Restaurant View
The Restaurant view is the main screen on the iPad. It’s the digital version of your floor plan, with every table from your Dashboard laid out the way it sits in real life. From here, every shift you’ll:
- Open a table for new guests
- See which tables are busy and what stage their order is at
- Tap an open table to add more items, fire to the kitchen, or take payment
- Join two tables when one party splits across them
- Jump quickly between rooms (Main Dining, Patio, Bar…)
You arrive on this screen as soon as you sign in with your PIN and the register is open.
The Restaurant view only shows up if your iPad is set up as a Full service kiosk. If your iPad is set to Quick service or Reception only, you’ll land on a different screen by default.
The top bar — what each control does
Three sets of controls sit along the top of the screen:
- Left: view-mode toggle — Layout and Grid
- Centre: one button per room (e.g. Main Dining, Patio, Bar)
- Right: Join tables button (turns into Separate tables when you’ve selected a joined table)
Layout view vs Grid view
There are two ways to look at your tables — tap Layout or Grid in the top-left to switch.
Layout view (default)
Shows your tables exactly where they sit in the room — the visual you designed in the Dashboard’s Floor Plan.
Best when:
- You’re new to the room and want to recognise tables by where they are
- The seating layout matters (e.g. corner booths, window tables)
- You want to see which tables are next to each other for service
You can pinch to zoom and two-finger drag to pan if your room is bigger than the screen.
Grid view
Same tables as a tidy grid of cards — same colours, same badges, just no spatial layout.
Best when:
- It’s slammed and you want to scan everyone’s status fast
- The room is tiny and a list is faster than the floor plan
- You’re new to the venue and don’t yet recognise tables by position
The choice isn’t remembered — any time you leave the Restaurant tab and come back (or switch rooms), the view resets to Layout.
Switching rooms
If your venue has more than one room (Main Dining, Patio, Bar…) each one has a button in the centre of the top bar. Tap a room name to switch — the floor plan updates instantly.
The active room is highlighted; the others are dimmed.
Reading a table at a glance
Every table on the floor plan tells you four things without you having to tap it: what stage the order is at, who’s sitting there, how long they’ve been there, and (when you’re taking orders by seat) which seat is which.
Table colour — what stage the order is at
Badges on the table
For the full visual reference — including every reservation-side colour you’ll see over in Reception — head to the Table Statuses Reference.
Opening a table for new guests
This is the most common thing you’ll do.
In venues that run a host stand with its own iPad in Reception mode, the host seats every party — empty tables can’t be opened from this screen. Tapping an empty table here will show “go to Reception and create a new walk-in”. Two cases:
• Reception is on a separate tablet (the usual setup) — wait for the host to seat the party. Once the table goes active you can work it from this screen as normal.
• This iPad has Reception turned on too — switch to the Reception tab in the bottom bar and use the walk-in flow. See Seating guests when Reception mode is on.
Tap the empty table
A sidebar slides in from the right. It shows a wine-glass icon and the message “[Table number] is available”, with an Open tab button.
Tap “Open tab”
The sidebar swaps to a guest-count picker — buttons for 1 through 14, plus a Custom option for larger parties.
Pick the number of guests
Tap the number of people sat at the table. The bottom of the sidebar now reads “Open table — X guests”.
Tap “Open table — X guests”
The table flips into an open session and the iPad jumps straight to Order Taking so you can start ringing in items.
Don’t want to open this table after all? Tap anywhere on the floor plan outside the sidebar and it’ll slide back out — nothing changes.
Seating guests when Reception mode is on
If Reception mode is enabled on this iPad, the Open tab button is gone. Tapping an empty table shows a sidebar that reads:
“To seat guests at this table, go to Reception and create a new walk-in.”
This is so every cover gets logged through Reception (matching reservations, walk-ins and capacity tracking). Here’s the full flow:
Switch to the Reception tab
Tap Reception in the bottom tab bar. You’ll see the same floor plan, plus a calendar of today’s reservations on the side.
Tap the blue + New button (top-right)
A small menu pops up with two choices:
- New reservation — for a future booking
- New walk-in — for a party that’s already at the door
Tap New walk-in.
Set the number of guests
A walk-in form slides in from the right with a Number of guests counter. Use the − and + buttons to set the party size.
(Optional) Add the guest's details
Tap Guest information to expand the section, then fill in the Name, Phone, and Email if you have them. Skip this for anonymous walk-ins — the system will create a generic Walk-in entry.
Tap a table on the floor plan to assign it
Underneath the form there’s a hint: “Tap a table on the layout to assign”. Tap any free table — it’ll highlight to show it’s selected. Tap a different one to change your mind.
Tap “Create walk-in”
The button at the bottom of the form. The table becomes active, the iPad shows a confirmation toast (“Walk-in seated — [guest name] (party of X)”). If you didn’t add a guest name, the toast says “Guest” or “Guest #ABCDE” (the first five letters of the auto-generated ID).
Go back to Restaurant view to start ordering
Tap Restaurant in the bottom tab bar. The table you just seated will now show as occupied with the customer’s initials (or a generic walk-in tag) in the corner. Tap it to add items in the usual way.
In a venue that uses Reception mode, the host stand owns the door — they decide when a guest is seated and at which table. Forcing every party through Reception means your covers, reservations, and walk-ins all line up in your reports. Servers still ring up orders the same way once the table is active.
Reception mode only changes how you start a session. Tapping an already-occupied table on the Restaurant view still opens the order sidebar exactly the same way — you can add items, fire, serve, and take payment without leaving Restaurant view.
Working an open table
Once a table is in service, tapping it shows a different sidebar — the table order sidebar — with everything happening on that table:
- Guest count
- Customer name (if it came from a reservation or walk-in)
- How long the session has been running
- Every ticket on the table, with its items and status
- Quick actions: Add items, New ticket, fire/serve buttons on each ticket
From here you can:
- Tap Add items to add more food/drinks to the existing ticket
- Tap New ticket to start a separate ticket on the same table (useful for split bills)
- Tap Fire on a draft ticket to send it to the kitchen
- Tap Serve on a ready item to mark it delivered
To take payment, head to the Payments tab from the bottom — it’ll already know which table you’re working on.
Joining tables
If a party is bigger than any single table, push two tables together physically and join them in the iPad so the order stays on one bill.
Open the first table for the party (as normal)
Tap the table → Open tab → pick the guest count → start the session.
Tap that open table again to select it
The sidebar opens. Don’t worry about the sidebar — leave it.
Tap “Join tables” in the top-right
The sidebar closes and the screen enters join mode. The button label changes to Cancel while you’re in this mode.
Tap each extra table you want to join
Each table you tap is added to the join. A small overlay shows “X tables selected” so you can keep count.
Tap “Join X tables” at the bottom
Once you’ve selected at least 2 tables, a Join X tables button appears at the bottom. Tap it to confirm. The tables become one combined session, and their labels turn into a combined badge like A1/A2 so anyone walking past can see they’re joined.
You can only join tables once at least one of them is in an active session. If you tap Join tables on two empty tables you’ll get a message saying you need to open one first. If your venue uses Reception mode, that first table has to be seated through Reception (either by the host on their tablet, or by you on the Reception tab if your iPad has it). Once one table is live, come back here and start from Step 2.
Separating joined tables
When the party leaves and you want the tables back as individual tables:
Tap any of the joined tables
The sidebar opens. The top-right button changes from Join tables to Separate tables.
Tap “Separate tables”
The combined badge splits back into individual table labels. The original session — and everything on it — stays on the first table; the others go back to empty.
Jumping straight to a table by number
When you know the table number and don’t want to hunt for it on the floor plan, use the Enter Table floating button at the bottom-right of the screen (a # icon).
Tap it → type the table number → confirm. The iPad opens that table’s sidebar straight away, no matter which room it’s in.
This is the fastest way to find a table during a busy shift, especially if your venue has many rooms.
How other modes change the picture
Most iPads run Full service alone, in which case everything above applies as written. If your iPad has more modes turned on (set in the Dashboard’s Devices page), some behaviours change. Here’s the full breakdown:
| Modes on this iPad | What’s different on the Restaurant view |
|---|---|
| Full service only | Everything works as described above. |
| Quick service only | The Restaurant view is hidden. The iPad lands on Order Taking straight away — guests pay first at a counter, no table needed. |
| Reception only | The Restaurant view is hidden. The iPad lands on Reception instead. |
| Full service + Reception | The floor plan still shows. Empty tables can’t be opened from here — the sidebar tells you to use the Reception tab and create a walk-in. Already-seated tables, joining tables, view modes, room switching, and Enter Table all still work the same. See Seating guests when Reception mode is on. |
| Full service + Quick service | The floor plan is shown for full-service tables; switch to Order Taking for counter sales. Both work side by side. |
If you’re not sure which modes are on, ask your manager — it’s set in the Dashboard, not the iPad.
What still works the same with Reception on
Reception mode only takes over the seating moment. Once a table has been seated through Reception, every other action on the Restaurant view behaves exactly as it does without Reception:
- ✅ Tapping an open table to see tickets, add items, fire, serve, pay
- ✅ Join tables / Separate tables
- ✅ Enter Table for jumping by number
- ✅ Layout / Grid view toggle
- ✅ Switching rooms
- ❌ Tapping an empty table to start a session — that’s the one thing you have to do via Reception
Quick recap — the moves you’ll do every shift
- New party arrives (Reception off) → tap empty table → Open tab → pick guest count → ring in items
- New party arrives (Reception on) → switch to Reception tab → + New → New walk-in → set guests → tap a table → Create walk-in
- Add to a table → tap the open table → Add items (or New ticket for a separate bill)
- Push two tables together → open one of them → Join tables → tap the extras → Join X tables
- Find a table fast → tap Enter Table → type the number
- See everything at once → tap Grid at the top-left to switch from layout to a tidy list
Next steps
- Order Taking — Add items, courses, modifiers and fire to the kitchen
- Payments — Cash out a table with one or many payment methods
- Table Statuses Reference — Every colour, badge and pill explained