TouchBistro Reviews

Pros

The TouchBistro POS system is a very easy to use. I don't find myself to be the best at POS systems, but the setup process was basically idiot-proof. Getting everything to work took way less time than I anticipated. Also, I have yet to see this POS system crash, even during busy hours.

Cons

Sometimes there can be a little lag when putting in certain orders. It seems like the POS system is sometimes just trying to play catch up with itself. We have noticed that moving from page to page oftentimes will slow it down. We have learned to not click as quickly now though.

Pros

User friendly, great tech support, does a lot.

Cons

Need training to buyers, better then they give. There’s video you can watch, but hands on learning is much better. You have to pay for each service, other POS’s the services come with it. Expert to have more then 1 bill….

Pros

Using iPad to take orders is the only good thing, very fast compared to other POS providers.

Cons

Where do I begin.
Customer service was the best until 2019. Now it is similar to Toasts. It is day 7 of us not being able to print tickets in the kitchen, every time/ every day I call them they have this answer ready. "Our Product Development team is working on your case, we will get back to you as soon as we hear back from them"

Pros

The ease of switching over from our old system to the TB system

Cons

Nothing . Everything works exactly they way we wanted .

Pros

When it works, which is usually right up to the latest and greatest new "software update", its highly intuitive, its easy for the staff to handle, its easy for me to program, and has quite useful analytics attached.

Cons

It breaks A LOT - and always at the worst possible time, and their customer support would have to be five or six times better to just suck. First time it took them 7 HOURS to return my urgent tech support call - lost a dinner service. Next time it was 9 HOURS -- not only lost dinner... but we lost a lunch service too!!!

Then they started getting better... next time it was only 4 hours... called 10 minutes into the 7th game of the Stanley Cup finals [I missed the rest of the game]. To their credit, I had their support person call me back in 15 minutes [the time it takes to get from my house to the restaurant] - and he was able to fix the problem in just a tick over 90 minutes. Tonight it was 3 hours and 10 minutes before the call back came. I was on my motorcycle [don't talk or text while riding]... called back the number on the voicemail... only to find myself back in a queue. Its been 40 plus minutes so far... but fool that I am, I'm still hopeful.

Pros

The most popular opinion from our staff is the ease of use with TouchBistro. The program needs barely any training assistance, staff picks up the location of menu items quickly, customers are impressed with the technology, and in a small space like our coffee house the size of the unit compared to our grandfather of a cash register we can host more treats for our customers.

Cons

We struggle with getting prompt response when in a stressful or urgent situation. Restaurant business is fast paced and requires immediate help, especially if we are stalled in being able to take payment or assist a customer in another way. Guests don't appreciate being asked to wait while we try to contact Touch Bistro unsuccessfully. Email response time is reasonable. We also struggle to offer emailed invoices directly from touch bistro without having to switch over our wifi, slowing down service. We are also struggling to have reliable synching on our online account to view sales reports.

Pros

I love the inventory tracking that is available with this POS system. That being said, it does take ALOT of ingredient entry and programming on your end but it is worth it! I also think their customer service is great! We have a direct email contact and Monday through Friday you can logon to their website and chat with an associate.

Cons

I am used to a lot of other POS systems so this just took getting used to. I definitely referenced their "How to step by step" references for a few items. I had to figure out some work arounds in order to account for all inventory. For example, in past systems I've used, if I rang up a shot of Jim Beam bourbon, there was a modifier button for 'Double Shot' and it would automatically deduct $2.00 off the second shot and account for the inventory. In TouchBistro my option was a discount code with a custom modifier that I type in, but it wouldn't account for the inventory, so I had to add a separate menu for 'Double Shots' which wasn't the worst thing but again, a lot of time.

Pros

Ease of use, wireless capabilities, most of the customer service reps are knowledgeable and friendly.

Cons

Does not allow you to put a hold on credit cards for any amount. Does not work when internet is down which it is supposed to store and forward, and it does not. Was supposed to be completely wireless and is now not. Hate to have to pay for more equipment when I pay a monthly fee.

Pros

iOS based so it's easy to learn and use. Cloud based so I'm able to see sales live without any delay. iPhone app is simple to navigate.

Cons

Even though it was iOS based, there wasn't an iPhone app that would allow you to ring in orders and I couldn't find a heavy duty holder that would also have enough room for the dymo card reader. The last few iOS updates really messed with the software - using sign on screen would close out the app, wifi kept disconnecting, etc.

Pros

iPad based so it’s convenient to use but that’s about all it goes for the good parts.

Cons

Slow with big restaurants.
KDS fails 5% of the time.
Printers fail 1% of the time

The lag and delays of sending tickets is brutal for large restaurants. I have more than 1 location. Small places fine. Large are terrible.

Pros

The functionality of the POS with our iPad minis for order taking is great, and saves our staff time that was traditionally reserved for having to go directly to a work station.

Cons

Reporting is horrific. Daily reports do not provide all information needed (comps, promos, takeout vs. dine in totals,etc.) and also does not subtract cash payouts from total cash on report. When creating EOM reports, we have to look at 5-7 separate reports to get all the data needed.Labor reports do not consolidate tip reporting with labor, nor does it populate total earned for each employee with different job types/rates of pay. I had to create my own spreadsheet so our accountant can actually navigate our payroll.When trying to drill down numbers for a certain menu item and create an Excel report, it will not let you isolate. Onboarding is horrendous. The training materials provided are cursory at best, and support is minimal. We had to figure out how to use the system through trial and error, and I had to write a user's manual for our staff myself. What was promised as functionality/support by the sales team turned out to be patently false.Since the second to last TouchBistro software update, we have had a total breakdown on payment processing with our iPad Minis and V400m. I have called to work this out I think 6 times now? It is still an issue and no one has any answers. The V400m freezes, does not connect to the iPad, cancels payment, takes double payments, and a whole myriad of other issues. Nightmare is putting it gently. All systems are updated and WiFi connectivity is perfect. DO NOT USE WE PAY OR CHASE AT ANY COST!There's so much more that is awful.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing TouchBistro

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to TouchBistro

Pros

The promise of what it "could potentially do"

Cons

Frequent Outages & Forced Updates: Even on Friday nights and busy holidays such as Cinco de MayoCustomer Service & Support: Rarely helpful and requires customers to provide lengthy email summaries of past service calls (that they SHOULD have a record of in their CRM)Weird "hallucinations" appearing on customer facing online ordering platform: Root Beer appearing as a bread option/'As Weapon' & 'Ass Bacon' appearing as modifiersThere's not enough room in this field's character limit to continue

Alternatives Considered

Pros

The system seems like it should be great. The loyalty options seem great. They problem is they lie about features and the onboarding support is basically zero. To quote the onboarding rep, "As soon as you process your first transaction, my job is done". It doesn't matter that over 80% of the features aren't working and we don't have any online menu working, once one transaction is processed, you are on your own.

Cons

At this point, I have personally spent over 200 hours of my time to get this system running and I have 50% of the system running at one store and 25% at another. The system has zero support for multi-units and everything has to be repeated numerous times to make any changes. For example, for two stores, every change has to be done 4 times: 1 for instore, 1 for online and then the exact same changes again for any other location, every with the exact same menu. This is a terrible system for multi-units.

Pros

I can use a manager card (qr code) instead of a manager code to override manager funcions. You can choose what credit card merchant you want to use.

Cons

You can do very little from home. You will get glued to the restaurant. It only has one "admin" code so two people can not work on programming, setting up or doing anything at the same time. You can in a very limited way change menu items online. Any payroll issues, major menu changes, adding staff etc, you have to be in the restaurant, on the Ipad, on the same wifi as the "brain". Forget owning more than one restaurant or go on vacation, nothing can be done remotely. Even the reports is bad and you have to be at the restaurant to pull anything. I easy spent 20 hour online, on the phone just to set up such a basic thing as gift cards and that's an additional cost. I can still to to this day not log in to my merchant account to match deposits with my account. Nothing is user-friendly so to try to train any staff that is not a computer engineer is impossible, so again, you have to drive to the store any hours of the day to solve an issue.

Pros

There really isn't much at all to like about the software. It's very basic. When it actually worka.

Cons

The app crashes a lot. It's wifi based so if your wifi goes down your credit cards readers won't work. If you close down your apps during an internet outage, you are screwed. Many, many glitches and system outages over the years. Customer service is slow and they don't have a system service statues website so when you call with an issue, you'll have to wait a long timeto talk to someone. Then by the time they call you back the issue will have resolved itself.
The back end is not easy to navigate. There is no search bar for items on the cloud. There is no way to mark modifiers out of stock. No partial refunds on online orders. No good support for menu builds and start up. You are basically on your own to figure it out.
They also sold me on a loyalty and gift card program and lied that it would soon integrate with online orders. It turns out they were weeks away from rolling out their own branded program. But it was too late for me.
Just so very many many problems over the years that I am finally fed up and switching to Toast. So far an amazing experience with them that makes me realize how horrible TouchBistro actually is.

Pros

Ease of use. Cloud based. Apple products

Cons

No dedicated person overseeing account. No follow through from support. Support lacks knowledge and reads from troubleshooting script.

Alternatives Considered

Switched From

Pros

Their sales staff was very effective, unfortunately.

Cons

The self install may have been the worst day of my life. They are constantly updating and changing how reports are accessed rendering some reports completely inaccessible one day to another. When I decided the close the restaurant due to losses and the interest rates they harassed me for payment, would not negotiate a reasonable cancellation fee. They were aggressive showing no care for the small family loosing their life savings. Terrible product. The worst service. Zero ethics or morals. There is a reason they are loosing market share at an alarming rate.

Pros

The customer service people are friendly, despite never being able to resolve your issue.

Cons

From day 1, system crashed several times a day. Called over and over for months now and nobody can seem to fix it. Gift cards never worked. Same thing, tech support couldn't figure it out so issued a refund (still waiting for months later)
No accountability or anyone to help. Have to call support everyday and explain over and over.

Pros

Dashboard and cloud reporting. ease of use.

Cons

Technical support seems to be overwhelmed and you can rarely connect with them when you need them most. They try to get back to you within 24 hours, but in most cases that's too long and have significant impact on our business.

Pros

TouchBistro has been an amazing tool for our cafe. I love the ease of use, how easily we are able to get an overview of the cafe at any one time, along with performance, financial reporting, and all the rest. We keep discovering new features that allow us to be more and more accurate and efficient behind the counter. Support is also always really helpful and available whenever we need them!

Cons

Some of the features seem weirdly incomplete, like reporting having some types of reports available and not others. Also, we have had to source a secondary POS system to use for our retail inventory, as despite having the capability for things like barcode scanning, there is no way to quickly or easily update our inventory--with a stocklist of over 2000 items, having to create each item individually and update them manually is too much of a headache to bother with.

Pros

Just about everything

Cons

Cash layout for required new iPads to retain full functionality

Pros

It connects with our accounting software so that our daily sales are uploaded automatically.
The app is easy to use and our new staff can be trained quickly and efficiently.
The billing features are really great and allow our servers to manage tables the way the customer wants, not the way the POS wants.

Cons

Adding menu items is time consuming and a general pain. We would love to have a web based site that allows easier uploading .

The reporting features are a bit clunky - for example we cannot check on single item sales totals. Instead we have to download a entire report with ALL items.

Pros

Price point is great for a small independent business.
Ease of use: very easy to train new staff on the software.

Cons

Limitations for custom reporting as well as the frequency of updates - trying when all your programs are constantly changing, albeit for the better many times, tough to keep up with when all (not just touch bistro) your tech is constantly evolving faster than one can keep up.

Pros

I have been using touch bistro since we open on 2015 and still using it. The POS is easy to navigate and easy to use. I would not try any other .

Cons

When they download new info or upgrade, sometimes it takes so long for the other support to figured it out themselves.

Pros

The most impactful feature is the ability to use an IPAD to service guest at their tables. TouchBistro is easy to use with the ability to send orders to our Kitchen staff eliminating paper orders.

Cons

There are no Cons using TouchBistro, integrated easily with our business processes.