Claiming a restaurant
How you get here: not during sign-up — you don't have a working session until your email is verified, so nothing can be claimed yet at that point. If the restaurant name and address you typed matched an existing listing, that match is saved and re-checked here the first time you verify and log in. Any restaurant account that hasn't yet claimed or created a restaurant is routed here before it can reach the main app. Requires an account? A restaurant account, logged in.
What this is
Plaum lists restaurants whether or not the business has signed up — that's why diners can browse places that never registered. When the owner arrives, this flow connects them to the existing listing rather than creating a duplicate, and only falls back to creating a new one if nothing matches or every match is already taken.
It's three screens in sequence: a gate that re-checks the match, a picker if more than one listing could be it, and a confirm-and-submit screen.
The gate
The first screen you land on. What it shows depends on where things stand with your claim, and the live result of re-running the match:
| State | What's shown |
|---|---|
| Checking | "Checking for your restaurant..." with a spinner. |
| Match found | "We found a possible match" — "We found {n} listing(s) that might be yours..." → Review matches |
| Check failed (rate-limited, offline) | "Could not check for a match" → Retry. Kept separate from "no match" on purpose — a transient failure shouldn't nudge someone into creating a duplicate listing. |
| No match, or every match already claimed | "Set up your restaurant" — "Your account is ready, but it is not linked to a restaurant yet." → Create my restaurant |
| Previous claim rejected | "Claim was not approved" with the reviewer's reason, then the same Create my restaurant fallback. |
| Claim submitted | "Claim submitted" — see After submitting below. |
Sign out is always available from here — you're not locked into resolving this in one sitting.
Picking a candidate — "Is any of these you?"
Reached from Review matches. Every matched listing is shown, including ones another account already claimed (greyed out, marked Already claimed by another account, not selectable) — hiding them would look like Plaum simply missed the place.
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Restaurant | Name and address. |
| Dish count | "{n} dishes already listed" — the reason to claim instead of starting fresh: the menu is already there. |
Two ways forward:
- This is my restaurant — enabled once you've selected one — continues to the confirm screen for that listing.
- None of these — create a new listing — creates a brand-new restaurant instead. Plaum remembers which listings you ruled out, so they get reviewed rather than silently turning into duplicates later.
If every match is already claimed, a footnote says so and points at None of these.
Confirming the claim
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Restaurant | The selected listing's name. |
| Address | Its address. |
| Status | Claimed or Needs claim. |
| Contact | Your name and email, taken from your signed-in account — not from what you typed at signup, since by the time this screen exists you have a real session. |
Submit claim request sends it. There's no form to fill in beyond this confirmation.
After submitting
Your claim is now pending review, and you land back on the gate, which shows:
Claim submitted Someone from our team reviews claims by hand so a listing cannot be taken over by the wrong person.
You will get an email once it is approved. Until then there is no restaurant profile to manage yet.
A claim is reviewed, not granted instantly — the same thing the sign-up screen already warned about. If it's rejected instead, the gate shows the reviewer's reason and drops you back to the create-your-own fallback.
Why this matters to diners
An unclaimed listing carries a warning on its profile and menu:
Unclaimed restaurant This menu is visible, but the business has not claimed this profile yet. Some details may be incomplete or outdated.
Claiming clears that and unlocks ordering and analytics.
Where you go next
Once your claim is approved or you created your own listing, the gate steps aside. Existing claimed listings usually already have enough profile data to skip straight to the app; a freshly created one is typically routed into Restaurant onboarding first. From there: My Kitchen · Portfolio