Purpose Given the increasing need after the outbreak of COVID-19 to encourage restaurant customers to dine in, the purpose of this paper is to examine the effects that anthropomorphic cues jointly with brand awareness and subjective social class have on restaurant-visit intention. Design/methodology/approach To better comprehend the use of anthropomorphic cues, this paper involved two studies that used two types of anthropomorphic cues: (1) non-food (a spoon) and (2) food ingredients. For each study, a 2 × 2 mixed factorial design was used. Findings Using three-way mixed ANOVAs, the results from Study 1 confirmed that adding anthropomorphic cues to a non-food object (a spoon) could induce positive effects for restaurants with lower brand awareness, especially among individuals with low subjective social class. In contrast, Study 2 showed that adding anthropomorphic cues to a food ingredient (e.g. tomato, lettuce and olive) had a weaker effect on restaurants with high brand awareness, especially among individuals with a high subjective social class. Practical implications Marketers should use anthropomorphism strategies based on their target customers, especially if their brand is less popular. Originality/value Using the theoretical framework from the elaboration likelihood model, this paper contributes to the anthropomorphism literature by showing how an anthropomorphized image that fits an individual’s interests could trigger a careful thinking process that leads to differential behaviors based on brand awareness.