TouchBistro Restaurant POS Software

If you are an IT wizard and do not require much training this may be the system for you. My fear is that when something does go wrong when I go live that getting a hold of customer service will be impossible.

Pros

The system seems much more user friendly than your typical cumbersome POS systems like Aloha or Micros if you can get it setup.

Cons

Customer service is absolutely the worst. They require a 3 week lead time for all training and install appointments, I am building a restaurant from ground up and it is very difficult to know 3 weeks out where construction will be. The only department that responds promptly is sales, no other department puts any priority on follow ups. I asked to speak to someone in executive management and was told they are unavailable. So I reached out to the CEO Alex Barrotti through LinkedIn (seems this is the only way to contact anyone in executive management) and I received some condescending reply about how customer service works comparing install and training appointments to taking reservations for my restaurant. Clearly the poor customer service culture comes from the top.

Pros

Easy to use very functional for my bar/Tavern. Menu set up was a little confusing but once we got it all went smooth. Good customer service when I have called with a question or a problem since.

Cons

Training needs to be free. I bought your product the least you can do is teach me how to use it fully.- Until I am confident I know how to use it. I got 2 hours and had to "buy" an additional hour doing it all over the phone and setting it up by myself. Not cool!!! You might want to consider that. HOWEVER. Customer rep who trained me was excellent and caring. So on a personal level that was excellent.

Requires multiple iPad which becomes pricey but they are integrating a similar app as cheftek for inventory purpose

Pros

Mac based iPad use you can send orders immediately with the server input info on iPads. Multiple reports.

Cons

Pricey only use of ipads and the support becomes pricey as well. For small business owners whom crunching numbers it can affect purchase .

Overall, the product is so far very stable and easy to set up. It always takes a time to get acclimated with new systems, but this one is pretty intuitive and they have some good videos/tutorials to get the staff up to speed. Having used it for a couple weeks now, there are a few features that are hard to work around. One is the fact that you can't have an inclusive tax on select items (alcohol). You can set up an inclusive tax, but it is either for ALL of the items or none. Big oversight as the majority of bars/restaurants that I've ever been to (mine included) have the tax included in the alcoholic drinks, but not on the food. Another major issue is you can not add a seat to a tab. A major feature I liked was the ability to preauthorize cards/tabs, but this is often nullified by the fact that I can't add a seat to a tab, and the workaround that I would normally do (attach a card to a table) is not an option either. One of these things is not good, the fact that I can do neither is a real pain.

Pros

Cost
Stability

Cons

Can't add seats to tabs or assign a card to a table.
Only offers global inclusive tax

Advice to Others

It's good for the price, just be aware of its' limitations.

TouchBistro is relatively easy to use for someone who has little to no experience with POS. It has a lot more functionality than something like Square, but it still utilizes the familiar iOS user interface and makes training staff/customers easy. Additionally, set up is easy, as it uses Apple Airports and a mac computer, which are all easy to purchase and use. However, if you want to get more technical, TB is not for you. I work in a large restaurant, and we wanted to build a better wifi network for customers and our office as well as POS. As part of this, we installed new access points to provide a strong signal for a very large room. When we wanted to set up TB to work off of the new APs, their customer support refused to provide assistance, and will only work with you if you're using Apple gear. Not only that but the support was slow to respond throughout our time using TB and often didn't provide helpful advice. Usually, the errors we'd experience would correct themselves after TB's engineers released an update (i.e. after a new version of iOS would come out), but we'd lose a lot of money in the process, with system outages and bugs. Overall, I would recommend you either stick with the tried and true simple solution (square) or spend the money and go up to one of the traditional POS systems. If you're set on a more advanced tablet system, I would recommend Toast over TouchBistro.

Pros

-Easy to use (for the most part)
-Easy to setup
-Replaceable hardware (Apple products)
-More features than many similar competitors

Cons

-Poor customer support
-No setup options
-Some functions difficult to access/not intuitive
-Bugs/issues when iOS updates - unreliable

Advice to Others

Definitely, check out Toast, they more effectively combine traditional POS options with a tablet system. Also, I'd definitely advise going with a cloud-based system if you decide not to go with tablets. Check out Brink for a good example (that's who my company switched to).

It's clear that someone in the industry designed this product. It is very intuitive and has almost all of the functionality you can expect in the much more expensive pos systems. There are the occasional glitches, and some things that could be better, but 26 years in the restaurant business has exposed me to just about all of the major POS systems, and TouchBistro's functionality is in the top 10. Unfortunately, when you really need help, you're on your own. I've had the system for about 18 months now. On every occasion that I've had to reach out to "support", and I use the term loosely, I have never been able to reach anyone in a timely manner. My call has never been answered by a human being. I always have to leave a message. And response time ranges from 5 hours to 2 days. When you're in a crisis, there is nothing more disappointing and infuriating.

Pros

If you can use an iPhone, you can use this system. Easy to program, use, and manage. The cost is a fraction of other systems with similar functionality.

Cons

There is no support when something goes wrong. The support/help line takes hours to days to respond, no matter how immediate or critical the problem is.

Advice to Others

If you have a full service, busy restaurant, make sure you have a crash kit handy (manual checks, calculators, manual credit card runners) for when the system goes down.

TouchBistro is very user friendly and great customer service. If you are familiar with Apple products this POs system will be a breeze to pick up.

This is a solid, well thought out product. Easy to use. Easy to set up.

Likes Best

Product works vender is terrible makes mistakes frequently and blames it on the last person you were talking to. No one takes accountability for what they say

Likes Least

Every person I talked to had a different story and a different way to do things. They messed up my order multiple times. Lied about install and starting cost. Lied about what equipment was actually needed. Said oops after a small family business over extended itself for their system.

Recommendations

Just don't do it with touch bistro. They have no care in the world after they take your money and talk down to the customer. It's the worst customer service company I've ever delt with. Please use something else and save yourself.

Likes Best

The product is user friendly. If you can manuver thru a smart phone you can use this product. Customer Service is attentive and very responsive.

Likes Least

Sometimes the reports have bugs especially after updates.

Recommendations

Give it a try. This is an apple based cloud application. If you can use an iPhone that you will be set. It's very user friendly.

Likes Best

iPad-based, no need for expensive and specialized hardware purchases. If an iPad breaks, run to a local chain store and pick up another instead of ordering a new POS machine and waiting weeks for delivery.

Likes Least

The software does not have very good support for cash register tills. Other software we have used will keep track of the cash in your register (till) and tell you if you are over/under at closing.

Recommendations

Get all of the payment gateway integration done before installation; it helps speed up the process.

Likes Best

Prior to using TouchBistro, my brewery was using several different systems (cash register, cc terminal, time clock, inventory reports) to collect the data needed to effectively run a small business. Collating all of this every month or every two weeks just ate up too much time in the back office. With TouchBistro, not only have we been able to reduce our transaction times to mere seconds, we now have "one stop shopping" for all of our necessary data.

Likes Least

The CloudReporting not being (currently) out of beta testing. What I've experienced of the CloudReporting has been very useful, however, we have hit a couple of very minor hiccups.

Recommendations

This software is so intuitive right out of the box. I was able to get my system live and employees trained in a morning!

Likes Best

ease of use and great customer service.
set up is easy and everything is right there infront of you

Likes Least

no back office online - all done through app on ipad

Recommendations

as long as it is easy to use, you shouldnt have a problem. Customer service is key!

Likes Best

The people you'll meet during the sales cycle are responsive and pleasant.

Likes Least

The system is not intuitive to people who've used other POS systems. It's hard to figure out how to get around. Also, there support organization never answers the phone and when they call you back may or may not address your issues.

Recommendations

Try before you buy. The system looks good at first glance. It's attractive and seems institutive. But when you start using it in real life it's not so easy to do pretty straight forward things.

Likes Best

We love TouchBistro for our wine bar. It is extremely user friendly and we are able to quickly switch between different types of wine and our food section. It is very easy to set up specials of the day and happy hour pricing. If you are familiar with Apple products, you will love the set up of Touch Bistro. The splitting the tab function is very convenient and easy to use. We also love the ability to ring someone up right at their table and allow them to sign on the screen. I would definitely recommend TouchBistro.

Likes Least

Sometimes it gets tedious to enter the menu items, but it is organized very well and all the information needed is easy to use.

Recommendations

Great for a large or small menu. Functional and user friendly.

Likes Best

We have used several POS systems over the years. I can say, without a doubt, Touch bistro is the easiest, most convenient, and most thorough system I have ever put in a restaurant!

Likes Least

They need to develop some solid inventory software.

Recommendations

My recommendation is simple, if you are looking for a POS, this is the one.

Likes Best

Split check feature is great and easy to use the servers love it

Likes Least

Have to leave a message and not talk to someone right away

Recommendations

Look at every detail from the servers eyes and test test test them as long as you can for free

Likes Best

Software is fairly intuitive to use. Not too complicated.

Likes Least

I have not had much chance to use the Inventory control feature. Hoping it will be as useful as setup.

Recommendations

Become familiar with Apple Ipad products first.

Likes Best

The team is always there. My reports! So many numbers

Likes Least

The color scheme needs to go. It's really ugly. I wish I could have my logo on the back

Recommendations

Get this one I love this product and will use it till the bar burns down

Likes Best

Easy to customize. Reports are what we need. Nice to use an iPad and have menu items with pictures/

Likes Least

Technical support is a little slow. Problems getting back up and running after every power outage.

Recommendations

Just a little glitchy but nothing to worry about. We're happy enough