TouchBistro

In short

TouchBistro is an iPad-based restaurant point-of-sale, originally built for table-service dining, that bundles tableside ordering, floor plan and table management, staff management and menu management into one core plan. It has expanded through acquired products into reservations and online ordering, which are sold as separate companion products rather than included features, and it also offers TouchBistro One, a newer compact device for tableside orders and payments in a single unit.

Key features for restaurants

Who it's for

TouchBistro fits a table-service restaurant that wants an iPad-based POS with tableside ordering, floor plan management and staff controls included in its core plan without further feature gating, and that is comfortable adding reservations or online ordering as separate products from the same company rather than needing everything bundled into one starting price. It also fits an owner who prefers familiar iPad hardware over a fully proprietary terminal line.

Who should skip it

A quick-service or counter-only restaurant with no table sections or tableside ordering to manage may not get full value from TouchBistro's table-service-first feature set and should compare a counter-focused system instead. A restaurant that wants reservations and online ordering bundled into a single price alongside its POS, rather than purchased as separate add-on products, should compare TouchBistro's total add-on cost against an all-in-one competitor before deciding.

What it does well

TouchBistro includes its full core feature set, tableside ordering, floor plan and table management, staff management and menu management, at its starting monthly price without gating those tools behind a higher tier, which makes the core POS plan straightforward to evaluate on its own. Running on iPads rather than fully proprietary terminals can lower a restaurant's up-front hardware cost, since iPads are a widely available device rather than a POS-only proprietary unit.

Limits to know

The starting price covers the core POS bundle only; reservations and online ordering are typically separate companion products with their own cost on top of the core plan, so a restaurant that wants all three should budget for more than the core POS starting price alone. TouchBistro's floor plan and table management tools are built around table-service dining, so a restaurant running quick-service or counter-only formats may find less value in that part of the product.

What to check on pricing

TouchBistro publishes a starting monthly price for its core POS plan and a separate starting price for its hardware-bundled Essentials option, with reservations and online ordering priced as add-ons and custom quotes available for additional front-of-house, back-of-house or guest engagement modules. Verified figures appear in the pricing table on this page rather than in this text; confirm current add-on pricing directly with TouchBistro since a restaurant's total cost depends on which companion products it adds.

Alternatives

• Toast if you want restaurant-grade proprietary hardware and payroll bundled with a different pricing structure; see TouchBistro vs Toast.
• SpotOn if you want online ordering and reporting bundled into the core plan rather than sold as a separate product; see SpotOn vs Toast for how a bundled competitor compares.
• Square if you want a no-monthly-fee base plan and are open to a more general-purpose point-of-sale than a restaurant-only specialist.

How we reviewed it

This review is based on TouchBistro's own site, opened directly during this session: its homepage, its pricing page, its products page and its reservations product page, which together describe the tableside ordering, floor plan and table management, core POS bundle, Essentials hardware bundle, reservations, online ordering and TouchBistro One features referenced above. Verified pricing figures appear separately in the pricing table on this page rather than in this text.