Bringing the table into the queue without losing the welcome.
Ordering from the table removes the wait to be noticed. It can also remove the moment somebody comes over and asks how you are. Adopting it well is choosing which tables want which.
Before you switch it on
Weigh it first.
What you gain
- No guest sitting with a closed menu, trying to catch an eye.
- A second round that takes one scan instead of a trip to the counter.
- Every order arriving with its table on it, paid, in the same queue as the rest.
What it costs
- Fewer natural moments between your staff and your guests. Some guests come for those.
- Orders from the room landing on the bar in clusters, on top of the counter queue.
- Each guest pays for their own order as they place it. A table that wants one bill at the end can't have it here.
Ask the people who work the floor before you print anything. If they hear it as being replaced by a sticker, they will let it fail. It is the opposite: it takes the order-taking and leaves them the hosting.
- 01
Start with the tables that wait longest.
Don't code the whole room on day one. Begin with the corner your staff reach last: the back room, the terrace, the window bar. Those guests feel the difference immediately, and you learn the routine on a few tables instead of thirty.
- What it costs
- Two ways of ordering in one room for a while, and a regular asking why their table has no code.
- Where it lives
- Add a table by name under Tap & Tend in Admin and its code is ready to print, or to download at print quality.
- How you’ll know
- Orders arriving from those tables without anyone having gone over to take them.
- 02
Put the code where a hand already rests.
A code on the wall is furniture. A code on a small card or tent on the table is an invitation, with one plain line under it: order from here, we'll bring it over.
Say what happens next. People hesitate when they don't know whether to fetch it.
- What it costs
- Printing, and cards that get wet, bent and carried off. Print spares.
- Where it lives
- Each table's code belongs to that table. Remove a table and its old code stops working, so a stray card can't open an order.
- How you’ll know
- First-time guests ordering without asking how.
- 03
Decide who carries.
A table order appears in the live queue marked dine-in, with the table's name above the status. Somebody has to own the walk from the bar to that table, or drinks sit on the pass getting cold while everyone assumes somebody else has it.
On a small team, name the runner for each shift. On a larger one, make it the rule that whoever marks it ready carries it.
- What it costs
- Steps. On a busy floor that is real labour, and it comes off the counter.
- Where it lives
- The Service Dashboard queue shows the table on every dine-in order.
- How you’ll know
- Table orders handed over as soon as they are marked ready, not in batches.
- 04
Keep a person in it.
Use the time the code gives back. The order is taken; the visit to the table is now only a welcome, a refill of water, a word about the special. That is the part guests remember.
And never refuse an order at the counter from someone at a coded table. The code is a convenience, not a rule.
- What it costs
- None in money. It asks your staff to keep going over when they no longer have to.
- Where it lives
- Nothing to set. Guests can order from the table without an account, and regulars who sign in still earn their points.
- How you’ll know
- Guests at coded tables ordering a second round, and staying.
Where to start
In this order.
Talk it through with the people who work the floor, and pick the first few tables together.
Print the cards, with one line that says what happens next.
Name who carries, each shift, for two weeks.
Add tables only once those first ones run without anyone thinking about it.
More guides
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Read the guideGet started
Start small,
and watch what happens.
Start free — no card needed. Print your counter sign, put it beside the till, and see what happens.