Hospitality
Software engineering for Restaurants & F&B
Software for restaurants, cafes, QSR and multi-site groups. EPOS, online ordering, delivery-aggregator consolidation, kitchen displays and reservations, built by senior engineers who know a till crash at Friday-night peak is not a bug ticket, it is lost service.
Why the domain matters
Restaurant technology is judged in a way most software never is: at the moment of maximum pressure, in front of a paying customer, with a queue building and a kitchen already behind. The till has to take the payment, the order has to reach the pass, the delivery tablet has to stop pinging, and none of it can wait for a spinner. We build for independent restaurants and cafes, quick-service operators, and multi-site groups, and we start from that reality: the software has to be dead reliable and simple for busy staff under pressure, because everything else is negotiable and that is not.
The operational picture has fragmented badly over the last decade. A single site might run an EPOS at the counter, its own-brand online ordering, and three delivery aggregators (Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat), each with its own tablet, its own commission, its own menu to keep in sync, and its own idea of what your prices are. Menus change, an item runs out mid-service, a price goes up, and now that change has to land in five places or the kitchen makes a dish it cannot charge for. Most of the real pain in restaurant tech is not any single system; it is the seams between them.
We are a senior-led consultancy, and we operate what we build. In this sector that is not a slogan: it is the difference between a supplier who answers the phone during your Saturday service and one who does not. Margins in food service are thin, so we are blunt about cost: technology here has to pay for itself in staff hours saved, commission avoided, or covers turned, and if a build will not, we would rather tell you than sell it. We will also tell you plainly where the aggregator ecosystem simply is what it is, and where we can genuinely make it hurt less.
The challenges in restaurants & f&b
A POS crash at peak is catastrophic, so offline-capable is not optional
The till is the one system that cannot go down during service. Broadband drops, a router reboots, the venue’s Wi-Fi buckles under a full room, and the payment still has to be taken and the order still has to reach the kitchen. Software that assumes a reliable connection is the wrong software for a restaurant. Offline-first operation, with clean reconciliation when connectivity returns, is a baseline requirement, not a premium feature.
Menus, prices and availability drift across every channel
Your own site, each aggregator, and the in-store till all hold a copy of the menu, and they never agree on their own. An item sells out, a price changes, a special ends, and unless that change propagates everywhere at once, you are either selling something you cannot make or losing money on something mispriced. Keeping channels in sync is the single most common source of daily friction, and it is entirely a software problem.
The aggregator ecosystem is fragmented and expensive
Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat each take a substantial commission, each hand you a separate tablet, and each expect staff to re-key orders into the till. During a rush, three tablets chirping while the phone rings and the counter queue grows is a genuine operational hazard. Consolidating those channels into one flow the kitchen and till can actually run is one of the highest-value things software can do here.
Tech has to pay for itself on thin margins
Food-service margins leave no room for software that is expensive to run and vague about its return. Every system on the estate should earn its keep in hours saved, commission reduced, waste cut or covers turned. We treat cost-to-operate as a design constraint, not an invoice you discover later, and we will talk you out of the shiny thing that does not pay back.
Allergen and menu accuracy carries legal weight
Allergen information is not marketing copy, under Natasha’s Law and wider food-information rules it has legal force, and an inaccurate allergen field is a safety and liability event, not a typo. When a menu lives in five systems, the risk is that the allergen data in one of them is stale. The software has to make the allergen and ingredient information a single, controlled source of truth, not a copy that quietly rots.
It has to be simple for staff who have no time to learn it
Front-of-house and kitchen turnover is high, training time is minutes not days, and the person on the till at 8pm may have started that week. A system that needs a manual is a system that gets worked around. The interface has to be obvious under pressure, forgiving of mistakes, and fast. Every extra tap during a rush is multiplied by hundreds of covers.
What we build for restaurants & f&b
The systems this sector most often needs, built by engineers who understand the domain, not just the code.
EPOS / POS systems built for service
Reliable point-of-sale for counter, table and quick-service operation, offline-capable, fast, and simple enough to run at peak without training. Our POS development work is built around the reality of a busy floor: no dead ends, no spinners at the wrong moment, and clean reconciliation when the connection comes back.
Own-brand online ordering platforms
Web and app ordering under your own brand, taking the customer relationship (and the margin), back from the aggregators. Menu, availability, prep times and payment handled directly, feeding straight into the same kitchen flow as every other channel, so an own-site order is not a second-class order the team has to handle differently.
Delivery-aggregator integration and order consolidation
One flow instead of three tablets. We integrate Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat so their orders land in your EPOS and on your kitchen display automatically, menus and availability push out from one place, and staff stop re-keying orders mid-rush. The commission is still theirs; the operational chaos does not have to be.
Kitchen display systems (KDS)
Screens at the pass that show every order (dine-in, own-site and aggregator), in one prioritised queue, with prep timing, item status and clear routing to the right station. A KDS that consolidates channels is what turns aggregator integration from a data exercise into a calmer kitchen.
Reservations and table management
Booking, table planning, covers management and waitlist handling that reflect how the floor actually runs, walk-ins, no-shows, turning a two-top into a four, and the interplay between reservations and the kitchen’s pacing. Connected to the rest of the estate rather than a standalone booking silo.
Loyalty and at-table QR ordering and pay
Loyalty that customers actually use because it is tied to the ordering they already do, and QR-based order-and-pay at the table that shortens the service loop without removing the staff interaction where it matters. Both built on top of the same menu, payment and kitchen flow rather than bolted on as a separate app.
Where we help
Consolidating three aggregators into one kitchen flow
A busy site running Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat on separate tablets, staff re-keying every order into the till, mistakes creeping in at peak. We integrate the platforms so orders arrive in the EPOS and on the KDS automatically, availability pushes out from one menu, and the tablets stop being the bottleneck, cutting errors and freeing a person during the rush.
Launching own-brand ordering to claw back margin
A group tired of handing a third of every delivery order to aggregator commission launches its own web and app ordering, promoted to its existing customers, feeding the same kitchen and payment flow as everything else. Not a replacement for the aggregators overnight, but a channel the business owns, and every order that moves to it keeps the commission in-house.
An EPOS that keeps trading when the connection drops
A venue with unreliable broadband that has lost sales to till outages moves to an offline-capable EPOS: payments taken and orders sent to the kitchen whether or not the internet is up, with everything reconciled cleanly the moment connectivity returns. Service stops depending on the router.
One menu, correct everywhere, allergens included
A multi-site operator managing menus by hand across own-site and three aggregators moves to a single menu source that pushes prices, availability and allergen information to every channel at once. An item sells out and it disappears everywhere; an allergen field is corrected once and it is right everywhere, closing the gap where stale data becomes a legal risk.
How we build for restaurants
We design for the worst moment of the week, not the demo. The question that shapes every decision is: what happens at Friday-night peak when the connection drops, a tablet freezes, or a new starter is on the till? If a workflow only works when everything is calm and connected, it does not work. We build offline-capable, we make the common actions fast and the mistakes recoverable, and we test against the pressure the software will actually face rather than the tidy path it is easy to demonstrate.
We treat the menu as a single source of truth and push outward from it. Prices, availability and (critically), allergen information live in one controlled place, and every channel is a subscriber to it, not a separate copy someone has to remember to update. This is the architectural decision that quietly removes most day-to-day pain, because the seams between channels are where restaurants lose money and take on risk.
We are honest about the aggregators. We cannot make their commission go away, and we will not pretend to. What we can do is remove the operational cost they impose (the tablets, the re-keying, the sync), and help you build the own-brand channels that shift volume off them over time. We will tell you which of your problems are integration problems we can solve and which are commercial realities of the platforms you have chosen.
We justify the spend. On thin margins, every system has to pay back in staff hours, commission or covers, and we would rather scope a smaller thing that clearly earns its keep than a large one that looks impressive and does not. We operate what we build, so the cost of running it is our concern too, and we stay close to the live system, because in this sector an outage during service is a serious event, and we treat it as one.
Regulation and compliance
Allergen information is the compliance issue that matters most in restaurant software, because it has direct legal and safety weight. Under the Food Information Regulations, and, for food prepacked for direct sale, the changes brought in by Natasha’s Law: customers must be given accurate information about the 14 major allergens, and getting it wrong is a food-safety failure with real consequences. The software’s job is to make allergen and ingredient data a single, controlled source of truth that propagates correctly to every channel, so a customer never sees stale or contradictory information. We build so the accurate answer is the automatic one; we do not, and cannot, replace your responsibility for the underlying accuracy of the ingredient data itself.
Payments bring PCI DSS into scope. Any system that handles cardholder data has obligations under the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, and the sane way to meet them is to reduce scope: using tokenisation and payment providers so that raw card data never touches your systems in the first place. We design payment flows, including at-table QR pay, to keep you out of the parts of PCI you do not want to be in, and we are clear about where your provider’s certification does the heavy lifting versus where obligations remain yours.
Customer data (accounts, order history, loyalty, marketing consent), falls under UK GDPR and PECR. Loyalty and marketing are where restaurants most often drift into non-compliance, usually by over-collecting or by treating consent casually. We build lawful basis, consent and preference handling in from the start, and we design loyalty so it earns its data honestly rather than hoarding it.
We are candid about the boundary of what software can do. Good architecture makes allergen accuracy, PCI scope and data protection far easier to get right and to evidence, but it does not discharge your obligations as the food business or the data controller. We will tell you plainly where you need your own food-safety, legal or compliance sign-off rather than implying the build removes that need.
Integration and interoperability
The EPOS is the hub, and most integrations succeed or fail on how cleanly they connect to it. Orders from every channel need to land in the till, sales need to flow out to reporting and accounting, and the whole picture has to reconcile at close. We integrate with the point-of-sale the business runs (or build it), so that the EPOS is the single operational record rather than one of several disagreeing ones.
Delivery aggregators are the integration that pays back fastest. Connecting Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat so their orders arrive in the EPOS and on the kitchen display automatically, and so menu, price and availability push out from one place, removes the tablet farm and the re-keying that cause errors at peak. The platforms differ in what their integrations allow, and we are straight about where a given aggregator’s API constrains what is possible.
Payments integrate across every ordering surface (counter, online, and at-table QR), and the goal is one consistent, PCI-conscious payment flow rather than a different mechanism per channel. We work with the payment providers and terminals the business uses, keeping card data out of scope and reconciliation clean.
The kitchen and KDS are where integration becomes visible to the team: every order, whatever channel it came from, arriving in one prioritised queue with correct routing and timing. Behind the scenes, accounting and stock close the loop: sales reconciling to the books, and ingredient usage feeding stock and waste tracking so the thin margin is actually visible. We connect to the accounting and stock systems the business already uses rather than forcing a rip-and-replace.
Security and data protection
Payment security is the first concern, and the right posture is to minimise exposure. We design so that raw cardholder data never lands in your systems (tokenisation and PCI-compliant providers handle it), which shrinks both your PCI scope and your risk. At-table QR pay and online checkout follow the same rule: the customer’s card details are the payment provider’s problem to hold, not yours.
Customer and order data deserves proportionate care. Accounts, order history, loyalty balances and marketing preferences are personal data; we control access by role, encrypt data in transit and at rest, and hold only what the operation genuinely needs. Loyalty programmes in particular tempt businesses into collecting more than they should: we design them to earn and hold data honestly, with consent handled properly and preferences respected.
Multi-site and franchise estates need access boundaries that reflect the real structure. A manager sees their site, head office sees the group, and a departing member of staff loses access cleanly. We build role and site-level access control so that the estate’s data does not leak sideways between locations or linger after someone leaves.
We are honest about where our responsibility ends. Sound architecture makes your security and data-protection obligations easier to meet and to evidence, but you remain the data controller and the merchant of record. We name that boundary clearly, and we would rather tell you where your own compliance sign-off is required than let a well-built system imply it is all handled in code.
What changes
Service that does not stop when the connection does
Offline-capable EPOS and ordering mean payments are taken and orders reach the kitchen through broadband drops and Wi-Fi wobbles, turning outages from lost service into a non-event, with clean reconciliation afterwards.
One menu, correct on every channel
Prices, availability and allergen information pushed from a single source to own-site, aggregators and the till at once, ending the daily drift that sells sold-out items, misprices dishes, and lets allergen data go stale.
A calmer, cheaper rush
Aggregator orders consolidated into one kitchen flow, re-keying and tablet-juggling removed, and own-brand ordering shifting volume off commission, fewer errors at peak and more margin kept in the business.
What we build for restaurants & f&b
From a first platform to modernising what you already run. The disciplines this sector draws on most.
How we deliver
- 01
Discover
We map the system, the constraints and the business it serves, including the parts nobody documented.
Architecture brief
- 02
Architect
Decisions get made, written down and defended before a line of production code exists.
Decision records
- 03
Build
Short cycles against working software. You see progress in the product, not in a status deck.
Shipping increments
- 04
Operate
Monitoring, incident response and iteration. The system is alive, so the engagement is too.
Runbooks & SLOs
Building something for restaurants & f&b?
Tell us the problem and the constraints you are working under. A senior engineer will give you a straight view on what it would take, and say so plainly if we are not the right team for it.
Technologies we work in
Chosen per problem, not per fashion. A selection of the stack we most often reach for.
Why teams in restaurants & f&b choose us
We build for the worst moment of the week
Offline-capable, fast, and simple enough for a new starter at Friday peak. We design against the pressure the software will actually face, not the calm path that demos well, because in a restaurant, the demo is not where the money is made or lost.
We are honest about the aggregators
We will not pretend to make Deliveroo, Uber Eats or Just Eat commission disappear. We will remove the operational cost they impose and help you build the own-brand channels that shift volume off them, and we will tell you which problems are ours to solve and which are the platforms’ nature.
We respect thin margins
Every system we scope has to pay back in staff hours, commission or covers, and we operate what we build, so the running cost is our concern too. We will talk you out of the expensive thing that does not earn its keep.
Senior engineers who answer during service
No juniors learning on your till. The people who design the system run it and monitor it, and they treat an outage during service as the serious operational event it is for you, because it is.
Related sectors
Part of Hospitality. Adjacent sectors we also know.
Common questions
Will the EPOS keep working if our internet goes down mid-service?
Yes. That is a baseline requirement, not an upgrade. We build offline-capable point-of-sale so that payments are taken and orders reach the kitchen whether or not the connection is up, with everything reconciled cleanly the moment connectivity returns. Any till that stops trading when the router reboots is the wrong till for a restaurant, and we would not ship one.
Can you get Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat orders into one system?
Yes, and it is usually the highest-value first project. We integrate the aggregators so their orders arrive in your EPOS and on your kitchen display automatically, and so menu, price and availability push out from one place. That removes the tablet farm and the re-keying that cause errors at peak. We are also straight about the limits: each platform’s API constrains what is possible, and their commission is theirs. We remove the operational chaos, not the commercial terms you signed.
How do you keep our menu and prices in sync across every channel?
By making one menu the single source of truth and treating every channel as a subscriber to it rather than a separate copy. When an item sells out it disappears everywhere; when a price changes it changes everywhere; when an allergen field is corrected it is right everywhere. The drift between channels is the most common daily pain in restaurant tech, and it is entirely a software problem we solve architecturally.
How do you handle allergen information given Natasha’s Law?
We treat allergen and ingredient data as a single controlled source of truth that propagates accurately to every channel, so a customer never sees stale or contradictory information. Under Natasha’s Law and wider food-information rules this data has legal weight, and a system that lets one channel hold an out-of-date allergen field is a genuine risk. What we cannot do is guarantee the accuracy of the underlying ingredient data you enter. That responsibility remains yours, and we will always say so.
Is it worth building our own online ordering when we already use the aggregators?
Often, yes, but we will do the maths with you rather than assume it. Own-brand ordering takes the customer relationship and the margin back from the platforms; every order that moves to it keeps the commission in-house. It will not replace the aggregators overnight, and it needs promoting to your existing customers to build volume. On thin margins the payback has to be real, so we scope it to earn its keep and tell you honestly if, for your business, it does not yet.
Building for restaurants & f&b?
Tell us what the system has to do and what it cannot get wrong. A senior engineer reads it, and if restaurants & f&b is not a domain we know well enough to be useful in, we will say so rather than learn it on your budget.
- 01A senior engineer reads it. Not a form queue, and not an account manager.
- 02We reply either with questions or with a straight answer that we are not the right fit.
- 03If it looks like a fit, a technical call with the person who would actually run the delivery.
- 04Then scope, effort and risk in writing, before anyone signs anything.