2025 Social Media Clock: Best Posting Times for Restaurants

While most restaurants are active on social media, posting with a strategy—especially around the best days and times—can dramatically boost engagement and visibility for your brand. Timing isn’t just about consistency; it’s about meeting your audience where they are, when they’re most likely to be scrolling.

When mapping out your restaurant’s social media plan, the data each platform provides is a valuable guide. Still, success comes from more than just following charts and studies—it’s about tailoring your approach to fit your unique brand, location, and customer base.

The bottom line? Find the sweet spot between proven best practices and your restaurant’s real-world results. Track, test, and refine—because the right timing isn’t universal, it’s unique to your audience.

How to Create an Effective Social Schedule

According to HubSpot, the best times to post on social media across all platforms in 2025 are 6 PM to 9 PM and 12 PM to 3 PM and the best day of the week to post is Friday. But for restaurants, each platform serves its own unique purpose.

For the food and beverage industries, it’s important to examine the networks for their audience and format when determining what days and times work best. You might find that TikTok and YouTube videos, for example, perform better in the morning while posting images on Facebook and Instagram may do better in the late afternoon.

Although each social media platform sees its engagement increase at specific hours and days of the week, it’s important to tailor your approach to suit your brand and target audience.

We’ve put together this guide to help get you started but it’s important not to just throw posts into the wind and see what sticks. Creating a content calendar and calculating what time slots seem to do best for you is the best way to measure each network’s effectiveness.

Once you start posting regularly and have collected enough data, review it regularly to determine when your audience is most active on the platform and what posting schedule they respond to the most.

Best Posting Times for Restaurants

The Best Times to Post on Facebook

Facebook remains a powerhouse platform in 2025. While your restaurant should maintain local profiles across multiple social networks, Facebook is one you can’t afford to overlook. With 3.065 billion monthly active users, it’s still the largest social media network in the world. Even better, peak engagement consistently happens in the mornings—every single day of the week, weekends included—making it an ideal time to capture your audience’s attention.

The best times to post on Facebook for food and beverage industry in 2025 are:

• Tuesdays: 9–11 a.m.

• Wednesdays: 10 a.m.

• Thursdays: 10 a.m.

• Fridays: 10 a.m.

• Best days to post on Facebook for food and beverage industry:Tuesdays, Fridays

• Worst days to post on Facebook for food and beverage industry: Sundays

The Best Times to Post on Instagram

In 2022, Instagram surpassed 2 billion monthly users, with most of its base accessing the platform via mobile. Because Instagram tends to have a younger audience, the best times to post are later in the day than on Facebook.

The best times to post on Instagram for food and beverage industry in 2025 are:

• Mondays: 11 a.m.–1 p.m.

• Tuesdays: 11 a.m.

• Wednesdays: 11 a.m.

• Thursdays: 11 a.m.–noon and 2 p.m.

• Best days to post on Instagram for food and beverage industry: Mondays, Thursdays

• Worst days to post on Instagram for food and beverage industry: Saturdays

  
  

The Best Times to Post on X (AKA Twitter)

Previously known as Twitter, X is a text-based social media platform that differs from other social platforms in terms of posting frequency. While your restaurant brand would likely want to keep posting limited to one or maybe two daily posts on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, your posting frequency on X should be slightly higher.

Unlike Facebook and Instagram, X, focuses on sharing brief informational messages. With a 280-character limit, X allows your restaurant to share information about menu updates, specials, promotions, and events. With 450 million monthly active users, much of your target audience is likely on this platform.

Because X is also more of a communal social media platform than others, consider favoriting, retweeting, and replying as long as you stick to your social media and brand guidelines.

• The best times to post on X for food and beverage industry in 2025 are:

  
  

  • Tuesdays: 11 a.m.

  • Wednesdays: 11 a.m.–1 p.m.

  • Thursdays: 11 a.m.–noon

  • Best days to post on X for food and beverage industry: Wednesdays, Thursdays

  • Worst days to post on X for food and beverage industry: Saturdays

    
    

The Best Times for Restaurants to Post on LinkedIn

With about 31% of U.S. adults using LinkedIn to network, it’s no surprise that it’s the only social platform to report weekdays as the top days to post. LinkedIn can increase your restaurant brand’s investment opportunities and partnerships. Depending on the type of restaurant, you can also leverage LinkedIn to find potential employees.

The best times to post on LinkedIn for food and beverage industry in 2025 are:

• Tuesdays: 10–11 a.m.

• Wednesdays: 10 a.m.–noon

• Thursdays: 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

• Best days to post on LinkedIn for food and beverage industry: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays

• Worst days to post on LinkedIn for food and beverage industry: Sundays

  
  

The Best Times for Restaurants to Post on YouTube

According to a Pew Research study, 82% of U.S. adults use YouTube.

The best times to post on YouTube for food and beverage industry in 2025 are:

• Mondays: Noon–1 p.m.

• Wednesdays: 10–11 a.m.

• Thursdays: 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.

• Best days to post on YouTube for food and beverage industry:Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays

• Worst days to post on YouTube for food and beverage industry:Saturdays, Sundays

The Best Times for Restaurants to Post on TikTok

Since 2020, TikTok has become the go-to short-form video platform for GenZ and Millennials. Quickly rising from a social media app for pre-teens posting viral dance videos to a critical marketing tool for small businesses, the platform reached 500 million monthly active users in year one.

Understanding the best times to post on social media, especially on TikTok, allows you to maximize your visibility, boost engagement and capitalize on trends.

The best times to post on TikTok for food and beverage industry in 2025 are:

• Mondays: 5 p.m.

• Tuesdays: 4 p.m.

• Wednesdays: 4 p.m.

• Thursdays: 3 p.m.

• Fridays: Noon–5 p.m.

• Best days to post on TikTok for food and beverage industry: Fridays

• Worst days to post on TikTok for food and beverage industry: Sundays

Take Away

While every social platform has its own “prime time,” the key for restaurants in 2025 is consistency and testing. Facebook mornings, Instagram evenings, TikTok late nights, and LinkedIn midweek business hours can serve as a strong starting point, but your audience may behave differently.

Track your analytics, experiment with timing, and adjust based on engagement. The right post at the right time doesn’t just boost likes—it brings diners through your doors.

By Eileen Strauss