Dining Mystery Shopping

Real guests, real visits, a true view of your dine-in experience.

Independent mystery dining to test service, standards and customer experience.

International coverage, with programmes across the UK, Ireland and wider markets under one provider

10,000+ mystery customer database

Detailed data reporting and dashboards, with site- and estate-level scores and trends

Fast turnaround on visit reports, giving you near real-time insight to act on

How Serve Legal can help

The Risk

Inconsistent service doesn’t always show up in head office reports – it shows up in online reviews, word of mouth and lost repeat visits. People are creatures of habit: research found 1 in 2 consumers prefer familiar restaurants over new ones—so one great experience can create long-term loyalty, and one bad one can break the routine for good. Slow service, poor product knowledge, weak allergen handling or standards slipping at busy times all damage your brand and revenue. Without independent feedback, you’re relying on what managers think is happening, not what guests actually experience.

How Serve Legal Helps

Serve Legal sends trained mystery diners to your venues, acting exactly like your target customers – from walk-ins and pre-booked tables to group occasions and solo visits. They follow the full journey: arrival, greeting, ordering, food and drink quality, cleanliness, atmosphere, payment and goodbye.

During each visit they record what really happens: how quickly they are acknowledged, how confident staff are when asked about the menu or allergens, how issues are handled, and whether the experience matches your brand promise. We can tailor scenarios to focus on particular dayparts, promotions or guest types, and include discreet checks on age-restricted sales where relevant.

You receive clear, actionable reports with scores and verbatim feedback, allowing managers to see strengths, pinpoint weak spots and build targeted training plans. Estate-level dashboards show trends over time so you can measure whether interventions are working.

Learn More about our Data and Analytics Offering

Data and Analytics Reporting

We don’t just run audits, we turn them into live, actionable intelligence. Our investment in data, software and automation goes far beyond industry norms, giving our clients faster insight, lower reporting costs, and a genuine competitive edge. Take a look at our reporting ecosystem, combining interactive Power BI dashboards, AI-powered data assurance and a developer-friendly REST API, helping you take control of compliance performance across your organisation.

Learn More about our Data and Analytics Offering

Our success stories

A nationwide restaurant group asked Serve Legal to give them a clear picture of what guests actually experience across their estate. We designed a rolling mystery diner programme where auditors behaved exactly like regular customers. They booked tables via the website and over the phone, checked confirmation and pre-visit communications, then assessed the full in-restaurant experience: greeting and seating, speed of service, menu knowledge, allergen handling, food and drink quality, cleanliness, atmosphere and payment.

The visits uncovered strong sites but also patterns of inconsistency – slow acknowledgement at busy times, variable allergen conversations and weak follow-up after complaints. Using our site- and region-level reports, the client targeted training, adjusted staffing at key dayparts and refreshed service standards. Within months, repeat mystery visits showed higher scores for welcome, attentiveness and confidence around allergens, alongside improved internal NPS and more positive online reviews. The brand gained hard evidence that changes were working and a sustainable way to monitor standards across all locations.

Frequently asked questions

Can you follow up with diners if we have questions about a visit?

Yes. We have ongoing relationships with our mystery diners and can contact them for further clarification or additional detail where needed, while still protecting their anonymity.

What geographic coverage do you offer?

We cover the UK and Ireland and have recently expanded internationally, working with clients across every continent. This allows you to run a consistent dine-in mystery shopping programme worldwide with a single provider.

How often should we run dine-in mystery shopping?

Most clients run programmes monthly or quarterly, with more frequent visits for new openings, underperforming sites or high-priority regions.

Can we include specific checks, such as allergens or age verification?

Yes. We can build in tailored questions and behaviours, including allergen inquiries, Challenge 21/25 checks, upselling and brand-standard measures.

About us

In early 2006, Ed Heaver and Julian Sargeson were alcohol retailers with a problem. The local authority had decided one of their sites was consistently serving underage people.

They wanted to check their staff, measure the site performance and demonstrate to the authority they were taking the issue seriously. They couldn't find a company providing a cost-effective service, so they decided to do it themselves.

The business has since grown to become the market leading provider of compliance auditing services in the UK & Ireland, and a leading voice in the conversations around age-verification and food allergy policy.

Our Customer Experience Allergen audit has been designed in collaboration with an experienced Environmental Health Practitioner and is approved by Trading Standards.

Our Awards

Don't just take our word for it, see the awards that back up our claims of excellence.

Elite Business Finalist 2025

Moneypenny Customer Service of the Year Award

Elite Business Award Winner 2025

Top 100 SME Businesses - #8 in the UK

Growing Business Awards Winner 2023

Customer Experience and Loyalty Award

The Golden Grocer Awards 2022 Finalist

Business Initiative of the Year

Growing Business Awards Winner 2022

B2B Business of the Year

Business Champion Awards 2022 Finalist

Business Community Award