They are already taking orders by phone. In my opinion there is no urgency to replace this.

The question to ask is what you can do for the customer. Bringing all the menu cards together in the same format adds value.

You don't even need a search engine.

First upgrade agenda point for automation would be a restaurant login so that they can save money by doing the menu data entry themselves.

edit:

The guy cant code, all the value will have to come from him promoting the website.