Restaurant Website Rebuild Case Study

The Problem

Shirin Cafe, an Uzbek and Central Asian restaurant in Manalapan, NJ, was running on a website that had not been meaningfully touched in 15 years, with no way to order online. During rush hours, if the phone was busy, the order was just gone — no way to catch it, no record it ever happened.

What We Built

The design itself came from the owner. He wanted to keep the character of the original site — it is part of how regulars recognize the restaurant — and a full redesign was not what he was after. So we kept the design close to the original and deliberately preserved that authenticity. The work went into what was actually broken underneath: page speed, mobile responsiveness, and online ordering.

The owner still calls each customer to confirm their order — nothing changes about how he runs the kitchen — but now every order lands in his inbox by email the moment it is placed, whether the phone was free or not.

The Result

Page load time is roughly 500% faster. The site works properly on a phone instead of just tolerating one. And every order gets captured regardless of phone availability during a rush — no more orders quietly disappearing mid-call. Retiring a 15-year-old website also closes a real security risk that came with it.

Why It Matters

An old website is not just outdated — it is actively losing you business every time someone gives up mid-call or bounces off a page that will not load right on their phone. And a rebuild does not have to mean throwing away what your customers already recognize.