Guide · the kitchen
Kitchen display or paper tickets: what a small restaurant kitchen needs
A rail of paper checks has run good kitchens for a century, and a screen on the wall is not a reason to change on its own. What changes is what happens between the waiter's tap and the plate at the pass. This guide is about that gap, and about the few kitchens where paper is still the better tool.
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What a kitchen display changes at the pass
On paper, a check is written or printed once, carried to the kitchen and read by whoever is nearest. From then on it is a piece of paper on a rail: it does not know how old it is, it cannot tell the grill that the starters have just gone, and when a waiter changes the side from chips to salad, someone walks back with a pen.
A kitchen display system, usually shortened to KDS, puts the same check on a screen and keeps it alive. The waiter sends the round from a tablet or phone at the table; it reaches the screen of the station that cooks it within 5 seconds of the tap, with the seat number, the course and any note. When the chef bumps it, the pass knows. When a manager voids a dish, the ticket says so, with the reason.
Nothing about that makes the food faster. What it removes is the walking, the shouting across the kitchen and the moment at nine o'clock when three checks for the same table are on three different rails.
Stations and routing: each dish to the cook who makes it
The first decision is the one paper makes by accident: who sees what. On a display each category or each dish is sent to its own station. The grill sees steaks and burgers, the fryer sees chips and calamari, cold starters go to the larder, desserts to pastry, and the bar gets the drinks on a screen of its own. A dish that needs two stations appears on both.
Set it up from the menu rather than from the kitchen layout of a restaurant you once worked in. Take last Saturday's busiest hour and ask, dish by dish, who touched the plate. Most small kitchens end up with three stations and a pass, and the pass sees everything.
In Slotora the routing is part of the menu: categories, dishes, sizes and options, each with the 14 allergens marked, and each sent where you say. Change a dish's station once and every new round follows it.
Timers and colours: the age of a ticket, at a glance
- 1
Received, preparing, ready, served
A ticket moves through four states, and anyone looking at the screen can see which one each table is in. A ticket bumped by mistake can be recalled.
- 2
Amber, then red, at your own minutes
Each station sets its own limits. A starter at the larder might turn amber after eight minutes and red after twelve; the grill's limits are longer. The colour is a question to the pass, not a verdict on the cook.
- 3
A chime for a new ticket
In a loud kitchen the sound matters more than the screen. Put the display where the cook's eyes already go, at head height above the station, and let the chime do the rest.
- 4
Set the limits from a real week
Watch a week of tickets before you trust the colours. Limits set too tight turn every ticket red by eight o'clock, and a screen that is always red is ignored.
Course firing: the waiter decides when mains go
The hardest thing to do on paper is to hold a course. The check for starters and mains arrives together, and the kitchen either guesses when to start the mains or waits for someone to call away. A display can hold them for you.
In Slotora the waiter sends one round with the seat, the course and any notes; every course after the first waits until the waiter fires it. The station sees the course it is cooking and what comes next for that table, so the grill can see four ribeyes coming without starting them. A pacing strip on each table shows the waiter where the meal is. The waiter fires the next course; it never fires by itself.
Allergies travel the same way. A note on the dish goes to the station with it, and when the guest's card carries an allergy, it is read back to the waiter before the round is sent.
When paper still wins
Paper is cheap, silent, and works in a power cut. In a kitchen of one or two cooks with a short menu, where the chef can see the whole room from the pass, a screen adds little that a good rail and a loud voice do not already give. The same is true of a busy breakfast café cooking six dishes, or a pop-up that changes its menu every week.
A screen starts to pay its way when the kitchen has more than one station, when courses need holding, when the same table orders in several rounds, or when allergy notes have to reach the right cook every time. Most restaurants with a separate grill and larder pass that line by the second busy Saturday.
In Slotora the kitchen works from the screen. If you change over, run both for a week: keep your rail for the first services and stop it once the screen and the pass agree three nights in a row.
Costs: the screens you already own
- Some kitchen display systems come with hardware of their own: a screen per station, sometimes a bump bar and an installation visit. Ask for that part of the price on its own before you compare.
- Slotora's kitchen display runs in a web browser on a tablet. A spare tablet in a wall case at each station is enough to start, and several screens see the same tickets.
- It is part of the one monthly price per location, with the bookings, the floor, the menu and the bill.
Kitchen displays: short answers
How fast does an order reach the kitchen screen?
In Slotora, within 5 seconds of the waiter's tap on the tablet or phone at the table.
Can the kitchen hold the mains until the starters are cleared?
Yes. Every course after the first waits until the waiter fires it, and the station sees what is coming next for that table.
Do I need special hardware for a kitchen display?
For Slotora, a tablet with a web browser at each station is enough. Mount it at eye height, away from the fryer.
The kitchen display system in Slotora · The menu, with stations and allergens · QR ordering at the table · Pricing