Some things can't be thrown together on the morning. Afternoon tea needs scones baked and stands made up; a set menu needs the order in with the fishmonger the week before. Minimum notice lets you ask for a proper run-up on meals like those, while breakfast and lunch carry on taking bookings right to the last minute.
Set the notice
Open the meal and pick a value from the Minimum notice list. It runs from 30 minutes up through the hours, then 24, 36, 48 and 72 hours, then 5, 7, 10 and 14 days — a fortnight is as far as it goes. Left on No minimum, nothing changes. The row only appears on meals that are bookable online, and it sits just below Online booking cut-off.
In NomNom Web: open the account menu (top-right) → Configuration → Meals → open a meal → Minimum notice.
On the mobile app: open Configuration → Meals, tap a meal, and set Minimum notice.
[Web screenshot: the Configuration dialog with the Meals section selected and a meal open, showing the Minimum notice row directly beneath Online booking cut-off]
How it works
The window rolls forward from the moment the guest is booking. Set afternoon tea to 48 hours and someone on your booking page at three o'clock on Monday won't be offered anything before three o'clock on Wednesday. An hour later, that line has moved on by an hour too.
If only some of a day's sittings fall inside the window, only those times drop away and the later ones stay bookable. If every sitting that day is inside it, the meal still shows on your booking page, greyed out, with a short note that more notice is needed. Where other meals are still bookable that day it offers those instead; where nothing else is available it asks the guest to ring you or try a later date.
One caveat on that: the greyed-out card is part of the meal picker, so it appears on booking pages that group times by meal. If you've turned Display meal off, your page shows a single combined list of times instead — and a meal inside its notice window simply contributes none.
It applies to online bookings only. You and your team can always take a short-notice booking in NomNom Web or the mobile app. That's deliberate: a regular who rings up on the day should never be turned away by a setting.
There is also a venue-wide notice period under Settings → Online Booking & Discover (No bookings within), which covers every meal and stops at 24 hours. Where both apply, the longer one wins — so a per-meal value can only ever ask for more notice, never less.
How it differs from the booking cut-off
These two sit together on the same screen and it's easy to reach for the wrong one. The online booking cut-off is a time of day: stop taking afternoon tea online after 11:30am. It only ever speaks about today, so it has no way to say "two days".
Minimum notice is the one that reaches across days. It doesn't care what the clock says, only how far ahead the booking is.
A meal can carry both, and they pair up neatly when the notice is short. A Sunday roast might ask for three hours' notice, so nobody books at 12:55 for one o'clock, and also close online at 11:30am so the kitchen has a settled list before service. Worth knowing, though: once the notice runs past a day, the cut-off has nothing left to do — a 48-hour window has already closed today and tomorrow, so a same-day deadline can't change what anyone is offered.
When it's useful
- Afternoon teas, sharing roasts and anything else that has to be prepped ahead.
- Set or tasting menus where the order goes in with a supplier days before.
- Private dining or larger sittings you'd rather have a proper run-up to.
- A meal that needs a few hours in hand, so the last online booking always lands before the kitchen starts prepping.
One thing to remember: the notice window is a standing setting, not a date range. If you tighten it for a busy fortnight, make a note to loosen it again afterwards.