# Mercante: Agent-Direct Score C (66.2%)

Site: http://www.mercanterestaurant.com/
Report: https://directindex.org/r/mercanterestaurant.com
Scanned: 2026-10-21 (Provisional, with the action test and the assistant citation check still to come. The hatched part of the bar isn't measured yet.)
Mercante is partly visible to agents.
Some AI assistants are turned away by Mercante's website. It can read what Mercante offers. To book or order, it is sent to TheFork, a marketplace.

## Direct links
- Menu: https://www.mercanterestaurant.com/our-menus
- Phone: +44-20-7499-6321
- Address: Piccadilly 112 W1J 7BX London
- Prices: 3 prices on the site, the middle one £18.50

## Nearby, also direct
Places near Mercante that take a booking or an order on their own website, with no marketplace in between.
- House of Godo (200 m): https://directindex.org/r/mygodo.com
- Pinna Restaurant (220 m): https://directindex.org/r/pinnamayfair.com
- Theo Randall (230 m): https://directindex.org/r/theorandall.com
- Novikov (440 m): https://directindex.org/r/novikovrestaurant.co.uk
- Bocconcino Mayfair (520 m): https://directindex.org/r/bocconcinorestaurant.co.uk

## What to fix first
- **Booking only through thefork.** (+12 points) Every transaction an agent makes goes through the marketplace, which takes its commission. Add a direct way on your own site. Even a simple form will do. Guide: https://directindex.org/guides/book-direct-on-your-own-website
- **The server turns AI crawlers away at the door.** (+10 points) Requests as GPTBot (challenge:access denied), ClaudeBot (challenge:access denied), PerplexityBot (challenge:access denied) were refused, but a normal browser got the page. That's usually a bot list at the host or in a firewall that the owner never chose. Ask the host to allow these user agents. Guide: https://directindex.org/guides/blocking-ai-crawlers-without-knowing
- **No llms.txt.** (no points, but worth doing) Optional for now and cheap to add. It's a short text file that describes the business for language models. Guide: https://directindex.org/guides/llms-txt-for-a-business

## What the site tells visitors (Measured, not scored)
- **3 prices on the landing page, the middle one £18.50.** In London, the middle price of comparable sites that show prices is £11.95.

## Fix kit: What to paste

llms.txt. Save as /llms.txt at the root of the site.

```
# Mercante

> restaurant (italian) in Piccadilly 112 W1J 7BX London, London. Phone +44-20-7499-6321.

## Book or order directly

- Menu: https://www.mercanterestaurant.com/our-menus

## About

- Website: http://www.mercanterestaurant.com/
- This file follows llms.txt (https://llmstxt.org): a short plain-text description for language models.
```

## Already right
- **robots.txt lets AI crawlers in.** No rule blocks the main AI user agents.
- **Structured data found (Restaurant).** address, phone, opening hours
- **Menu or price list is an HTML page.** Agents can read the items and prices.
- **TheFork works with agents through its partners.** TheFork's terms page could not be fetched on 2026-10-15; TheFork integrated OpenAI's Operator agent for UK bookings in February 2025 and is a named Google AI Mode booking partner. Terms read on 2026-10-15: https://itbrief.co.uk/story/thefork-integrates-openai-s-operator-for-uk-bookings. An assistant that isn't a partner may not be able to finish there. A direct path on your own domain works for all of them.

## Where it stands
3753 of 8985 in London. Top 42% of the sites scanned in this index.

| What the top 10% of the index does | Top 10% | This site |
|---|---|---|
| Take bookings or orders on their own domain | 100% | no |
| Publish the menu or price list as HTML | 87% | yes |
| Let AI crawlers in (no block at the server or in robots.txt) | 94% | no |
| Structured data with address, phone and hours | 63% | yes |
| Have an llms.txt | 36% | no |

Nearest places with a similar menu: House of Godo (B, 200 m, https://directindex.org/r/mygodo.com); Pinna Restaurant (B, 220 m, https://directindex.org/r/pinnamayfair.com); Theo Randall (C, 231 m, https://directindex.org/r/theorandall.com); Novikov (A, 441 m, https://directindex.org/r/novikovrestaurant.co.uk); Bocconcino Mayfair (A, 517 m, https://directindex.org/r/bocconcinorestaurant.co.uk); The Dover (C, 545 m, https://directindex.org/r/thedoverrestaurant.com); Harry's Bar (F, 580 m, https://directindex.org/r/harrysbar.co.uk); Hora London (D, 592 m, https://directindex.org/r/horarestaurants.com); Franco's (C, 603 m, https://directindex.org/r/francoslondon.com); Il Gattopardo (C, 628 m, https://directindex.org/r/gattopardo.restaurant).

## What assistants answer
The assistants haven't been asked about this business yet. They're asked about the top-ranked businesses in each city index, and about any business as soon as it's claimed. Claim this page to be included.

The assistants were asked 13 everyday questions about London and named 66 places. Mercante wasn't one of them. See who was named: https://directindex.org/city/london/recommended


Compared with its peers: Sites built with Webflow 56% (22% A or B, 9011 sites); Sites using TheFork 65% (39% A or B, 2017 sites); This site 66.2%.

See what an AI agent reads on this site: https://directindex.org/r/mercanterestaurant.com/agent-view

## Businesses like Mercante in London

| Group | Sites | Avg score | A or B | This site |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Businesses of the same kind in London | 8985 | 54% | 36% | 66.2% |
| Sites built with Webflow in London | 130 | 63% | 41% | 66.2% |
| Sites using TheFork in London | 63 | 71% | 59% | 66.2% |
| Sites built with Webflow and using TheFork in London | 5 | 67% | 40% | 66.2% |

The best of the sites built with Webflow and using TheFork in London: Louie's Hot Chicken (B 72.3%, https://directindex.org/r/louieshotchicken.com); Docksider (B 70.8%, https://directindex.org/r/docksider.co.uk); Afternoon Tea at Grosvenor House (C 66.2%, https://directindex.org/r/parkroom.co.uk); Cho Sim (C 61.5%, https://directindex.org/r/chosim.co.uk).

With the two fixes above (Booking only through thefork; The server turns AI crawlers away at the door), the score would be about 100%, which would be first of 8,985 in London.

## The direct record
What agents get for Mercante, as JSON: https://directindex.org/api/direct/mercanterestaurant.com
- Book: none on record
- Order: none on record
- Menu: https://www.mercanterestaurant.com/our-menus (html_page; from the scan)
- Hours: none on record
- Phone: +44-20-7499-6321
- Stable links that count: https://directindex.org/go/mercanterestaurant.com/menu

## Can an agent transact?
Measured, not scored (the score stays at spec v1.0).
- UCP profile (/.well-known/ucp, Google and Shopify's Universal Commerce Protocol): no
- ACP discovery document (/.well-known/acp.json, OpenAI and Stripe's Agentic Commerce Protocol): no
- MCP server card (/.well-known/mcp/server-card.json): no
- Ordering vendor that takes agent orders (Square, Toast, or a vendor whose terms allow agents): no
- Vendor terms for agents, TheFork: Through partners. TheFork's terms page could not be fetched on 2026-10-15; TheFork integrated OpenAI's Operator agent for UK bookings in February 2025 and is a named Google AI Mode booking partner. Read 2026-10-15: https://itbrief.co.uk/story/thefork-integrates-openai-s-operator-for-uk-bookings

Found one hop past the home page: menu page /our-menus: menu schema.

## Score breakdown
| Component | Points | Available |
|---|---|---|
| Reachable | 15 | 25 |
| Readable | 25 | 25 |
| Actionable | 3 | 15 (the action test: pending) |
| Cited | 0 | 0 (the assistant citation check: pending) |

## Agent readiness (Cloudflare)
Level 1 of 5, Basic Web Presence. Cloudflare's report: https://isitagentready.com/mercanterestaurant.com
- Link headers on the homepage: no (how: https://isitagentready.com/.well-known/agent-skills/link-headers/SKILL.md)
- sitemap.xml: yes
- AI bot rules in robots.txt: yes
- Content Signals in robots.txt: no (how: https://isitagentready.com/.well-known/agent-skills/content-signals/SKILL.md)
- Markdown on Accept: text/markdown: no (how: https://isitagentready.com/.well-known/agent-skills/markdown-negotiation/SKILL.md)
- llms.txt: no (how: https://isitagentready.com/.well-known/agent-skills/llms-txt/SKILL.md)
- API catalog (RFC 9727): no (how: https://isitagentready.com/.well-known/agent-skills/api-catalog/SKILL.md)
- MCP server card: no (how: https://isitagentready.com/.well-known/agent-skills/mcp-server-card/SKILL.md)
- A2A agent card: no (how: https://isitagentready.com/.well-known/agent-skills/a2a-agent-card/SKILL.md)
- Agent Skills index: no (how: https://isitagentready.com/.well-known/agent-skills/agent-skills/SKILL.md)
- OAuth or OIDC discovery: no (how: https://isitagentready.com/.well-known/agent-skills/oauth-discovery/SKILL.md)
- OAuth protected resource metadata: no (how: https://isitagentready.com/.well-known/agent-skills/oauth-protected-resource/SKILL.md)
- auth.md: no (how: https://isitagentready.com/.well-known/agent-skills/auth-md/SKILL.md)
- Web Bot Auth key directory: no (how: https://isitagentready.com/.well-known/agent-skills/web-bot-auth/SKILL.md)
- ARD capability manifest: no (how: https://isitagentready.com/.well-known/agent-skills/ard/SKILL.md)
- DNS-AID records: no (how: https://isitagentready.com/.well-known/agent-skills/dns-aid/SKILL.md)
- WebMCP tools on the page: no (how: https://isitagentready.com/.well-known/agent-skills/webmcp/SKILL.md)
- JSON-LD for the business: yes

Keep watching this business (https://directindex.org/r/mercanterestaurant.com/plan): the assistants are asked again every month, and you see what changed. 2 EUR a month or 19 EUR a year.
Deep report: https://directindex.org/r/mercanterestaurant.com/deep. Ten questions phrased the way people ask them, each assistant's full answer, the eight nearest similar places, the fix plan and a PDF. 5 EUR, paid once. Reading and scanning stay free. These few euros pay for the questions sent to the assistants and for the servers.
Methodology: https://directindex.org/methodology · Rescan now: https://directindex.org/scan?url=mercanterestaurant.com&force=1