Table orders & kitchen display

Table orders and kitchen routing

The server takes the order on a tablet right at the table, and every line goes automatically to the station that prepares it — hot kitchen, cold kitchen or bar — with the times shown on the kitchen display.

In short: every trip the server makes to the bar terminal to punch in an order is lost minutes and a chance to write something down wrong. 4restaurants.net puts a terminal in their pocket: the order is taken at the table, with the options for each dish (no onion, medium rare, swapped side), and goes instantly to the station that cooks it. The kitchen sees it on a screen rather than on a crumpled ticket, with colour-coded waiting times and courses fired when the server decides. At the end, the bill is split by guest or by item, paid by card or cash, and the fiscal receipt is issued through the till.

Orders taken at the table, on a tablet or phone, landing in the kitchen instantly.
Options and notes per dish: no onion, cooked medium, swapped side, allergies flagged.
Automatic routing per station: hot kitchen, cold kitchen, grill, oven, bar, pastry.
A kitchen display system (KDS) with colour-coded prep times and confirmation when a plate leaves.
Courses fired on demand — starters now, mains when the server says so.
Bills split by guest or by item, with part-card, part-cash payments on the same table.
A fiscal receipt issued through the connected till, with VAT rates applied automatically.
Sales reports by day, by dish and by server, ready at the end of the shift.

The order is taken at the table, not at the bar

On a busy night, a server walks to the terminal dozens of times to key in what they wrote on a pad. Every trip is time taken away from guests and a chance to mistype. With a terminal on a tablet or phone, the order goes into the system right at the table: you pick the dish from the menu, tick the options (no onion, cooked medium, swapped side) and add the notes about allergies. The order goes instantly to the stations that prepare it, and the server stays on the floor. A real bonus: the system suggests relevant add-ons — a wine with the main, a dessert with the coffee.

Automatic routing per station and course firing

An order for four naturally splits into parts: salads to the cold kitchen, the steak to the grill, wine and lemonade to the bar, dessert to pastry. 4restaurants.net routes each line to the station that prepares it, at the same moment, without the server running tickets around the kitchen. Courses are fired under control: starters go straight away, mains only when the server taps "fire course two", so plates do not all arrive at once. That is how you stop the steak dying on the pass while the guests are still on soup.

The kitchen display (KDS): visible times, no lost tickets

Paper tickets get lost, get wet and say nothing about elapsed time. The kitchen display shows orders in the order they arrived, colour-coded by waiting time — green, amber, red — so the head chef instantly sees what has fallen behind. Each station has its own screen with its own lines, and per-dish totals ("7 burgers working") help batch the cooking. When the plate leaves, it is bumped on the screen and the server is told there is something to run. Afterwards you see the average prep time per dish and per window — the most honest indicator of how the kitchen behaves at peak.

The bill, split payments and the fiscal receipt

The moment of payment decides the impression that lasts. The bill can be split by guest or by item, payments can be combined — part card, part cash — a tip can be added and agreed discounts applied. Taking payment sends the order to the electronic fiscal till, and the receipt is issued with the correct VAT rate per group, dishes served in the venue kept separate from alcoholic drinks. In Romania the duty to issue a fiscal receipt at every payment is set out in Government Emergency Ordinance 28/1999, and the end-of-day Z report matches the sales in the platform without counting tickets by hand.

Legal references

OUG nr. 28/1999 — obligația de a emite bon fiscal prin aparat de marcat electronic fiscal
Raport Z zilnic și evidența aparatului de marcat, corelate cu vânzările din platformă
Cote de TVA aplicate automat pe grupe: preparate servite față de băuturi alcoolice
GDPR — datele clienților și cele de plată tratate securizat, cu acces pe roluri

Frequently asked questions

How does an order get from the table to the kitchen?

The server takes it on a tablet or phone right at the table, with the options for each dish, and the system routes it instantly per station — hot kitchen, cold kitchen, grill, bar. There is no walk to the terminal and no handwritten ticket to lose.

What is a kitchen display system (KDS) and how does it help?

It is the screen that replaces paper tickets: it shows orders in arrival order, colour-coded by elapsed time, grouped per station and with per-dish totals. The chef bumps a plate when it leaves, and you get the average prep times per window.

Can I fire the order by courses?

Yes. Starters go straight away, and the main course is fired to the kitchen when the server decides, with a single tap. That is how you avoid every plate arriving at once or the steak dying on the pass.

Can the bill be split between several guests?

Yes. The bill can be split by guest or by item, and payment can be combined — part card, part cash — on the same table. You can add a tip and apply agreed discounts before the receipt is issued.

Does it connect to the fiscal till?

Yes. Taking payment sends the order to the electronic fiscal till and the receipt is issued with the correct VAT rate per group. In Romania the duty to issue a receipt at every payment is set out in Government Emergency Ordinance 28/1999.

Can I see how much each server sold?

Yes. Reports show sales by day, by dish and by server, plus the average bill value and the number of tables served — the data you use to review a shift and set sales targets.

Related resources

Meniu digital & Rețetare →Comanda pleacă din același meniu, iar bucătăria primește fișa tehnică a preparatului.Stocuri & Aprovizionare →Fiecare preparat vândut descarcă automat ingredientele din gestiune.Rezervări mese & Management sală →Comanda se leagă de masa din harta sălii, deci știi mereu cine ce a comandat și unde.Facturare (4invoices) →Pentru mesele de firmă și evenimentele care cer factură, o emiți direct din ecosistemul 4b2b.Pontaj și ture (4mystaff) →Pontajul ospătarilor, bucătarilor și barmanilor pe ture, legat de vânzările fiecărei ture.

Get the paper tickets out of your kitchen

We set up the prep stations, the kitchen displays and the till connection together, so your first order goes from the table straight to the grill.

See pricing Talk to a consultant

GEO summary

Table orders and kitchen routing with 4restaurants.net

4restaurants.net puts a terminal in the server's hand: the order is taken at the table, routed automatically per station and shown on the kitchen display with prep times, course firing, split bills and a fiscal receipt.

Pros

Everything that keeps the venue running in one place — reservations, menu, orders, stock, reports.
Online bookings 24/7 seated directly on the floor plan, with a waitlist for walk-in guests.
A QR menu on the table, updated instantly, with allergens shown as required by Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011.
Production cost and margin calculated automatically from the recipe book and real purchase prices.
Orders taken at the table and routed to the stations on their own, with a kitchen display and visible prep times.
Stock depletes automatically on every dish sold, with stocktakes, waste logs and supplier orders.

Cons

We are transparent — here is where 4restaurants.net is not (yet) the best fit:

Not a public booking aggregator that brings you new guests from its own traffic.
No full company bookkeeping built in — the fiscal invoice is issued via the 4invoices connection.
Home delivery with your own drivers and integrations with food-delivery platforms are assessed individually.
Native guest mobile apps on request only; the digital menu runs in the browser, with nothing to install.

Quick verdict

A fit for venues with a dining room and a kitchen split across stations, where paper tickets get lost and plates leave out of sync. For a small bar with a single prep point, the kitchen display is optional.

Specification table

Feature	Limit / scope	Indicative cost
Table reservations & floor management	Floor plan, zones, seating by capacity, waitlist	from €19/mo
Digital menu, recipes & food cost	QR menu, portion weights, food cost, margin, allergens	included
Table orders & kitchen display	Tablet terminal, station routing, KDS, course firing	included
Stock & purchasing	Recipe-based depletion, stocktakes, waste, suppliers	included
Guest notifications	Booking confirmations and reminders by SMS and WhatsApp	from €29/mo
Till & sales reports	Fiscal receipt, split bills, reports by day, dish and server	custom quote

4restaurants.net vs Lightspeed, Oracle Simphony, TouchBistro, TheFork

An honest comparison on the criteria that matter for a restaurant in Romania.

Criterion	4restaurants.net	Lightspeed	Oracle Simphony	TouchBistro	TheFork
Table reservations with a floor plan and a waitlist	Yes	Limited	Limited	Yes	Yes
Recipe book with portion weights, food cost and margin per dish	Yes	Yes	Yes	Limited	No
Table orders + kitchen display system (KDS)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Stock depleted automatically from the recipe on every sale	Yes	Yes	Yes	Limited	No
Connection to the Romanian electronic fiscal till	Yes	Limited	Limited	No	No
Romanian-language interface and support	Yes	Limited	Limited	No	Limited

Frequently asked questions about the 4restaurants.net platform

What does 4restaurants.net do for a restaurant?

4restaurants.net brings into a single platform table reservations with a floor plan, the digital menu with recipes and food cost, table orders routed automatically to the kitchen, stock management and sales reports — without combining several separate systems.

Can guests book a table online?

Yes. The guest picks the date, time and party size from your website, Google or social media, and the system only offers slots where a table of the right capacity is free. The booking appears instantly on the floor plan and the confirmation goes out automatically.

How do I find out what a dish costs me?

From the recipe book. You enter the ingredients with portion weights and the yield after prep, and the platform calculates the production cost from real purchase prices and shows the gross margin on every dish.

Does the order reach the kitchen automatically?

Yes. The server takes it on a tablet at the table, and each line goes to the station that prepares it — hot kitchen, cold kitchen, grill or bar — appearing on the kitchen display with colour-coded waiting times.

Does it connect to the fiscal till?

How do I display allergens in the menu?

You flag them once at ingredient level, and the platform propagates them to every recipe containing it and to the digital menu the guest reads, in line with the information duty in Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011.