Zenchef Call AI vs ImaginoVox: which AI phone agent for your restaurant?

What is Zenchef Call AI?

Zenchef Call AI is Zenchef's native voice assistant: it answers incoming calls, takes reservations based on your Zenchef availability, adds them to your book and confirms the guest by SMS, 24/7. You feed it answers to common questions in your back office, and it handles those live. Zenchef says it won an innovation award at Serbotel 2025.

Don't confuse it with Bookline, a separate partner voice assistant Zenchef also lists (with its own broader language support): this comparison is about Call AI, Zenchef's own feature. Zenchef doesn't publish a spoken-language list for Call AI itself.

Zenchef markets a concrete promise. On its Call AI product page, for a restaurant taking 100 calls a day, it cites roughly +5 extra bookings a month, about €725 in recovered revenue and 4 hours saved. Useful figures, but treat them as a vendor estimate and run the logic on your own numbers, as in our guide on what missed calls cost a restaurant.

One documented limit matters for a busy service: according to Zenchef's Call AI documentation, the agent takes new bookings, but modification and cancellation requests are handed to your staff. If a requested slot is full, it offers alternatives or transfers the call.

What is ImaginoVox (and how it relates to Zenchef)

ImaginoVox is an inbound voice agent that plugs into your Zenchef account. It answers the phone, checks availability, then creates, modifies or cancels the booking directly in Zenchef in real time, and confirms it out loud before the caller hangs up. Allergies and special requests mentioned on the call are written into the booking, and since it lands in Zenchef, your usual Zenchef SMS confirmation can go out as for any Zenchef booking, depending on your Zenchef setup. It speaks six languages and warm-transfers the rare complex case to a human.

Beyond booking, modifying and cancelling, it brings things a native add-on rarely does:

• Every call recorded and transcribed, reviewable in a management dashboard with the reservation details attached.
• Missed-intent follow-up: when a call can't be completed, the agent captures a message that lands in an inbox with email and push notifications, so no caller is left without an answer.
• Proactive availability: if the requested slot is full, it looks ahead for the next opening instead of simply transferring.
• Mid-call language switching across six languages (FR, EN, ES, DE, IT, PT), detected on the fly for international guests.
• Custom voice and greeting, plus an on/off switch for the agent with a fallback number when you turn it off.
• Spam detection and GDPR-compliant number consent, with reservation data hosted in Europe.

The key point: ImaginoVox is not a rival booking system. You keep Zenchef; ImaginoVox is the voice layer on top of it. Both approaches end up writing to the same reservation book, so the comparison is really about how much of the call each one resolves on its own. For the fundamentals, see our complete guide to the AI phone agent for restaurants.

Zenchef Call AI vs ImaginoVox, side by side

Both answer 24/7 and book into Zenchef. The differences sit in the rest of the call: handling changes and cancellations, how the guest is confirmed, and how pricing is structured. Here is the honest breakdown, feature by feature.

Read it fairly: Call AI has real strengths. It is native, its SMS confirmation is built in, and it bills within a single Zenchef subscription with no extra vendor to manage. But ImaginoVox pulls ahead where it counts: it owns the full booking lifecycle (create, modify, cancel) instead of sending changes back to your team, it records and transcribes every call, it follows up missed-intent calls from a message inbox, and it switches language mid-call. And for a comparable call volume it costs less: from €64.26/month excl. tax, and even the popular 600-minute plan, at €96.74, stays under Call AI's ≈ €99/month add-on. Either way, a booking confirmed live also helps cut no-shows.

How much does Zenchef Call AI (and ImaginoVox) cost?

Zenchef Call AI is an add-on billed on top of your Zenchef subscription: around €99/month per independent 2026 comparisons (a figure Zenchef doesn't confirm), with the base plan itself starting near €129 excl. tax. Exact figures aren't public, so request a quote.

ImaginoVox is published up front and comes in below that. Plans start at €64.26/month excl. tax (300 AI minutes), the popular tier is €96.74/month (600 minutes), and a custom Business plan is quote-based, all with no lock-in and cancellation anytime. Both approaches assume you run Zenchef; on the voice-agent line, for a comparable call volume, ImaginoVox is the cheaper option and still handles the changes and cancellations the native add-on transfers to staff.

Price only means something against what each agent removes from your team's plate. An agent that also handles changes and cancellations spares more staff interruptions than one that transfers them. Factor that in, not just the monthly line. You can check our pricing or compare it with Zenchef's plans.

Which one should you choose?

There is no single winner: it depends on how much of the call you want automated. Your call mix (mostly new bookings, or lots of changes and cancellations) decides it. Since both write into Zenchef, you are choosing a voice layer, not a new booking system.

• Zenchef Call AI fits if you are already on Zenchef, most of your calls are new bookings, the €99/month add-on suits your budget, and you are fine letting your team handle changes and cancellations.
• ImaginoVox fits if you want a more autonomous agent that owns the whole booking cycle (create, modify and cancel) without tying up staff, plus call recordings, missed-call follow-up and mid-call language switching, at a lower monthly price and with no lock-in.

Whichever you pick, the goal is the same: never let the phone ring out. To go deeper on how these agents work and what to look for, read our guide to the AI phone agent for restaurants, then get started.