch-special page give the restaurant more than one way to present its offer.

Our Solution

Connect Appetite, Menu Detail, and the Next Visit

The website opens with the cuisine and food imagery, then lets a visitor choose the right level of detail: browse the full HTML menu, inspect or download the takeout sheet, review lunch specials, or look through real food photos. Contact and location details remain direct enough for a guest who is ready to call or visit. The site does not present a native ecommerce checkout, so the story should stay about restaurant discovery and contact.

View the Live Website

HTML menu with cuisine anchorsThe full menu has Thai and Hakka entry points and named categories, letting guests navigate a broad selection as page text rather than relying only on an image or PDF.
Embedded takeout menu and downloadA dedicated takeout page presents the restaurant’s PDF in a flipbook viewer and provides a PDF download link for offline reference.
Separate lunch-special pageA focused page distinguishes lunch sets, included choices, and current conditions from the larger dine-in menu. Avoid reproducing a fixed price in this case study.
Authentic food galleryA photo grid shows client-published dish and dining imagery, giving visitors visual evidence of the food they can expect.
Location and phone pathThe location page combines an embedded map with Whitby address, current hours, clickable phone numbers, and delivery-partner branding; the mobile homepage keeps menu and phone actions visible.

The Big Zen takeout menu page with a PDF download control and an embedded flipbook showing the first menu spread.

The Big Zen food gallery showing a grid of plated Hakka and Thai dishes and restaurant food photographs.

The Big Zen HTML menu showing Thai and Hakka cuisine navigation and Thai appetizer and soup categories.

The Big Zen location page with a Whitby map, address, hours, phone details, and delivery-partner logos. — **Location, hours, and map**

Outcomes

A Restaurant Presence Visitors Can Explore and Act On

The full menu has a browsable homeNo attributable traffic, call, booking, order, revenue, ranking, or conversion metrics were supplied. These outcomes describe publicly observable website capabilities, not measured business improvement. Thai and Hakka sections, dish categories, descriptions, and choices are available as page text on the public site.
Takeout information has a portable routeThe takeout menu can be viewed on its own page and downloaded as a PDF; no native order or payment flow is claimed.
The cuisine has a visual showcaseThe dedicated gallery brings real client-published food photography into a scannable grid alongside the menu-led pages.
Guests can move from browsing to visit planningThe homepage and location page expose menu, phone, address, hours, and map information, while an authentic phone capture confirms the homepage’s responsive primary actions.

The Challenge

Project Preview

A Look at the Finished Work

Our Solution

Outcomes

What Changed After Launch

Client Feedback

What The Big Zen Says

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Technology Stack

Built With a Modern Stack

The platform, languages and tools the finished site runs on.

CSS3

DearFlip

HTML5

JavaScript

jQuery

Leaflet

PHP

WordPress

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

How does the website handle such a broad Hakka and Thai menu?

The public HTML menu separates Thai and Hakka cuisine and groups dishes by familiar categories, including appetizers, soups, noodles, entrées, vegetarian selections, and set dinners. Guests can read descriptions and choices on the page rather than relying solely on a menu image.

Can visitors view and download the takeout menu?

Yes. The dedicated takeout page shows the client’s PDF in an embedded flipbook and provides a direct PDF download link. The PDF’s prices and terms may change, so the live document should be checked before quoting them elsewhere.

Why is the lunch special on its own page?

The separate page keeps lunch sets, inclusions, and conditions distinct from the full dine-in menu. That gives a visitor a focused route to the current lunch offer without implying that the promotion or price is permanent.

Does The Big Zen website process orders or payments directly?

No native cart, checkout, or on-site payment flow was observed. The site presents menus, clickable phone numbers, and delivery-partner branding. This case study should not describe it as an ecommerce build or claim that a third-party delivery order was tested.

How can guests find the Whitby restaurant?

The site provides a dedicated location page with a map, the Thickson Square address, opening hours, and phone numbers. Those details are published by the restaurant and should be rechecked before the case study goes live.

What does a mobile visitor see first?

The captured phone homepage shows the restaurant logo, compact navigation, cuisine headline, phone actions, and a menu link in a single-column layout. Implementation QA should verify that the case-study page preserves its own primary CTA and evidence down to 320 px.

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