From Brief
to Launch

Marc Lefebvre, the owner of Le Palais, had been operating his award-winning French restaurant in Bangkok for three years. His reputation was stellar — three Michelin stars, consistently fully booked via word of mouth. But his website was a liability.

The old site looked like it was built in 2012: generic template, no photos, slow to load. Guests were being referred to a site that didn't match the experience they'd just had. New guests judged the restaurant by the website before ever walking through the door.

His brief to us was simple: "Make it feel like the restaurant. Gold, luxurious, French. And I need it by the weekend."

We started from a single reference: the restaurant's printed menu. Heavy cream paper, gold foil title, Playfair Display serif. That became the entire design language.

Black backgrounds to let the food photography breathe. Amber and gold accents to evoke warmth and prestige. Playfair Display for headings — elegant, literary, French in spirit. A dish-by-dish showcase that scrolled like a menu being handed to you.

We built on Next.js with Tailwind CSS — our standard stack. Next.js gives us instant performance out of the box: image optimization, edge rendering, near-zero Time to Interactive. Critical for a luxury brand where slow = dead.

The reservation system uses a direct WhatsApp deep link — no backend, no maintenance, no failure points. Guests tap a button and land in a pre-filled WhatsApp conversation. Marc sees the booking request on his phone instantly.

Within the first week, Marc reported that guests were mentioning the website at the table. Reservations shifted from Instagram DMs to the WhatsApp flow — measurable, trackable, professional.

Month one: +40% in direct reservations. Marc attributed the increase entirely to the new online presence making the booking process frictionless.