Gander case study
"We'd been putting content out there and assuming it was working."
Ben
Owner, Alfi
Italian restaurant and wine bar, Spitalfields Market, London | Track: Attract Customers
Alfi is run by owners Ben and Alex, with Alba Harden looking after the brand. In July, they asked me to look at what AI was telling the people deciding where to eat.
What AI was telling diners
Ask Gemini about Alfi and it gave Ben and Alex's restaurant to someone else entirely. It told people Alfi came from the team behind another well-known restaurant in Shoreditch. It sounds like a compliment. It wasn't true. Anyone checking Alfi out before booking was reading about a different team, and had no reason to question it.
The rest was quieter. Alfi's pasta class and supper club were coming up strongly, so AI clearly knew the place. But for the everyday reasons people go out, like pizza, lunch on a workday or a date night, Alfi was missing or barely mentioned.
"The scan showed us exactly where it wasn't and why, down to specific page titles and platforms I hadn't thought to look at."
Alba made the changes herself
No campaign, no new budget. I gave Alba a short list of specific fixes and she worked through them over the summer. The pizza page title went from "Best pizza in London" to "Best pizza in Spitalfields, London". A Lunch Club page went live, with weekday hours and Alfi's lunch offer: nine pizzas and the tenth is on them.
October: what people hear now
We asked the same questions again. This is what changed.
Looking up Alfi by name
Before: Gemini credited the restaurant to another team.
Now: That story has gone. It no longer comes up when we ask Gemini, ChatGPT or Claude, and Claude names Ben and Alex as the founders.
Planning a date night
Before: ChatGPT gave Alfi a passing mention, as somewhere for drinks afterwards.
Now: ChatGPT lists Alfi as a date night option and says why it might suit you.
Pizza near Liverpool Street
Before: Alfi wasn't in ChatGPT's pizza answer.
Now: ChatGPT includes Alfi among the pizza options near the station.
Lunch on a weekday
ChatGPT now points people to Alfi for lunch inside Spitalfields Market, with its opening times.
This is how ChatGPT now describes Alfi to someone planning a date night:
"Alfi is more casual and lively, particularly because it's in Spitalfields Market. Current reviews mention good atmosphere, cocktails, music and friendly service."
ChatGPT, October 2026
Pizza is the one that takes longest.
Pizza is what Alfi is known for. In October, ChatGPT said Alfi has "clearly received a lot of positive feedback, particularly around pizza, service and atmosphere." But ask for the best pizza in Spitalfields and Alfi still isn't the answer. It's getting closer: ChatGPT now includes Alfi for pizza near Liverpool Street, but Perplexity and Gemini aren't including Alfi for pizza yet.
So why is pizza slower than date night or lunch? A page title can change overnight. But for a question like "best pizza", AI wants proof from people who have actually eaten there, meaning reviews and ratings from guests rather than what a restaurant says about itself. That proof builds one guest and one review at a time. Alfi's pizza is already good. Now the evidence needs to catch up with it, and that's a matter of months, not days.
If the world of SEO left people feeling confused, AI is a whole other level. Gander Brand manages to make it seem not overwhelming, which is a comfort to business owners for sure.
Alba Harden
Brand Manager, Alfi
The part that matters most is next.
Being recommended is only worth something if people actually come through the door. So now we're looking at Alfi's own numbers: lunch and evening covers, people finding them on Google, and asking guests how they first heard about Alfi. Some people will see Alfi in an AI answer and then just walk in, so no number will catch everyone. What we want to know is whether more of the right people are turning up for lunch and date nights. I'll update this page when we know.
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