TouchBistro Restaurant POS Software

Pros

Extremely user friendly interface and easy to train. Easy to navigate through system. iOS Intuition is a bonus

Cons

Everything has yo updated on iPod and no back office computer. Can’t integrate hot schedules or 3rd party services.

Do not use this software! really, Wait staff like it but is a nightmare for management !! and i am pretty sure by now that most of those good reviews online are fake!!dont get fool

Pros

easy to split bills , and look great on paper.

Cons

NO SUPPORT !!!!! waited hours for call back and now tried to call back since i need it really bad ! and nothing!!

had 3 restaurant with them and i found better solution !

Pros

very good and easy front-end ! easy training
-table manegement is really easy to do
-nice interface

Cons

modifier are slow to process specially in coffee shop
-not good for extended menu really hard to navigate true large bakery menu
-there is no way to input iteam in the back office ! Sorry there is no back office! so if you need to do change thing on the fly well you have to wait for and ipad to get free!
-Changing menu pricing and making the menu on touchbistro is really long since everything as to be inputted on an ipad !
-modifier are again very complicated and not intuitive what so ever!
-make sure your ipad are not on auto update since if the update without you knowing your system will stop working
-they sell you and mac mini saying you only need the display for set up! well that not true! you need it for all the update to !

Very Happy !

Pros

Everything is available at a touch of a button, easy to use and easy to keep track of all cost and labor

Cons

wish it would work directly with QuickBooks free for easier control and management. reduce the cost of my bookkeeper

Just try it
Change is great !!!

Pros

Finally the perfect POS software without the feeling of been held hostage by the pureveyor.
So easy to use and very logical.

I've been in the food service industry since the invention of the POS and this is by far the best product I've worked with. Easy to use and great customer support. Thank You

Pros

I opened a new restaurant and found this system easy to install and easy to train staff on it. I would highly recommend to others

Cons

Don't know it is great . What I like least about this product is I'm required to write things I don't like and there aren't any

Pros

Layout is great for fast use at the tables. It sis also nice to be able and run credit cards in front of the guests.

Cons

Need to update the options more often. Admin for employees is a little frustrating. Too many options attached. It would be nice to be able to turn one thing off and not have it effect several options.

We would recommend it to anyone starting a small business.

Pros

Easy to use, very user friendly. The support line are with you every step of the way and wont leave you until you are confident with your knowledge.

Great for any business

Pros

Very easy to use, not one problem. I would recommend to any business and easy access for tax purposes

Pros

Love everything about this product. Cuts down on kitchen errors because you are not trying to decipher wait staff writing. Tracks inventory so it stops orders of 86'd food. Makes billing so easy, splitting bills, splitting items. I really can't say enough good things about Touch Bistro. Would never have a restaurant again without it.

Cons

The only thing I don't like, and maybe I'm just not doing something right, but, I can't seem to delete ex-employees.

Pros

Easy to use and train new staff on. Easy to contact tech support for any problems I have had. I like that you can easily make modifications to your menu, etc options

Pros

Anyone can learn the Touchbistro system in minutes. Makes for error free transactions with great reports

Cons

Maybe too many features that are not important to my business. Also adding to the menu can be confusing at times.

Would like to be able to not have to always print a customer copy of a credit card receipt. Would be nice to have all reports available on the cloud.

Pros

Great for what we need it for. The menu is easy to add to and is quick for our bar service which is nice.

Cons

Some features are not as easy to figure out as others. Like inventory items and reporting features.

I would definitely recommend TouchBistro to anyone who is looking for a POS system.

Pros

I like the overall system, but what really stood out for me was the customer service and how helpful they were throughout the entire process.

Cons

I have not noticed any downside. Everything was smooth. If I could pick one very small thing, it would be great to have a support team locally to be able to come into site but with the customer service team being reachable and the process being simple, I don’t think it’s an issue.

Pros

Easy to use straight forward. Cuts down on training time. Staff reallly likes it. iPads make it simple.

Cons

Charging iPads is annoying, relying on the airport is annoying. Some minor glitches that will happen seldomly

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).