Kitchen display system and waiter orders for Kenyan restaurants

Shouting orders to the kitchen and walking back to ask if a dish is ready slows service and causes mistakes. A kitchen display system and waiter ordering replace both.

How an order travels

1. The waiter opens a table and taps the items, adding a note when needed.
2. The waiter sends the order. Nothing is sent twice: only what is new goes to the kitchen.
3. Food appears on the kitchen screen and drinks on the bar screen, each with its table, items and notes.
4. The kitchen taps Start and then Ready. The order shows a late flag if it waits too long.
5. The waiter who sent the order is told it is ready and serves it.

Table management

The tables page lists every table with its status: free, ordering, in the kitchen, ready, served, bill printed or at the till. The owner adds the tables once and can add many at a time.

Menu management

Your menu is your product list, with categories. Each category is set to go to the kitchen or the bar. Prices, items and categories are yours to change.

Staff management

Each person has a login for their job: waiter, kitchen, bar or cashier. Waiters share the tables, so any waiter can pick up any table, but the ready alert goes to the waiter who sent the order.

Filters on the orders screen

Show all orders or only new, preparing or ready ones. Each order shows the table, items, waiter and how long it has waited.

Why waiters stop walking back and forth

In a restaurant without screens, a waiter walks to the kitchen to ask if a table's food is ready, and walks back with the answer. Multiply that by every table in a lunch rush and you lose a lot of time. With the status on a screen and the alert going to the waiter who sent the order, that walking stops, and the waiter spends the time on guests.

An example: a lunch service in Kisumu

A restaurant in Kisumu has 14 tables and two waiters. At 1 pm a waiter opens Table 6, taps two plates of food and three sodas, and adds the note "no chilli" to one plate. The waiter presses Send. The food shows on the kitchen screen, the sodas on the bar screen, and the kitchen and bar logins see no prices. Ten minutes later a guest orders another soda, and only that new item is sent.

The kitchen starts the plates and marks them ready. The alert goes to the waiter who sent the order, who serves and taps Served. If a plate had waited over 15 minutes it would show as late, and the manager can filter the orders screen to see only the late or new ones.

Checklist for the pass

• Menu categories set to the kitchen or the bar.
• Tables added once, with many at a time if needed.
• A login for each waiter, cook and barman.
• A screen in the kitchen and one at the bar.
• Someone who watches late orders at peak times.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Leaving a category unset. Anything not set goes to the kitchen, so drinks need to be set to the bar.
• Sharing one login. Separate logins mean the right waiter gets the ready alert.
• Forgetting to tap Served. The table colour then stays wrong.
• Putting the screen out of sight. Place it where the cooks look.

Questions

Does the system print kitchen tickets? No. Orders go to a screen, not a kitchen printer.

Can the kitchen see prices? No.

Do I need to refresh the orders screen? No, it refreshes by itself.

Can any waiter add to a table? Yes, tables are shared.

Included in

Tables, tabs and the kitchen and bar screens come with the Business package and above. See the restaurant POS system page.