Washoku — Japanese Restaurant Website

A modern Japanese restaurant web application built with Laravel 11. Features an online menu, bento builder, shopping cart, user authentication, a Washoku Food Advisor chatbot for menu help and recommendations, and an admin panel for managing orders and menu items.

Features

Menu System - Browse menu items by categories (with calorie info per dish)
Bento Builder - Create custom bento boxes
Shopping Cart - Add items and manage your order
Washoku Food Advisor - Free rule-based chatbot for food recommendations, budget/calorie filters, and FAQ answers (hours, delivery, payment, etc.)
User Authentication - Register, login, and manage your account
Customer Dashboard - View order history
Admin Panel - Manage menu items and process orders
Store Locator - Find restaurant locations
Contact Page - Get in touch with the restaurant
Responsive Design - Built with Tailwind CSS and Alpine.js

Requirements

PHP >= 8.2
Composer (PHP dependency manager)
Node.js >= 18.x (for frontend assets)
npm or yarn
MySQL (optional - SQLite is used by default)

Installation

Step 1: Clone the Repository

git clone <your-repository-url>
cd -Washoku

Step 2: Install PHP Dependencies

composer install

Step 3: Install Node.js Dependencies

npm install

Step 4: Environment Setup

Create your environment file by copying the example:

copy .env.example .env

If .env.example doesn't exist, create a new .env file with the following content:

For SQLite (Simple - No database server needed):

APP_NAME="Japanese Restaurant"
APP_ENV=local
APP_KEY=
APP_DEBUG=true
APP_URL=http://localhost:8000

LOG_CHANNEL=stack
LOG_LEVEL=debug

DB_CONNECTION=sqlite
DB_DATABASE=database/database.sqlite

SESSION_DRIVER=file
SESSION_LIFETIME=120

CACHE_STORE=file
QUEUE_CONNECTION=sync

For MySQL:

APP_NAME="Japanese Restaurant"
APP_ENV=local
APP_KEY=
APP_DEBUG=true
APP_URL=http://localhost:8000

LOG_CHANNEL=stack
LOG_LEVEL=debug

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=japanese_restaurant
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=

SESSION_DRIVER=file
SESSION_LIFETIME=120

CACHE_STORE=file
QUEUE_CONNECTION=sync

Step 5: Generate Application Key

php artisan key:generate

Step 6: Database Setup

Choose ONE of the following options:

Option A: SQLite (Simple - Recommended for local development)

No database server needed! Just create an empty file:

# On Windows (PowerShell)
New-Item -Path "database/database.sqlite" -ItemType File -Force

# On Windows (Command Prompt)
type nul > database\database.sqlite

# On Mac/Linux
touch database/database.sqlite

Then run migrations:

php artisan migrate --seed

To populate estimated calorie values for menu items (optional but recommended for the Food Advisor and menu cards):

php artisan db:seed --class=MenuItemCalorieSeeder

Option B: MySQL

1. Install MySQL (if not already installed):

Download from: https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/
Or use XAMPP: https://www.apachefriends.org/
Or use Laragon: https://laragon.org/ (recommended for Windows)

2. Start MySQL Server

If using XAMPP, open XAMPP Control Panel and click "Start" on MySQL.

3. Create the database:

Open MySQL command line or phpMyAdmin and run:

CREATE DATABASE japanese_restaurant;

Or via command line:

mysql -u root -p -e "CREATE DATABASE japanese_restaurant;"

4. Update your .env file with MySQL settings:

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=japanese_restaurant
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=your_password_here

5. Run migrations and seeders:

php artisan migrate --seed
php artisan db:seed --class=MenuItemCalorieSeeder

Step 7: Build Frontend Assets

For development (with hot reload):

npm run dev

For production:

npm run build

Running the Application

Start the Development Server

Open two terminal windows:

Terminal 1 - Start the Laravel server:

php artisan serve

Terminal 2 - Start the Vite development server (for CSS/JS hot reload):

npm run dev

The application will be available at: http://localhost:8000

Project Structure

-Washoku/
|-- app/
|   |-- Http/Controllers/    # Application controllers (incl. FoodAdvisorController)
|   |-- Models/              # Eloquent models
|   |-- Services/            # FoodAdvisorService (chatbot recommendation engine)
|-- database/
|   |-- migrations/          # Database migrations
|   |-- seeders/             # Database seeders
|   |-- database.sqlite      # SQLite database file (if using SQLite)
|-- public/
|   |-- images/              # Public images
|-- resources/
|   |-- css/                 # Stylesheets (incl. Food Advisor styles)
|   |-- js/                  # JavaScript files
|   |-- views/               # Blade templates
|       |-- partials/food-advisor.blade.php  # Chat widget UI
|-- routes/
|   |-- web.php              # Web routes
|   |-- api.php              # API routes (cart, checkout, food advisor)
|-- storage/                 # Application storage

Database Schema

Table	Description
`users`	User accounts (customers & admins)
`categories`	Menu categories
`menu_items`	Menu items with prices and calories
`orders`	Customer orders
`order_items`	Items in each order

Washoku Food Advisor (Chatbot)

A free, rule-based food recommendation chatbot — no OpenAI, Gemini, or paid AI APIs.

What it does

Recommends dishes from your real menu based on category, budget, calories, dietary preferences, and spice level
Answers common questions (hours, delivery, payment, catering, menu overview)
Supports follow-up actions: Something else, Lower price, Lower calories
Skips irrelevant questions for drinks and desserts (no seafood/spice prompts)
Shows recommendation cards with price, calories, add-to-cart, and view links

Tech stack

Category	What we used	Purpose
Backend	PHP 8.2 + Laravel 11	API route, controller, service layer
Recommendation engine	Custom PHP (`FoodAdvisorService`)	Rule-based matching — keywords, regex, filters, scoring (no AI)
Database	Eloquent ORM + MySQL/SQLite	Reads live `menu_items` (price, calories, category)
API	Laravel JSON route + `fetch()`	`POST /api/food-advisor/recommend`
Frontend UI	Alpine.js	Chat state, messages, quick replies, open/close
Templates	Blade	`food-advisor.blade.php` widget markup
Styling	Tailwind CSS + custom CSS	Chat bubbles, cards, chips in `app.css`
Build tool	Vite	Bundles frontend assets
Auth (optional)	Laravel session	Uses logged-in user for past-order hints

Not used: OpenAI, Gemini, Claude, BotMan, Livewire Chat, or any paid chatbot/AI SDK.

How it works

Layer	Technology
Backend engine	`app/Services/FoodAdvisorService.php` — keyword parsing, filters, scoring
API	`POST /api/food-advisor/recommend` via `FoodAdvisorController`
Frontend	Alpine.js chat widget in `resources/views/partials/food-advisor.blade.php`
Data source	`menu_items` table (name, price, calories, category)

Try it

Start the app (php artisan serve + npm run dev)
Open any page — click the "Ask me!" chat button (bottom-right)
Use the wizard (category → budget → …) or type freely, e.g. spicy ramen under 400

User Roles

Customer - Can browse menu, place orders, view order history
Admin - Can manage menu items and process orders

Main Routes

URL	Description
`/`	Home page
`/menu`	Menu categories
`/bento-builder`	Custom bento builder
`/cart`	Shopping cart
`/login`	User login
`/register`	User registration
`/dashboard`	Customer dashboard
`/admin`	Admin panel
`/stores`	Store locations
`/contact`	Contact page
`/faq`	FAQ page
`POST /api/food-advisor/recommend`	Food Advisor chatbot API (JSON)

Common Commands

# Clear application cache
php artisan cache:clear

# Clear view cache
php artisan view:clear

# Clear all caches
php artisan optimize:clear

# Reset database (WARNING: deletes all data)
php artisan migrate:fresh --seed

Troubleshooting

"Class not found" errors

composer dump-autoload

Database errors

php artisan migrate:fresh --seed

CSS/JS not loading

Make sure the Vite server is running:

npm run dev

MySQL connection refused

Make sure MySQL server is running
Check your .env file has correct credentials
Try 127.0.0.1 instead of localhost for DB_HOST

`npm` blocked in PowerShell (Windows)

If you see a script execution policy error, either:

cd -Washoku
npm.cmd install

Or run npm install from Command Prompt instead of PowerShell.

Always run npm commands from the project folder (-Washoku), not from C:\WINDOWS\system32.

Permission errors (storage folder)

# On Mac/Linux
chmod -R 775 storage bootstrap/cache

License

This project is open-sourced software licensed under the MIT license.

Developers

Check out the /developers page to meet the team behind this project!

Made with Laravel 11, Tailwind CSS, and Alpine.js

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
app		app
bootstrap		bootstrap
config		config
database		database
public		public
resources		resources
routes		routes
storage		storage
.gitignore		.gitignore
README.md		README.md
artisan		artisan
composer.json		composer.json
package-lock.json		package-lock.json
package.json		package.json
postcss.config.js		postcss.config.js
tailwind.config.js		tailwind.config.js
vite.config.js		vite.config.js

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