TouchBistro Review 2023

Pros

• Well-designed UI
• iOS-based
• Easy to use
• Competitive monthly cost
• Numerous integrations

Cons

• Inconsistent customer support
• Not all-in-one
• Add-ons can get pricey

What Is TouchBistro?

TouchBistro is an affordable point of sale system built for small to mid-sized cafes and restaurants with excellent online ordering and delivery options and add-ons to fit your business’s specific needs. TouchBistro is a solid option for numerous niche food-service establishments from bars to bakeries as well as full-service restaurants.

TouchBistro Pricing

With one or two register setups starting at $69/month, TouchBistro’s pricing makes it one of the more affordable and best restaurant POS systems out there. If you need more than one license, TouchBistro encourages you to request a quote. Get started with TouchBistro now.

All plans include 24/7 customer service, menu management, table management, cloud reporting and analytics, unlimited integrations, and unlimited users (staff members who are not licensed).  You can book a free demonstration of TouchBistro to see how it works before committing to a plan.

Extra TouchBistro Costs & Fees

TouchBistro POS Features

If you visit the TouchBistro website, you can find information on app features and descriptions of the various industries the software is suited for. Below is a list of current features. Keep in mind that while these features are mostly accurate, things change quickly. If you have specific POS requirements, you’ll want to directly confirm with TouchBistro whether the app can meet your needs.

Order Taking

• Staff can take customer orders tableside with the TouchBistro app. The app can double as both a menu and a POS system.
• Quickly scroll through different menu categories and customer parties with touch tabs.
• Pop-up modifiers prompt servers to upsell on the spot.
• Send the order to any printer in the business.
• Take orders in table view or tab view.
• Send orders to the kitchen all at once or by course, depending on the type of venue.
• Items can be shared by the whole table, moved from one guest to another, or edited.
• Take notes or make special accommodations for each order.
• Move an order from the cash register to a table or tab.
• View all current orders at once.

Table Management

• Design the table layout with the floor plan function. Use templates or start from scratch. Move or edit the floor plan at any time. Combine tables for large parties.
• Manage multiple tables at once with one iPad, or manage one table with multiple synchronized iPads.
• Choose a table to seat a party and then name the party and record the number of guests. Each table is color-coded according to the server section it’s in.
• Quickly assign seats to each customer and pair orders with seat assignments.
• Managers can directly assign waiters when opening a table on their behalf. You can also reassign a waiter to a closed bill or check.
• Convert an open table order to a bar tab.

Course/Menu Management

• Design a custom menu with separate categories (e.g., appetizers, entrées, desserts, etc.). Each menu item features a full-screen photo that can be uploaded or taken directly with the iPad camera feature. The full-screen shot pairs with a short description of the item that can be shown to customers.
• Add or edit modifier groups. Assign a UPS code for basic inventory purposes.
• Assign additional costs to special items or order additions.
• Use the “duplicate feature” function to build your menu more quickly.
• Switch between breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus.
• Create up to eight different courses.

Kitchen Display System

• Works in tandem with kitchen impact printers.
• Tickets instantly appear when sent from the POS with an accompanying chime.
• Sort and track individual item cook times, ticket history, ticket priority, and more.
• It can run on any iPad that can run iOS 6.
• Pricing varies based on the existing subscription package (call for quote).

Reporting

• View sales history for any given date or time by moving rotating dials and refreshing the page. Print receipts or email sales history from this point.
• View sales statistics for section totals, category totals, waiter totals, food totals, alcohol totals, tax, menus, and discount totals.
• Create sales reports for various line items of your choice. Save your preferences as a template.
• Print or email the end-of-day report.
• Sales Totals iPad report breaks out sales as gross and net sales.
• Menu List Report lets you view/export a list of your menu items, food costs, and menu price.
• You can export data as a CSV file.

Employee Management

• Staff members can log in and out for each shift. Some basic scheduling capabilities are also available.
• Assign titles according to employee status (e.g., hostess, bartender, manager).
• You can set permissions and passcodes for each employee.
• Assign security settings (low/medium/high) to help monitor activity.
• Assign specific sections of the restaurant or bar to each employee.
• Track which employees are regularly deleting items or using the “No Sale” button more frequently than necessary.
• Employees can track breaks without clocking out using paid or unpaid break options.

Taking Payment

• Split payments across any combination of guests. Assign different forms of payment to each guest.
• Process multi-tender payments: cash, card, check, gift card, and hotel room.
• Easily email bills and receipts to customers with one tap.
• Customize the bill and guest checks to your liking. Add your logo.
• If desired, add a Tip Guide to the bottom of bills and guest checks.
• Void multiple items at once and print voided items on a separate chit.
• Use the “Fast Bar” feature to complete payments and close orders quickly.
• Split and close by the seat or by a group of seats/tables.
• Guests’ checks can now have multiple tax amounts printed on them.
• The system has on-screen options for signing and tipping.

Loyalty

• The TouchBistro Loyalty basic package starts at $50 a month. The Plus plan runs $99 a month, and the Premium plan $189 a month, with each giving access to more features.
• Customers can add on to or pay for gift cards on which they can also collect and redeem points.
• Store customer information and preferences.
• Use knowledge to create customized messages and discounts.
• Incentivize customers to make more purchases.
• In-venue signage promotes the loyalty program.

Inventory Management

• Track the costs of various recipes to see what menu items are profitable.
• Engineer your menus to maximize the efficiency of ingredients.
• Allow staff to easily access ingredient levels to see if any items are out of stock or running low.
• You can update menus with a simple click.

TouchBistro’s feature set is frequently updated to improve and add features. You have the option to let updates install automatically, but you can also opt to turn off automatic updates so that your POS doesn’t update during a shift.

Is TouchBistro User-Friendly?

The TouchBistro iPad interface is well done. It’s simple to navigate and attractively designed with a fresh color palette. Simplicity and aesthetics are important since the app is designed to act as both a POS and a digital menu with full-color, high-res photos of each menu item. Anything your customers are directly interacting with needs to look sleek.

TouchBistro created its product with servers in mind, and it shows. The check-splitting function is simple, taking just a few clicks to sort out items by an individual customer or by various groups of customers. Everything is also highly customizable, from the look of your menus to button placement on the screen. TouchBistro allows for custom modifiers, and its forced modifiers pop up automatically, making order taking easy for servers and customers.

Customer Service & Support

TouchBistro offers 24/7 customer service for all subscribers. You can call the company, or if you have a simple query, you can email the company directly.

Access to 24/7 support through multiple channels is a great thing to have with any POS. Some TouchBistro users, though, have mentioned that customer support can take an unacceptably long time to return calls and resolve issues. TouchBistro also makes efforts to engage with customers who complain about the POS on review sites.

You can also watch short YouTube videos that give overviews on various TouchBistro functions, from setting up your wireless network to configuring your menu. The TouchBistro website features a comprehensive support section, complete with set-up guides, written instructions, and tutorial videos.

Payment Processing With TouchBistro

TouchBistro is compatible with several popular gateways in addition to its TouchBistro Payments (powered by Chase), which is available in the US only. Chase Merchant Services generally has positive reviews, so I would expect that TouchBistro Payments is a quality processor as well. TouchBistro now has you call to get a rate for your business and you may have to sign up for a contract to get the lowest rate so make sure you now exactly what you’re agreeing to before you sign.

If you want to use an outside payment processor, here are your options:

• Square
• TSYS
• Worldpay
• Chase Merchant Services (Canada)
• Moneris (Canada)
• Tyro Payments (Australia)

Notably, Square is also a basic POS system as well as a payment processor. If you already use Square payment processing at your establishment but need a POS with more restaurant-centric features, TouchBistro might be a good addition. You can call TouchBistro to schedule a demo to see how TouchBistro works with Square.

Keep in mind that, although your TouchBistro wireless network does not require Wi-Fi or an internet connection to operate, your payment gateway does require a wireless connection. If your internet goes down, you will not be able to process credit card payments.

Contract Length & Early Termination Fees

You can sign up for TouchBistro’s software on a month-to-month basis, but there have been reviews that have mentioned that sales reps, when setting up custom rates for new members, have convinced them to sign up for a one-year contract which is then difficult to break. As always, you’ll want to do your research and ask plenty of questions.

TouchBistro Integrations & Add-Ons

TouchBistro offers many useful integrations to extend the system’s functionality, including the following software partners:

• Accounting: QuickBooks, Xero, Sage, Shogo, MarginEdge
• Business Insights & Analytics: Avero
• Inventory Management: Bevcheck, WISK.ai, MarketMan, Craftable, Wisk, FreePour, Optimum Control, MarginEdge
• Mobile Payments & Loyalty: SmoothPay
• Staff Scheduling: 7shifts, Push Operations
• Online Ordering & Delivery (To Connect Third-Party Online Ordering Apps): Checkmate, Deliverect, Ordermark

TouchBistro also offers the following in-house add-ons:

• Gift Cards: This $25/month add-on lets you sell branded, customized gift cards from your restaurant. These cards can be tracked using your POS and redeemed at any of your store locations.
• Online Ordering: Available for $50/month, this add-on is easy to set up; all you need is your TouchBistro Cloud credentials to sync your POS with an online menu where customers can place orders. Note that while this app sends online orders to your POS, integrated online payments are currently unavailable, so you’ll have to take payment using your POS upon pickup or delivery. As an alternative to TouchBistro’s in-house online ordering system, you can integrate a partnered software service (such as Checkmate or Ordermark) to connect third-party food delivery apps  (e.g., Uber Eats, DoorDash, Postmates, etc.).
• Reservations: This $229/month add-on is a complete reservation and guest-management system. It allows you to accept reservations through your website, TouchBistro’s web and mobile discovery apps, or Google Reservations. The add-on also includes guest records (an important tool for small business contact tracing), floor plans, and SMS and email reservation alerts.

TouchBistro Reviews

While TouchBistro has both negative and positive reviews, overall, the positive things customers mention outweigh the bad. TouchBistro has a 4 out of 5 rating on Software Advice with more than 350 reviews and a 4.4 rating on g2.com with nearly 100 reviews.

Negative TouchBistro Reviews & Complaints

After scouring the internet, a few negative complaints repeatedly showed up in TouchBistro POS reviews:

• Customer Service: There were many complaints about long wait times and customer service representatives taking a couple of days to respond.
• Reporting: There were several complaints about reports having glitches.
• Lack Of Features: A few customers asked for more extensive inventory and reporting features.
• Not An All-In-One POS: TouchBistro has put most of its development energy into the POS system itself. This is an area where TouchBistro has steadily shown improvement, but customers still may find things (such as inventory and reporting) lacking. This means that you can end up with excellent software and a great interface, but you may have to pay for add-ons. The reporting and accounting features are fairly basic, although the app now integrates with Shogo and Xero. Employee management has become easier, thanks to a recent integration with 7Shifts, and, fortunately, receiving and storing customer data has become a simpler process as well.

Positive TouchBistro Reviews & Testimonials

Here are several of the more common points of praise when it comes to TouchBistro:

• Popularity: TouchBistro has been the top-grossing POS app on iTunes several times in the past couple of years. That’s something to pay attention to. TouchBistro has a lot of clients that have modified their app to work for them. While the fact that the app is undergoing so much development is a little unnerving, it also indicates that the company is growing and thriving. Many customers don’t seem to mind that there are constant updates, and a few even see it as a positive.
• Solid, Easy Design: There are quite a few customers who rave over TouchBistro’s ease of use and the fact that it has a sleek interface. The design is modern and attractive, and, for the most part, it’s intuitive and straightforward to navigate and use. You’re not going to be spending much time training new employees on how to use it like you would have to do with more complicated POS systems. The initial setup is also going to be minimal. Anyone with a small amount of technical know-how will be able to set up the entire system quickly, which also helps reduce costs.
• Low Cost: TouchBistro is cost-effective in the grand scheme of POS options. The hardware costs are minimal compared to those of large, hardware-intensive POS systems. If you have a very small business with only one terminal, the price is especially feasible.

Final Verdict Of TouchBistro POS

I have mostly positive feelings about TouchBistro. I love the app and how it seamlessly takes you through each step of the restaurant experience. As POS software, it’s a solid, well-developed product.

TouchBistro is extremely cost-effective for smaller businesses that don’t need many terminals or devices. Larger businesses that have more than 10 iPads may want to shop around for an app with a more expensive licensing fee that allows for unlimited devices. You can also check out some of the other best restaurant POS systems on our site to see if any of our picks fits your needs.

TouchBistro FAQs

The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆

TouchBistro	Visit Site

After hours of in-depth research and evaluation, we can confidently recommend this brand to our readers. Get started today and see TouchBistro for yourself.

The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆

TouchBistro	Visit Site

After hours of in-depth research and evaluation, we can confidently recommend this brand to our readers. Get started today and see TouchBistro for yourself.

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