Should restaurants use AI-generated food photos? What 7 small food businesses and shops actually did (2026)

Updated October 20, 2026 · 7 sourced examples · local news reporting linked · no paid placement

Short answer

Most of the small businesses in our library that use AI for food or product marketing start from a real photo or real footage, and use AI for the flyer, the background, the script or the caption. Two generated the food itself: Chef Andy Thomson for Station Six's event posters, and Seoul Foods for Facebook ads. Both drew complaints, and one Seoul Foods customer told the Minnesota Star Tribune she hasn't been back since. In 2026, local papers in Columbia, South Carolina, southern Minnesota and Nova Scotia all reported customer pushback on AI food pictures, and the Columbia Foodies Facebook group (119,000 members) bans them. The middle path the owners here use: photograph the real dish, let AI do the layout and words, and proofread every letter.

Key takeaways

Real photo, AI layout: The Dear Donut uploads real pictures of its food so its ChatGPT flyers look realistic, and Fuddy Duddy Co. kept its real candle photos and had Square Photo Studio generate only the backgrounds (Square's own blog).
AI-generated food is fast but gets noticed: Chef Andy Thomson uses ChatGPT when he forgot to take a picture and says "The majority of people thought the pictures looked great," though someone complained about his burger image. Seoul Foods' ChatGPT ads drew criticism from some local customers.
Some owners use AI for everything except the food: Ramy Singh of Aura Kitchen and Bar uses AI for flyers and social graphics but not for food pictures, and Original Tamale Company used ChatGPT for the script and voice but shot its own B-roll of tamales.
AI still garbles words on images. Luisa Ramirez of Charcuterie by Bohemian Picnics moves flyer text to Canva, and the Halifax Examiner found misspelled business and town names on local AI posters.

Jump to: Do customers mind? · Real photo, AI help · When it makes sense · Garbled text · Watch-outs · The 7 examples · Cost · FAQ

What did these 7 businesses do with AI and their food or product pictures?

Each business links to its full case, with steps and a copy-paste prompt. Results are as told to the source, not promises.

Business	What AI does in their marketing	Is the food or product in the picture real?	Tool named	What they reported
The Dear Donut (Lugoff, South Carolina)	Flyers, social media graphics and emails	Yes: real photos uploaded so the flyers look realistic	ChatGPT	Saves an "almost unquantifiable" amount of time; "It's just less work"
Station Six and Lisa's Family Restaurant (Nova Scotia)	Posters for wing nights, live music and a "Burger Bash" special	Sometimes AI-generated (when he forgot a photo); real photos for weddings, lamb or bison	ChatGPT	"We did well with the burger"; one Facebook complaint about the burger image
Seoul Foods (North Mankato, Minnesota)	Facebook ads	No: ChatGPT-generated images	ChatGPT	Some customers objected; the store now posts fewer AI images
Aura Kitchen and Bar (Columbia, South Carolina)	Flyers and social media graphics	No AI food pictures	Not named	No marketing figures; separately estimates almost $2,500 saved with AI since June
Charcuterie by Bohemian Picnics (New York)	Picks the week's strongest photos and writes captions; flyers	Yes: real photos; flyer text finished in Canva	Sintra, Canva	Instagram reached 20,000 followers (self-reported, not shown to be caused by the tool)
Original Tamale Company (Los Angeles)	Script and AI voiceover for a meme-style Instagram ad	Yes: the owner's own B-roll of tamales and menu items	ChatGPT	More than 22 million views in about three weeks, per Business Insider
Fuddy Duddy Co. (candles; vendor story)	AI-generated backgrounds behind product photos	Yes: real product photo, AI background	Square Photo Studio	Much less time than hours or days of photo setup, per Square

Do customers mind when a restaurant uses AI food photos?

Some do, and they say so in the comments. The Minnesota Star Tribune reports that a local customer who loved Seoul Foods' original photos stopped going after its Facebook ads switched to ChatGPT images: "It was disappointing. I was really rooting for them." The paper cites a Gallup poll from August in which just 19% of Americans viewed ads positively when they looked AI-made, and a Marketing Brew article saying 78% of consumers believe AI makes ads "feel less authentic" (figures as reported by the Star Tribune).

In Columbia, South Carolina, the Columbia Foodies Facebook group (119,000 members) bans posts with AI-generated food images, per the Free Times. Its creator, Chris Shipley, co-owner of the Spoiled Brats hot dog truck, calls AI food photos "ultimately false advertising," though he says people still use AI for menus and logos.

In Rawlins, Wyoming, a commenter on a local Facebook thread wrote that most of her friends "will not go to businesses using AI. Especially restaurants, as they will use AI generated images of food versus their own, so you truly do not know what the food looks like," per the Saratoga Sun.

Not everyone objects. Chef Andy Thomson told the Halifax Examiner that "the majority of people thought the pictures looked great," and the manager of Lane's Privateer Inn in Liverpool, Nova Scotia, said it hasn't had negative feedback from customers, even though some comments under its posts ask, "What does the actual burger look like?" A University of Minnesota marketing professor told the Star Tribune that customers are generally fine with businesses using AI as long as they don't have to see it.

How do owners use AI for food marketing without faking the food?

Start from the real thing. Jasmin Walls of The Dear Donut uses ChatGPT "for almost everything — from writing emails to creating social media graphics," and uploads real pictures of her food so the flyers look realistic. "It is still a lot of work," she says. "It's just less work."

Christian Ortega of Original Tamale Company used ChatGPT for the narrator script and AI voice of a 46-second meme-style ad, then added his own B-roll of tamales and menu items. Luisa Ramirez of Charcuterie by Bohemian Picnics has Sintra pick the strongest of the week's real photos and write captions, and still posts by hand. In a vendor story, Fuddy Duddy Co. photographed its candles and had Square Photo Studio generate only the backgrounds.

Ramy Singh of Aura Kitchen and Bar doesn't use AI for food pictures but regularly uses it for flyers and social graphics, per the Free Times. In the Star Tribune, Jeremy Pickett of Papapicketts BBQ says he hired a person to post pictures of the food after customers criticized his AI ad, and still uses AI behind the scenes for paperwork.

Doug Townsend, co-owner of The Canteen on Portland in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, draws the line between touching up a real photo and typing "Make me a beautiful-looking lobster roll" and passing it off as your own, per the Halifax Examiner. "That's where it's problematic," he says.

When does an AI-generated food image make sense for a small restaurant?

The owners who generate food images say it's about time and money. Thomson, who owns Lisa's Family Restaurant, Station Six and Horizons Catering, says that when he gets busy and forgets to take a picture, "I'll go home and just use AI to bang it up, because I need to get it done instantaneously." He uses it for posters for wing nights, music and a burger special, but "if I'm playing around with lamb, or bison, or stuff like that, it'll be a photo," and he won't use AI for wedding or catering clients.

Walls makes the cost case: "for me, $500 is my utility bill. $500 is one of my employees … for the week." Brandon "Yella" Hensley of Seoul Foods told the Star Tribune, "They want to be mad because I saved some time taking pictures," and has been posting fewer AI images lately.

A reasonable reading of these stories (our suggestion, not a rule from any source): quick event posters are lower risk than pictures of a specific dish a guest will order, and premium dishes, weddings and catering get real photos.

Why does AI get the words on my restaurant flyer wrong?

Image tools still misspell things. Ramirez says flyers with text come out garbled ("the letters are not matching what I'm typing in"), so she moves the text to Canva, where "it makes it perfect." The Halifax Examiner found a Hungry Traveler cafe poster that spelled Lunenburg as "Lungnburg," a Lane's poster that dropped the apostrophe from its own name, and Station Six posters where the restaurant's name is inconsistent.

The fix is cheap: have AI make the picture and the layout, then type the words yourself in Canva or your phone's editor, and read every word before you post.

What should a restaurant watch out for with AI images?

Match the plate. Audra Williams of Rosefinch Mercantile in Port Medway, Nova Scotia, asks of a too-perfect AI tea tray, "what happens when someone comes in?" (Halifax Examiner).
Check your local food groups' rules before you post there. Columbia Foodies bans AI food images.
Proofread names, prices, dates and towns on every AI-made image.
Watch the comments for a week after you switch. Seoul Foods and Papapicketts BBQ both changed course after customer criticism, per the Star Tribune.
Keep the AI behind the scenes if your customers are sensitive about it. Several owners in these stories still use it for emails, paperwork and planning.

The 7 businesses, with who did it and where the story came from

Flyers made in ChatGPT from real photos of the food: The Dear Donut (Lugoff, South Carolina)

who Jasmin Walls, co-owner of The Dear Donut in Lugoff, South Carolina, in the Free Times (Post and Courier)

Tools: ChatGPT · Job: Make flyers and social graphics in ChatGPT from real photos of your own food, and draft your emails there too

What it does: Per the Free Times, Walls uses ChatGPT "for almost everything — from writing emails to creating social media graphics." She uploads real pictures of her food so flyers look realistic and spends time training the AI so it gives her the best output; one graphic was carefully prompted to look as close to reality as possible.

Reported: She says it saves her an almost unquantifiable amount of time: "Why would I do that when I could pay $30 a month to put it in a software that's gonna do it in five minutes?" She adds, "It is still a lot of work. It's just less work." The same article reports customer backlash against AI food images in Columbia, and the Columbia Foodies Facebook group bans them. No figures beyond hers. Self-reported.

press · Free Times (Post and Courier): Appetite for AI: Columbia restaurants weigh the use of generated photos and graphics amid backlash (Sydney Dunlap) (2026-07-29) · Full case with steps and a prompt

AI-generated posters when there's no photo, real photos for weddings: Station Six and Lisa's Family Restaurant (Nova Scotia)

who Chef Andy Thomson, owner of Lisa's Family Restaurant in Windsor, Nova Scotia, Station Six in Spryfield and Horizons Catering, in the Halifax Examiner

Tools: ChatGPT · Job: Make event posters and specials graphics in ChatGPT when you didn't get a photo, but keep real photos for weddings and premium dishes

What it does: Per the Halifax Examiner, Thomson regularly uses ChatGPT to generate images of food served at his restaurants and to make posters for musical performers and wing nights; he used it to promote Station Six's "Burger Bash" special. "I can just basically figure out what I want to tell it, and then generate it pretty accurately." He doesn't use AI to promote his catering business, and real photos are used for dishes like lamb or bison and for wedding clients.

Reported: He finds ChatGPT "really simple" and says that although someone complained about the burger image, "The majority of people thought the pictures looked great. We did well with the burger." The Examiner notes the restaurant's name is inconsistent on some of the posters. No figures were given. Self-reported.

press · Halifax Examiner: Impossible burgers: Is it ethical to market restaurants with AI images? (Philip Moscovitch) (2026-06-02) · Full case with steps and a prompt

ChatGPT-made ad images that drew pushback, plus back-office uses: Seoul Foods (North Mankato, Minnesota)

who Brandon "Yella" Hensley, co-owner of Seoul Foods, an Asian grocery store in North Mankato, Minnesota, in the Minnesota Star Tribune

Tools: ChatGPT · Job: Use ChatGPT to learn contracts, grants and licenses in your first year, translate with workers and suppliers, and price your inventory

What it does: Per the Star Tribune, Hensley turned to ChatGPT to learn about contracts, grants and licenses. It translated conversations between Hensley and the Spanish-speaking workers ferrying food for the Chinese-speaking grocery suppliers, and it scanned his inventory and gave him prices. The store also made Facebook ads with ChatGPT-generated images.

Reported: Hensley said AI helped them learn how to run a business during a turbulent first year, and likened his ChatGPT subscription to David's slingshot against corporate Goliaths. The ChatGPT-made ad images drew criticism from some local customers; one told the paper she hasn't been back since those posts. He has been posting fewer AI-generated images lately, which he puts down to the store struggling to survive. No figures were given. Self-reported.

press · Minnesota Star Tribune: AI use is straining customer loyalty. It's playing out in a local grocery store. (Jp Lawrence) (2026-09-11) · Full case with steps and a prompt

AI for flyers but not food pictures (and a fryer fix): Aura Kitchen and Bar (Columbia, South Carolina)

who Ramy Singh, owner of Aura Kitchen and Bar in Columbia, South Carolina, in the Free Times (Post and Courier)

Tools: AI tool (not named) · Job: Photograph a broken fryer and ask AI what's wrong before you call a repair tech

What it does: Singh told the Free Times he recently used AI to avoid a costly repair call for his fryer: "We take a picture of the fryer, we ask AI what's wrong with it, and somehow their AI is able to help us and be able to fix it before deciding to (call) somebody in." He also uses AI regularly for flyers and social media graphics, but not for food pictures. The article doesn't name the AI tool.

Reported: He estimates he has saved almost $2,500 using AI since the restaurant opened in June. Self-reported estimate.

Real photos picked and captioned by AI, flyer text finished in Canva: Charcuterie by Bohemian Picnics (New York)

who Luisa Ramirez, co-owner and executive chef of Charcuterie by Bohemian Picnics, a charcuterie board and picnic basket shop near Central Park in New York, who also runs its marketing, on the Artificial Reality podcast

Tools: Sintra, Canva · Job: Plan Instagram posts and captions with an AI assistant, then finish flyers in Canva

What it does: Sintra helps her with Instagram strategy, post ideas, email marketing and catering menus. From a batch of photos it picks the strongest for the week and writes captions with keywords, and it can schedule posts and notify her before they go out.

Reported: Self-reported: Instagram reached 20,000 followers the week of recording ("this week we reached twenty thousand followers"), which she credits to what she learned through AI and Sintra. This is not shown to be caused by the tool, and no other figures are given. She still posts by hand. Main limit: flyers with text come out garbled ("the letters are not matching what I'm typing in"), so she moves the text to Canva, where "it makes it perfect."

owner-told · Artificial Reality podcast S2E2: Sara Rojas and Luisa Ramirez, co-owners of Charcuterie by Bohemian Picnics (2026-09-02) · Full case with steps and a prompt

AI script and voice over the owner's own food footage: Original Tamale Company (Los Angeles)

who Christian Ortega, who oversees marketing for his family's Original Tamale Company (Pacoima / San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles), in Business Insider

Tools: ChatGPT, Instagram · Job: Write a meme-style ad script and AI voiceover in ChatGPT in about 10 minutes, then shoot the restaurant B-roll yourself

What it does: Ortega adapted a popular falling-from-a-plane meme into a 46-second PSA-style spot that pivots to the restaurant. He used ChatGPT for the narrator script and AI voice, then added his own B-roll of tamales and menu items. He stresses putting a personal spin on trends and balancing AI with his own creative work; sometimes he posts with no AI at all.

Reported: The Instagram video reached more than 22 million views and about 1.2 million likes in roughly three weeks; Ortega said he made it in about 10 minutes and that customers came in citing the video (and then the reviews). Treat view counts and visit anecdotes as press/owner-reported.

press · Business Insider: How a family-owned tamale shop in LA struck marketing gold using AI (Original Tamale Company) (2025-08-18) · Full case with steps and a prompt

Real product photos with AI-generated backgrounds: Fuddy Duddy Co. (vendor story)

who Carissa Smith, owner of Fuddy Duddy Co., a candle and wax melt business, on Square's blog

Tools: Square · Job: Create AI product photo backgrounds for 20-plus candles with Square Photo Studio

What it does: She used Square Photo Studio, an AI-powered app: take or upload a photo, remove the background with one click, select keywords for the background you want, and AI generates it. Her Higher Ground candle (coffee and cinnamon donut notes) got a background of coffee beans; Harvest Moon (apple, pine, walnut) got autumn leaves and apples. She says "It's fun to play around with the different keywords."

Reported: Per Square, instead of spending hours or days setting up and editing photos of her 20-plus products, she finished in much less time. Square also says a chatbot (not named) helped her get the descriptions written, and that the time saved meant her site was up and making sales sooner. No figures are given. This is Square's own blog about its own app.

vendor case study · Square: 4 Square Sellers on How They're Using AI in Their Businesses (Nina Godlewski) (2023-12-19) · Full case with steps and a prompt

These are each business's own results with their own tools, as reported by the source. None of them are promises.

What does it cost?

Four of the seven name ChatGPT. The table shows the starting prices we checked on each vendor's own pricing page, on the date shown. Walls compares a designer's $500 fee with paying "$30 a month" for software; Ramirez says she pays $37 a month for Sintra (both their figures, not checked).

Tool	Starting price we checked	Checked	Which of the 7 name it
ChatGPT	Free $0; Go $8/mo; Plus $20/mo; Pro $100/mo	2026-10-20	The Dear Donut, Station Six, Seoul Foods, Original Tamale Company
Canva	Pro $18/mo or $144/yr for one person	2026-10-18	Charcuterie by Bohemian Picnics
Square	$0 (free plan; processing fees apply) (Square Photo Studio itself is not checked)	2026-10-17	Fuddy Duddy Co.
Sintra	Not checked		Charcuterie by Bohemian Picnics

How to start this week

Photograph the real dish in good light, the way a guest will see it.
Upload it to ChatGPT and ask for a flyer or post layout that keeps the food exactly as it looks. The Dear Donut case has a copy-paste prompt.
Type the words (name, date, price, address) yourself in Canva or your phone's editor, as Ramirez does, and proofread every letter.
Compare the finished image to the plate. If it looks better than what you serve, use a different photo.
If you do try an AI-generated food image, start with a quick event poster, not a signature dish, and read the comments for a week.

Frequently asked questions

Is it OK for a restaurant to use AI-generated food photos?

Customers in several towns have pushed back. The Columbia Foodies Facebook group bans them, a Seoul Foods customer stopped shopping there over them, and one Facebook commenter asked Lane's Privateer Inn, "What does the actual burger look like?" Most owners in our library use AI on real photos instead.

Can ChatGPT make a restaurant flyer from my own food photo?

Yes. Jasmin Walls of The Dear Donut uploads real pictures of her food to ChatGPT so her flyers look realistic, per the Free Times. Check the text before you post; image tools often garble it.

Why does AI misspell words on my flyer?

Image generators still get text wrong. Luisa Ramirez says the letters don't match what she types, so she finishes flyers in Canva. The Halifax Examiner found misspelled business and town names on local AI posters.

Do customers notice AI food photos?

Some do. The Star Tribune and the Halifax Examiner both quote customers and commenters who spotted AI images. Chef Andy Thomson says most of his customers liked his AI burger poster, but one complained.

What does it cost to make restaurant graphics with AI?

ChatGPT has a free plan, and paid plans start at Go $8/mo. Canva Pro is $18/mo. Those are the starting prices we checked; see the table above.

Sources outside our case library

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