TouchBistro Review

TouchBistro has enough features to pack a punch and is extremely cost-effective for smaller foodservice businesses that don't need many terminals or devices.

WRITTEN & RESEARCHED BY
Matt Sherman
Lead Staff Writer

Last updated onUpdated November 30, 2023

REVIEWED BY

Editor & Senior Staff Writer

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TouchBistro

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Total Rating	4.3
Pricing4.0
Ease Of Use4.6
Features4.9
Customer Service3.9
User Reviews4.1

Pricing Range

$69/month

Online Ordering

Add-on

Call for quote

TouchBistro At A Glance

Excellent interface made specifically for food-service establishments
Many integrations to customize your software
Add-ons can be pricy but offer strong features

Pros

Well-designed UI
Easy to use
Competitive monthly cost
Numerous integrations

Cons

Inconsistent customer support
Not all-in-one
Add-ons can get pricey

TouchBistro Overview

TouchBistro is an affordable point of sale system built for small to mid-sized cafes and restaurants with excellent online ordering and delivery options and add-ons to fit your business’s specific needs. TouchBistro is a solid option for numerous niche food-service establishments, from bars to bakeries as well as full-service restaurants.

Table of Contents

TouchBistro Pricing
TouchBistro Is Best Suited For…
TouchBistro POS Features
Ease Of Use
Customer Service & Support
Payment Processing With TouchBistro
TouchBistro Contract & Commitment
TouchBistro Reviews
Alternatives To TouchBistro
Final Verdict Of TouchBistro POS
TouchBistro FAQs

TouchBistro Pricing

Pricing4.0
Software Plans 3.8
Hardware Options 3.4
Payment Processing Fees 4.8

With one or two register setups starting at $69/month, TouchBistro’s pricing makes it one of the more affordable and best restaurant POS systems out there. If you need more than one license, TouchBistro encourages you to request a quote. Get started with TouchBistro now.

TouchBistro Plans	Price	When To Use
TouchBistro Plan	$69+/month	If you have basic restaurant needs and are interested in purchasing add-ons

All plans include 24/7 customer service, menu management, table management, cloud reporting and analytics, unlimited integrations, and unlimited users (staff members who are not licensed). You can book a free demonstration of TouchBistro to see how it works before committing to a plan.

Extra TouchBistro Costs & Fees

TouchBistro Extra Costs	Price
Gift cards	$25/month
Loyalty	$99/month
Marketing	$99/month
Reservations	$229/month
Online ordering	$50/month

TouchBistro also offers the following in-house add-ons:

Gift Cards: This $25/month add-on lets you sell branded, customized gift cards from your restaurant. These cards can be tracked using your POS and redeemed at any of your store locations.
Online Ordering: Available for $50/month, this add-on is easy to set up; all you need is your TouchBistro Cloud credentials to sync your POS with an online menu where customers can place orders. Note that while this app sends online orders to your POS, integrated online payments are currently unavailable, so you’ll have to take payment using your POS upon pickup or delivery. As an alternative to TouchBistro’s in-house online ordering system, you can integrate a partnered software service (such as Checkmate or Ordermark) to connect third-party food delivery apps (e.g., Uber Eats, DoorDash, Postmates, etc.).
Reservations: This $229/month add-on is a complete reservation and guest-management system. It allows you to accept reservations through your website, TouchBistro’s web and mobile discovery apps, or Google Reservations. The add-on also includes guest records, floor plans, and SMS and email reservation alerts.

TouchBistro Is Best Suited For…

Smaller to mid-sized businesses looking for restaurant-specific POS software
Restaurants looking to expand with a highly scalable product
Restaurant owners looking for a highly intuitive interface

TouchBistro POS Features

Features4.9
Ordering System 5.0
Kitchen/Order Management 4.9
Niche Features 4.5

If you visit the TouchBistro website, you can find information on app features and descriptions of the various industries the software is suited for. Below is a list of current features.

TouchBistro Features	Availability
Multi-Store Support
Contactless Payments
Multi-Channel Selling
Gift Cards	Add-on
Customer Loyalty	Add-on
Marketing Tools	Add-on
Online Ordering	Add-on
Inventory Management
Reporting
Menu Management
Delivery Management
EBT Acceptance
Employee Management
Text Messaging

Keep in mind that while these features are mostly accurate, things change quickly. If you have specific POS requirements, you’ll want to directly confirm with TouchBistro whether the app can meet your needs.

Order Taking

Staff can take customer orders tableside with the TouchBistro app. The app can double as both a menu and a POS system.
Quickly scroll through different menu categories and customer parties with touch tabs.
Pop-up modifiers prompt servers to upsell on the spot.
Send the order to any printer in the business.
Take orders in table view or tab view.
Send orders to the kitchen all at once or by course, depending on the type of venue.
Items can be shared by the whole table, moved from one guest to another, or edited.
Take notes or make special accommodations for each order.
Move an order from the cash register to a table or tab.
View all current orders at once.

Table Management

Design the table layout with the floor plan function. Use templates or start from scratch. Move or edit the floor plan at any time. Combine tables for large parties.
Manage multiple tables at once with one iPad, or manage one table with multiple synchronized iPads.
Choose a table to seat a party and then name the party and record the number of guests. Each table is color-coded according to the server section it’s in.
Quickly assign seats to each customer and pair orders with seat assignments.
Managers can directly assign waiters when opening a table on their behalf. You can also reassign a waiter to a closed bill or check.
Convert an open table order to a bar tab.

Course/Menu Management

Design a custom menu with separate categories (e.g., appetizers, entrées, desserts, etc.). Each menu item features a full-screen photo that can be uploaded or taken directly with the iPad camera feature. The full-screen shot pairs with a short description of the item that can be shown to customers.
Add or edit modifier groups. Assign a UPS code for basic inventory purposes.
Assign additional costs to special items or order additions.
Use the “duplicate feature” function to build your menu more quickly.
Switch between breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus.
Create up to eight different courses.

Kitchen Display System

Works in tandem with kitchen impact printers.
Tickets instantly appear when sent from the POS with an accompanying chime.
Sort and track individual item cook times, ticket history, ticket priority, and more.
It can run on any iPad that can run iOS 6.
Pricing varies based on the existing subscription package (call for quote).

Reporting

View sales history for any given date or time by moving rotating dials and refreshing the page. Print receipts or email sales history from this point.
View sales statistics for section totals, category totals, waiter totals, food totals, alcohol totals, tax, menus, and discount totals.
Create sales reports for various line items of your choice. Save your preferences as a template.
Print or email the end-of-day report.
Sales Totals iPad report breaks out sales as gross and net sales.
Menu List Report lets you view/export a list of your menu items, food costs, and menu price.
You can export data as a CSV file.

Employee Management

Staff members can log in and out for each shift. Some basic scheduling capabilities are also available.
Assign titles according to employee status (e.g., hostess, bartender, manager).
You can set permissions and passcodes for each employee.
Assign security settings (low/medium/high) to help monitor activity.
Assign specific sections of the restaurant or bar to each employee.
Track which employees are regularly deleting items or using the “No Sale” button more frequently than necessary.
Employees can track breaks without clocking out using paid or unpaid break options.

Taking Payments

Split payments across any combination of guests. Assign different forms of payment to each guest.
Process multi-tender payments: cash, card, check, gift card, and hotel room.
Easily email bills and receipts to customers with one tap.
Customize the bill and guest checks to your liking. Add your logo.
If desired, add a Tip Guide to the bottom of bills and guest checks.
Void multiple items at once and print voided items on a separate chit.
Use the “Fast Bar” feature to complete payments and close orders quickly.
Split and close by the seat or by a group of seats/tables.
Guests’ checks can now have multiple tax amounts printed on them.
The system has on-screen options for signing and tipping.

Loyalty Programs

The TouchBistro Loyalty basic package starts at $50 a month. The Plus plan runs $99 a month, and the Premium plan $189 a month, with each giving access to more features.
Customers can add on to or pay for gift cards on which they can also collect and redeem points.
Store customer information and preferences.
Use knowledge to create customized messages and discounts.
Incentivize customers to make more purchases.
In-venue signage promotes the loyalty program.

Inventory Management

Track the costs of various recipes to see what menu items are profitable.
Engineer your menus to maximize the efficiency of ingredients.
Allow staff to easily access ingredient levels to see if any items are out of stock or running low.
You can update menus with a simple click.

Integrations

TouchBistro offers many useful integrations to extend the system’s functionality, including the following software partners:

Accounting: QuickBooks, Xero, Sage, Shogo, MarginEdge
Business Insights & Analytics: Avero
Inventory Management: Bevcheck, WISK.ai, MarketMan, Craftable, Wisk, FreePour, Optimum Control, MarginEdge
Mobile Payments & Loyalty: SmoothPay
Staff Scheduling: 7shifts, Push Operations
Online Ordering & Delivery (To Connect Third-Party Online Ordering Apps): Checkmate, Deliverect, Ordermark

TouchBistro’s feature set is frequently updated to improve and add features. You have the option to let updates install automatically, but you can also opt to turn off automatic updates so that your POS doesn’t update during a shift.

Ease Of Use

Ease Of Use4.6
Initial Setup 4.7
Customization 4.8
Everyday Use 4.2

The TouchBistro iPad interface is well done. It’s simple to navigate and attractively designed with a fresh color palette. Simplicity and aesthetics are important since the app is designed to act as both a POS and a digital menu with full-color, high-res photos of each menu item. Anything your customers are directly interacting with needs to look sleek.

Touchbistro menu example

TouchBistro created its product with servers in mind, and it shows.

The check-splitting function is simple, taking just a few clicks to sort out items by individual customers or by various groups of customers. Everything is also highly customizable, from the look of your menus to button placement on the screen. TouchBistro allows for custom modifiers, and its forced modifiers pop up automatically, making order-taking easy for servers and customers.

Customer Service & Support

Customer Service3.9
Personal Support 3.8
Self-Service 4.0

TouchBistro offers 24/7 customer service for all subscribers. You can call the company, or if you have a simple query, you can email the company directly.

TouchBistro Customer Service	Availability
Phone Support
Email Support
Support Tickets
Live Chat
Dedicated Support Representative
Knowledge Base or Help Center
Videos & Tutorials
Company Blog
Social Media

Access to 24/7 support through multiple channels is a great thing to have with any POS. Some TouchBistro users, though, have mentioned that customer support can take an unacceptably long time to return calls and resolve issues. TouchBistro also makes efforts to engage with customers who complain about the POS on review sites.

You can also watch short YouTube videos that give overviews of various TouchBistro functions, from setting up your wireless network to configuring your menu. The TouchBistro website features a comprehensive support section, complete with set-up guides, written instructions, and tutorial videos.

Payment Processing With TouchBistro

TouchBistro is compatible with several popular gateways in addition to its TouchBistro Payments (powered by Chase), which is available in the US only. Chase Merchant Services generally has positive reviews, so I would expect that TouchBistro Payments is a quality processor as well. TouchBistro now has you call to get a rate for your business, and you may have to sign up for a contract to get the lowest rate, so make sure you know exactly what you’re agreeing to before you sign.

If you want to use an outside payment processor, here are your options:

Square
TSYS
Worldpay
Chase Merchant Services (Canada)
Moneris (Canada)
Tyro Payments (Australia)

Notably, Square is also a basic POS system as well as a payment processor. If you already use Square payment processing at your establishment but need a POS with more restaurant-centric features, TouchBistro might be a good addition. You can call TouchBistro to schedule a demo to see how TouchBistro works with Square.

Keep in mind that although your TouchBistro wireless network does not require Wi-Fi or an internet connection to operate, your payment gateway does require a wireless connection. If your internet goes down, you will not be able to process credit card payments.

TouchBistro Contract & Commitment

You can sign up for TouchBistro’s software on a month-to-month basis, but there have been reviews that have mentioned that sales reps, when setting up custom rates for new members, have convinced them to sign up for a one-year contract which is then difficult to break.

As always, you’ll want to do your research and ask plenty of questions.

TouchBistro Reviews

User Reviews4.1
Customer Feedback 4.0
Review Site Aggregate 4.1

While TouchBistro has both negative and positive reviews, overall, the positive things customers mention outweigh the bad. TouchBistro has a 4 out of 5 rating on Software Advice with nearly 400 reviews and a 4.4 rating on g2.com with nearly 100 reviews.

Negative TouchBistro Reviews & Complaints

After scouring the internet, a few negative complaints repeatedly showed up in TouchBistro POS reviews:

Customer Service: There were many complaints about long wait times and customer service representatives taking a couple of days to respond.
Reporting: There were several complaints about reports having glitches.
Lack Of Features: A few customers asked for more extensive inventory and reporting features.
Not An All-In-One POS: TouchBistro has put most of its development energy into the POS system itself. This is an area where TouchBistro has steadily shown improvement, but customers still may find things (such as inventory and reporting) lacking. This means that you can end up with excellent software and a great interface, but you may have to pay for add-ons. The reporting and accounting features are fairly basic, although the app now integrates with Shogo and Xero. Employee management has become easier, thanks to a recent integration with 7Shifts, and, fortunately, receiving and storing customer data has become a simpler process as well.

Positive TouchBistro Reviews & Testimonials

Here are several of the more common points of praise when it comes to TouchBistro:

Popularity: TouchBistro has been the top-grossing POS app on iTunes several times in the past couple of years. That’s something to pay attention to. TouchBistro has a lot of clients that have modified their app to work for them. While the fact that the app is undergoing so much development is a little unnerving, it also indicates that the company is growing and thriving. Many customers don’t seem to mind that there are constant updates, and a few even see it as a positive.
Solid, Easy Design: There are quite a few customers who rave over TouchBistro’s ease of use and the fact that it has a sleek interface. The design is modern and attractive, and, for the most part, it’s intuitive and straightforward to navigate and use. You’re not going to be spending much time training new employees on how to use it like you would have to do with more complicated POS systems. The initial setup is also going to be minimal. Anyone with a small amount of technical know-how will be able to set up the entire system quickly, which also helps reduce costs.
Low Cost: TouchBistro is cost-effective in the grand scheme of POS options. The hardware costs are minimal compared to those of large, hardware-intensive POS systems. If you have a very small business with only one terminal, the price is especially feasible.

Alternatives To TouchBistro

Not sure if TouchBistro is the right fit? Here is how it stacks up against the competition.

TouchBistro VS Square For Restaurants

Both TouchBistro and Square For Restaurants are built specifically for quick-service and full-service establishments. In terms of pricing, the products are similar although, if you need a more robust system with multiple integrations or add-ons, TouchBistro may end up being a little more spendy. Both interfaces are incredibly intuitive and require very minimal training time for employees. Square has a little more to offer when it comes to integrations with its app store and we’re big fans of Square’s proprietary hardware as well. But, in short, both TouchBistro and Square for Restaurants are excellent options for mid-sized restaurants.

TouchBistro VS Lightspeed Restaurant

Again, both of these products are highly scalable and simple to use and both start with convenient pricing plans. Lightspeed Restaurant offers a little more with its base package and, similar to Square for Restaurants, it will probably end up being a little cheaper if you need in-depth features. If you’re just starting out and really want a quick handle on what your overall costs with your POS system will be, Lightspeed is probably your best bet. I like TouchBistro’s interface and some of the unique customizations touches that come with it. Smaller restaurants really can’t go wrong with either product but if you are looking to expand to multiple locations, Lightspeed may be the better choice.

Final Verdict Of TouchBistro POS

I have mostly positive feelings about TouchBistro. I love the app and how it seamlessly takes you through each step of the restaurant experience. As POS software, it’s a solid, well-developed product and fits among our best POS systems for small businesses.

TouchBistro is extremely cost-effective for smaller businesses that don’t need many terminals or devices. Larger businesses that have more than 10 iPads may want to shop around for an app with a more expensive licensing fee that allows for unlimited devices.

TouchBistro FAQs

Is TouchBistro POS free?

TouchBistro does not have a free plan. Its plans start at $69/month with multiple add-ons and advanced features available.

Content Featuring TouchBistro

Restaurant POS Review Methodology

We evaluate and test each software system that we review at Merchant Maverick, placing special emphasis on certain key software characteristics in order to generate our granular product ratings.

Weighted Rating Breakdown

Pricing 40%

Features 30%

Ease Of Use 15%

Customer Service 10%

User Reviews 5%

For restaurant POS software in particular, we have a 56-point rubric we use to evaluate the system in terms of its pricing, ease of use, features, and user reviews. These points are based on attributes relevant to the restaurant or foodservice POS niche—such as the availability of features like online ordering, ingredient inventory, table management, tipping, and others.

Our rating system also takes into account attributes that are desirable for POS systems and cloud-based software in general, such as the availability of monthly pricing plans, free trials, and transparent software contracts.

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Matt Sherman

Lead Staff Writer at Merchant Maverick

Matt has been helping small businesses make decisions since 2017. He has written reviews and articles across many different channels but specializes in the point of sale, payroll, and small business insurance categories and has been quoted in articles for Fox Business, Forbes, and other publications. Prior to joining Merchant Maverick, Matt was a journalist and editor for 14 years for a pair of weekly newspapers. He is a graduate of the University of Oregon and currently resides in Gladstone, Oregon.

View Matt Sherman's professional experience on LinkedIn.

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TouchBistro

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After hours of in-depth research and evaluation, we can confidently recommend this brand to our readers. Get started today and see TouchBistro for yourself.

The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆

TouchBistro

Visit Site

After hours of in-depth research and evaluation, we can confidently recommend this brand to our readers. Get started today and see TouchBistro for yourself.

Sources

TouchBistro (Accessed 11/30/2023) — TouchBistro

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