Restaurant technology stack: what a UK venue really needs in 2026

A restaurant technology stack is the set of systems you use to take orders, get paid, cook, and run the books. Most small UK venues need only five things: a till (EPOS), a card machine, a way to take orders from phones, kitchen tickets, and accounting software. Add bookings, a kitchen screen, stock and rota tools as you grow. This guide costs three real-world stacks in pounds.

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, Kitchen (printer/KDS), Back office (accounts, rota, stock); alt="Restaurant technology stack shown as five layers")

The five layers of restaurant technology

Think of your tech in layers. Each one has a clear job.

You don't need a separate tool for every box. Many EPOS systems cover layers 1, 2 and 4. Many ordering platforms cover layers 3 and 4.

Layer 1: payments

Your card machine, also called a PDQ machine, is the one tool you can't skip. Card fees are usually your biggest tech cost.

• Card readers cost from £0 (SumUp Tap to Pay on a phone) or £25 (SumUp Solo Lite) to £149 (Square Terminal), ex VAT. Published in-person rates include 1.69% pay as you go on SumUp and 1.75% on Square. SumUp's Payments Plus cuts the rate to 0.99% for £19 a month. Teya and Dojo quote.
• Online payments through Stripe cost 1.5% + 20p for standard UK cards.
• You can't add a card surcharge for consumers. Build the fee into your prices with our card fee calculator.

At £30,000 a month on cards, every 0.25% is £75 a month. Shop around.

Layer 2: till or EPOS

The EPOS records every sale and gives you your daily reports. Choose by venue type:

• Restaurants with courses and table plans need a full restaurant EPOS.
• Takeaways need fast counter entry and delivery-app orders in one place. See EPOS for takeaways.
• Cafés need speed and modifiers. See café EPOS.

Published UK software prices run from £0 (Square's free plan) to about £150 a month per site (Toast Essentials). Zonal's all-in-one rental, with hardware and a handheld, is £229 a month on a 36-month term. Lightspeed and Tevalis quote. See our roundup of the best EPOS systems in the UK.

Layer 3: ordering

This is where customers meet you. In 2026 most venues use a mix:

• Delivery apps to get found. Expect roughly 13–33% commission plus VAT. Uber Eats, for example, publishes 13% for pick-up and own delivery, 30% when its riders deliver and 33% on Uber One orders.
• Your own ordering website for regulars, with no commission.
• QR table ordering so guests order and pay from the table. See QR code ordering.
• WhatsApp ordering for repeat customers who already message you. See WhatsApp ordering.

The goal: move regulars from the apps to your own channel. A £25 order through an app at 30% costs £7.50 plus VAT. The same order on your own page costs about 58p in Stripe fees.

Layer 4: kitchen

Orders must reach the kitchen fast and never get lost.

• A thermal ticket printer is cheap and tough. Most small kitchens need nothing more. See our guide to takeaway order printers.
• A kitchen display system (KDS) shows orders on a screen, times them and splits them by station. Published plans cost about £11 to £19 a month per screen (Tabology £11, Square £15 on its Free plan, SumUp £19). See kitchen display system.
• Handhelds let staff take orders at the table and send them straight to the kitchen. See handheld POS for restaurants.

Layer 5: back office

• Accounting. If you are VAT-registered, Making Tax Digital means your VAT records must be kept in MTD-compatible software. Xero, QuickBooks and Sage are common. Check your EPOS exports to yours.
• Staff rota and hours. A spreadsheet works for a small team. Try our free staff rota maker.
• Stock and recipes. Useful once you have a big menu or several sites.
• Bookings. Needed if most covers are booked. See restaurant booking systems.
• Marketing. A complete Google Business Profile, a WhatsApp Business account and a simple customer list come before any paid tool.

Three UK stacks, costed

Prices are monthly, before VAT, from public pages on 11 October 2026. Card fees are shown separately because they depend on your takings. Menuthere plans are billed in US dollars; your bank converts it. Your quote may differ.

Stack A: a single takeaway (£12,000 a month, mostly collection and delivery)

Watch: the delivery-app commission line will be much bigger than all the software combined. Every regular you move to your own page saves that commission.

Stack B: a 40-cover café (£20,000 a month, eat-in and takeaway)

Stack C: three restaurants (£150,000 a month across sites)

How to choose without getting locked in

1. Start with your biggest cost. For most venues that's card fees or delivery-app commission, not software.
2. Check the contract. Look for term, auto-renewal, notice and exit fees. Card-terminal rental contracts can be long.
3. Ask about data export. Can you take your sales, menu and customer list with you?
4. Make sure tools talk to each other. Your EPOS should export to your accounting software. Your ordering system should print to your kitchen.
5. Test on a Saturday night. Ask for a trial. Check offline mode and support hours.
6. Add one layer at a time. Don't buy a KDS, kiosk and loyalty app on day one.

Where Menuthere fits in your stack

Menuthere is the ordering layer (layer 3) with kitchen tickets (layer 4) and a light browser till (a paid add-on, US$10 a month).

• Your own ordering website for collection, delivery and dine-in, with 0% commission.
• QR table ordering with no app. QR codes are on the Free plan.
• WhatsApp ordering on your own number (Pro).
• Orders ring on the Android, iPhone and Windows apps until someone presses Accept, and kitchen tickets print by hand or automatically. Food and drinks can print to separate printers.
• Card payments through your own Stripe account (Lite and above).
• Allergens and calories tagged on each dish (every plan, including Free). Customers see them when they open a dish.
• Later layers when you're ready: loyalty points on Pro, and your own branded app on Android and iOS on the Branded App plan (US$99 a month). See our Branded App page.

It is not a full EPOS. It doesn't link to a card terminal, has no ready-made UK EPOS integrations and has no kitchen display screen (orders go to the apps and the kitchen printers). It has no stock or recipe tools either; you can mark a dish as sold out. Busy restaurants keep their EPOS and add Menuthere for direct orders. Small takeaways and cafés often start with Menuthere and a card reader.

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