TouchBistro

Pros

Can't beat the price. user friendly. menu management is a breeze.

Cons

For larger organizations integration with other software needs to be easier. reports could be better. seperating reports by time periods is a problem

Pros

We love TouchBistro to manage room charges and the mass amount of listed items that we sell from our fine dining restaurant to our gift shop.

Cons

One of the biggest challenges we've found with TouchBistro is the technology issues whenever updates are needed. It's often something that can't be fixed in house and that's down time we can't afford to lose.

Pros

Sales team works fast to get you signed up

Cons

Sales team lies about the abilities of the software to get you to sign a contract. They will do anything to keep you locked in even if you didn’t use the service or service up.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing TouchBistro

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to TouchBistro

Pros

My employees transitioned over to TouchBistro really well. It's really easy to use.

Cons

We have "portable" card readers. They're not very "portable". Very glitchy.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing TouchBistro

Reasons for Switching to TouchBistro

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 low cost is NOT worth the headaches. Talk about "buyers remorse". We are counting the days for our contract to end so we can go to a competent company.

Cons

Where to begin? We literally have pages of complaints about this system.

Pros

Good working restaurant system and in the beginning was a well run customer focused company

Cons

Absolutely the WORST customer service department in the history of business. I would not recommend this company if they gave you the equipment for free. To be honest, I have been trying to resolve an issue for 3 months, after numerous calls, emails, and on hold…nothing has been resolved.

Pros

I have nothing positive to say, their product is substandard, but their customer service is the absolute worst I have ever experienced!

Cons

shady business practices from the start!
Aggressive sales pitch, we brought in the system on a trial basis, told we could cancel at any time. Wanted to test it out first with our staff, do some training, see if it was right for us; wouldn't let us do anything without being fully on board.
Tried the system for a bit, quite underwhelming, decided to go back to our former POS, asked to cancel. Was told that someone would be in touch with me, and then they have ignored all attempts to communicate, and have billed me for 2 months after the cancellation! I am currently waiting on my Credit Card company fraud department to hopefully resolve it, or I will have to cancel that card so that these scammers can not continue to steal from me!!!

Pros

Nothing they scam people to bind you in contract if you want to walk out they want you to pay full amount of services. They never provide any equipment and charging you for services.

Cons

Customer service and everything. Even their software not friendly for restaurant.

Pros

Easy to use. Like the fact that it runs off an iPad.

Cons

To try and reach someone from tech support was difficult to say the least. Took a few days to have someone call back and help set up. I moved to Clover which has great customer service and better reporting. I am still trying to get my account cancelled. Even with a confirmation code, no one has reached out to billing despite repeated calls. They have kept billing my account after cancellation and I have to put a block on my credit card. Stay away!

Pros

The software is incredibly intuitive and has an extremely high level of functionality within its simple user interface.

Cons

The one issue we have is the inflexible partnership TouchBistro has with Apple. Thousands of dollars of hardware must be purchased to run TouchBistro, and there is almost no flexibility in what you are allowed to by to run it.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing TouchBistro

Reasons for Switching to TouchBistro

Pros

Ease of use with menu items, modifiers, etc

Cons

When an update about 2 years ago made every IPAD in the building unusable, and there was no way to undo the update. Made my restaurant not have a POS for 4 days while i waited to find 8 new IPADS, a new Mac Mini, and 8 new IPAD stands. There were emails sent about the update but they went into the clutter/junk folders\...WHERE WAS THE PHONE CALL??????????????????????????????????????????????? ANd then the sad "here is 3 months of free touchbistro". This cost us thousands of dollars in new equipment, lost sales/transaction, and man hours. It also meant that for 4 days every employee had their worst days ever in the building, hand writing orders, hand delivering order to the kitchen, hand writing CC orders, tax, reciepts, etc (many payments didn't end up going through either)

Pros

Touchscreen kitchen ticket management, server order input.

Cons

Reports are horrible and missing information. Customer support is time consuming, does not follow up, and frequently does not resolve in any way. Does not integrate with OpenTable.

Pros

I liked the price....until I found out that you get what you pay for.

Cons

Random charges, no follow-through, lead person went on vacation during onboarding without leaving anyone else to help. STILL haven't received any equipment (that was supposed to be here 2 weeks ago)....but yet they're already charging me for additional months of service.

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

Nothing really. Currently exploring alternatives.

Cons

Not a fan of apple operating system. Constant updating during busy times.

Pros

We are a 1 day a week seated restaurant and it is a great tool to control this. Support has been excellent, every call has been handled quickly and efficiently.

Cons

The time stamp for togo orders does not print on all the receipts and would be helpful.

Pros

I have no pros because after they took my payment for the system, I have yet to have any other interaction except to connect to tablets my internet in a whole month. No one replies to emails. [sensitive content hidden] the person that should be helping me is MIA.

Cons

I have no pros because after they took my payment for the system, I have yet to have any other interaction except to connect to tablets my internet in a whole month. No one replies to emails. [sensitive content hidden] the person that should be helping me is MIA.

Pros

The only area I am happy with is the reporting. Everything else is truly terrible, time consuming, frustrating and a detriment to my ability to focus on my restaurant.

Cons

They may claim to have 24/7 customer service but that has only worked for us for two of our more than 30 issues in the past two years. The vast majority of issues must be sent off to a different department that does not work nights, weekends, or apparently ALL the holidays that exist in the US or Canada. There are issues on average every week, I have made six calls this week alone. On average I probably spend three hours a week dealing with issues, some weeks over 10 hours spent. There also seems to be issues with the hardware. We used to payment devices at our restaurant, so far 10 have failed. When these issues arise that also results in hours on the phone and days of communication to resolve. I

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

The POS was the most intimidating thing for me when I started a restaurant job, because inputting a large order and correctly billing guests in regards to splitting items seemed daunting. Touchbistro is super user friendly and was not difficult to become comfortable with.

Cons

This may be misdirected, but a ‘feature tour’ or on screen button that directs to a resource for situational questions about functions would be handy.

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

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

The upgrade in the equipment seemed fair .

Cons

No ability to create invoice
no accompanying app for off site management, or no site back up
unable to control print settings

Pros

We were attracted to Touch Bistro because it used iPads and allows our servers to take orders at the table.

Cons

The system fails and becomes disconnected daily. There is some kind of bug or glitch that crashes the system at some point almost every day. We have to call customer support daily. We’ve had Touch Bistro for about a month, and we prepaid for a year, but we are replacing it with a different system already.