Restaurant order-taking software: how to choose it

Restaurant order-taking software brings the orders from all your channels (counter, dining room, phone, website, kiosk, Uber Eats, Deliveroo) into one place and sends them to the kitchen without re-keying. It replaces the notepad, the paper ticket and the platform tablets with a single queue fed by a single menu.

Why does a restaurant need order-taking software?

While orders come in through one channel, a notepad and a printer are enough. Once the restaurant also sells by phone, on its own website and on delivery platforms, every channel adds a screen, a menu to keep up to date and a chance to miss an order. The software's job is simple: whatever is ordered, on whatever channel, must end up in the same place, in the same format, at the right time.

How is the order taken at the counter and in the dining room?

At the counter, orders are taken on the POS: item grid, options, set menus, splitting the bill by dish and receipt in one place. Each team member signs in with a PIN, and every sale stays linked to the person signed in.

In the dining room, the waiter handheld saves the back-and-forth: the server opens the bill at the table, adds the dishes, sends them to the kitchen and takes payment without going back to the till. A bill opened on the handheld is the same bill on the POS, so a colleague can pick it up. Guests can also order from their phone with a QR code on the table, with nothing to install.

How does the software handle online orders and delivery platforms?

An online ordering site in your brand, on your own domain, takes click and collect or delivery orders, paid by card through Stripe, by PayPal or in cash at pickup. On orders that come through your website, your app or your kiosk, Maxilog takes no per-order commission. Uber Eats and Deliveroo orders remain subject to those platforms' terms, but they land in the same queue as the others, with a badge showing where they came from. For the detail, read our article on centralising Uber Eats and Deliveroo orders.

Do orders reach the kitchen without re-keying?

This is the first thing to test. On the kitchen display, tickets from the POS, the website, the app, the kiosk, Uber Eats and Deliveroo arrive on the same board, coloured by waiting time: the oldest order stays the most visible. With several screens, each item goes to its station (pizza, grill, desserts) and each screen shows only what concerns it.

One menu for every channel?

If each channel has its own menu, a price change has to be made several times, and one day the prices stop matching. Ask whether the POS, the website, the kiosk and the waiter handheld read a single menu. With Maxilog, prices, option groups, set menus and sold-out items are changed once in the back office and published on every channel at the same moment.

What should you ask before choosing?

1. Which channels land in the same kitchen queue, and which need a separate tablet?
2. Does a price change or a sold-out item carry over everywhere?
3. Can the server send to the kitchen and take payment from the table?
4. What happens to a platform order: is it re-keyed or does it arrive on its own?
5. Which hardware must be replaced, and what can you keep?
6. What does the quote include?

Maxilog pricing is by quote, based on the number of sites, terminals and products. To compare solutions, see our restaurant POS software comparison and our other comparisons, or book a demo: we run it on your own menu.