Most restaurant operators we talk to are running their business across three or four disconnected systems. Reservations in one place, stock counts in a spreadsheet, staff rotas on WhatsApp, a POS that hasn’t been updated since 2019, and delivery orders printing from a tablet stuck to the wall. It works, mostly, until a Friday rush exposes the gaps.
Off-the-shelf restaurant software can help, and for plenty of restaurants it’s the right answer. But it comes with its own costs. You reshape how your team works to fit the software’s assumptions, you keep paying monthly for modules you never asked for, and the per-transaction processing fees quietly scale with your success.
We build custom restaurant management systems. You tell us how your restaurant actually runs, and we build software that fits that, not the other way around. We’re a small London-based team, and hospitality businesses are a big part of what we do.
Where off-the-shelf software falls short
For a single site with a short menu and standard table service, a subscription EPOS like Epos Now or TouchBistro is usually the sensible choice. We’ll say so plainly. The friction shows up once your operation gets more demanding. The complaints we hear most often:
- Workflows are rigid. The system assumes a process, and you follow it even when yours works better. Discount approval rules, void authorisation, tip splits and manager overrides often can’t be configured to match how you actually run shifts.
- Costs creep in two directions. The headline price is for the POS. Online ordering, loyalty, kitchen displays and payroll are priced as add-ons, and per-transaction processing fees of roughly 2 to 4 percent sit on top of everything. A site signed up at one figure can end up paying several times that once the modules and card fees are counted.
- Integrations are shallower than the sales page suggests. “We integrate with Xero” can mean a clean sync, or it can mean weekly CSV exports and manual cleanup. Delivery platforms, accounting and stock systems all need to talk to each other, and that’s where the day-to-day pain lives.
- Multi-site control is weak. Overriding menu or pricing per location, consolidating P&L across sites, and moving stock between branches are exactly the things generic platforms handle badly.
- Cloud-only systems struggle offline. A connectivity drop during service can stop you taking payment. Most SaaS degrades significantly without a connection.
- Switching is expensive. Proprietary hardware, locked data formats and long contract terms mean leaving a vendor costs real money in migration, retraining and replacement kit.
The result is an operation paying for software that doesn’t quite fit, and a team working around its limits every shift. That wasted time adds up.
What we build instead
We spend time in your restaurant before we write any code. We watch service, talk to front of house, kitchen and managers, and map how the business actually runs. Then we build to that.
You own the system. There are no per-seat fees and no per-transaction markup, which matters most for high-volume operators where card processing fees become a serious annual cost. We connect to a payment processor on rates you negotiate, rather than ones bundled into a subscription.
The system ties together what’s usually scattered: dine-in, takeaway, delivery and the back office in one place, with one set of menu, stock and customer data behind them. It connects to the tools you already rely on, whether that’s Xero, QuickBooks or Sage for accounts, a delivery platform, or a reservation system. PCI handling, UK GDPR, food safety logging and HMRC reporting are built in rather than bolted on. And when you grow, we extend the system instead of replacing it.
We’re based in London. When something needs fixing, you talk to the people who built it.
What the software actually does
Every build is different, but the modules we’re most often asked for:
- POS and order flow. Fast order entry with modifiers, splits, merges and transfers. Orders route straight to the right kitchen station. Cash drawer and till reconciliation built in.
- Kitchen display. Real-time order routing across stations, with status from ordered to in progress to ready. Multi-course timing for table service, brand-and-station routing for ghost kitchens.
- Table management. Drag-and-drop floor plans, open tabs, turn-time tracking and guest history tied to the table.
- Stock and recipe costing. Usage tracked against recipes, par levels with reorder alerts, variance reports that show where stock is walking, and supplier and purchase order records.
- Staff scheduling and timekeeping. Clock in and out feeding straight into rota and payroll, with break and working-hours rules enforced rather than left to memory.
- Customer records and loyalty. Visit history, preferences, dietary notes and points, unified across dine-in, delivery and online so a guest isn’t three duplicate records.
- Reporting that answers your questions. Sales mix, labour cost percentage, waste and voids, profit by dish. Multi-site operators get a central rollup with drill-down to each location.
- Manager app. The numbers and controls that matter, on a phone.
Offline-first is part of the design where it counts: the till keeps working through a connection drop and syncs when it’s back. Every transaction, void, discount and data change is logged to an audit trail.
How a project typically runs
We work in four phases:
Discovery (2-4 weeks). We interview your team, observe service across busy and quiet periods, and document how everything works today, including the workarounds. This is where we find the real pain points and decide what belongs in the first release.
Build (8-16 weeks for a single site). Our developers write the system. You see working software along the way and give feedback before anything is finalised. We deliver a usable core first, typically POS, kitchen display, payments and end-of-shift reporting, so you’re live before the full scope is done.
Testing and launch (2-4 weeks). We test with your real menu and real scenarios, and rehearse the kitchen workflow before go-live. We launch with a soft start rather than switching everything on mid-service, and run alongside your old system long enough to be sure. If something goes wrong, we’re on call.
Training and support (ongoing). We train each role at the level it needs, including part-time and night staff who are easy to miss. After launch we’re available for fixes and enhancements, often on a regular cycle as the business changes.
What it costs
A custom build costs more upfront than a subscription. That’s the honest trade-off. As a rough guide, a single-site POS and kitchen build sits in the low tens of thousands; adding stock, scheduling and detailed reporting adds to that; a full multi-site platform with delivery integration, loyalty and accounting sync is a larger project again. We give you a fixed quote after an initial conversation, with no surprise modules later.
Against that, weigh what SaaS actually costs over three to five years once add-on modules and per-transaction processing fees are included. For a busy multi-site operator, processing fees alone can run well into five figures a year. Beyond the numbers, you get a system that fits your operation, no workarounds and no paying for features built for a different kind of restaurant, that you can change as the business changes, and that you own as an asset rather than rent.
Restaurants we build for
Each build starts from what a particular business needs, not a template. Common cases:
- Fine dining and upscale casual with multi-course kitchen timing, guest preference and allergen tracking, wine list and tableside payment.
- Multi-site chains and franchises needing central menu control with location-level pricing, consolidated P&L, stock transfers between sites and franchise-fee allocation.
- QSR and fast casual built around high-throughput order entry, heavy modifier menus, kitchen display speed and quick training for high staff turnover.
- Ghost and cloud kitchens running several virtual brands from one kitchen, with order aggregation across delivery platforms and routing by brand and prep station.
- Pubs and bars managing open tabs, cash-heavy reconciliation, age-verification logging and food-and-drink service together.
- Catering and event venues with quotes, deposits and final invoicing, dietary requirements and event-specific staffing.
- Cafes and high-volume sites processing large transaction counts where avoiding per-transaction fees genuinely changes the maths.
If a subscription package fits your operation, we’ll tell you. When it doesn’t, we build something that does.
Common Questions About Custom Restaurant Management Software
Should we just use Toast, Epos Now or TouchBistro instead?
For a single site with a short menu and standard table service, an off-the-shelf EPOS is usually the sensible choice, and we'll tell you so. A custom build earns its keep when you're running multiple sites, paying heavy card processing fees on high volume, juggling delivery platforms alongside dine-in, or working around rigid discount, tip and approval rules every day. If a subscription package fits, keep it.
How does the cost compare to a SaaS subscription?
A custom build costs more upfront. SaaS looks cheaper until you add online ordering, loyalty, kitchen displays and payroll modules, then layer per-transaction processing fees on top. For a busy multi-site operator those fees alone can run into tens of thousands a year. We give you a fixed quote and an honest view of total cost over three to five years so you can compare like for like.
What's a realistic development timeline?
A single-site POS and kitchen display build is typically 2 to 3 months. Adding stock control, scheduling and detailed reporting adds roughly 6 to 8 weeks. A full multi-site platform with delivery integration, loyalty and accounting sync usually runs 6 to 9 months. We deliver a working core first so you're live before the whole scope is finished.
Can you integrate with our existing systems?
Yes. Common connections include Xero, QuickBooks or Sage for accounts, a payment processor such as Stripe or Square, delivery platforms like Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat, and reservation tools such as OpenTable. We can also work with older or in-house systems, like a spreadsheet-based stock process, rather than forcing a rip-and-replace.
What about PCI, GDPR and food safety compliance?
We build to PCI DSS expectations using tokenised payments and point-to-point encryption so no card data is stored in your system, with the EPOS network kept separate from guest WiFi. UK GDPR is handled with role-based access, an audit trail, sensible data retention and customer data export and deletion. Food safety logging, allergen labelling for the 14 major allergens and temperature records can be built in where you need them.
What happens during service if the internet drops?
We build offline-first where it matters. The till keeps taking orders and payments through a connection drop and syncs once you're back online, so a flaky line during a Friday rush doesn't stop service. This is one of the areas where bespoke beats cloud-only SaaS.
Do you provide training and ongoing support?
Yes. We train each role at the level it needs: front of house on order entry and payments, kitchen on the display system, managers on reporting and end-of-shift reconciliation. After launch we're available for fixes and enhancements, and because we built the system you talk to the people who wrote it.