A busy restaurant serves people in several ways at once. A rider is waiting for a delivery order, a customer is standing at the counter for takeaway, a family at table six wants to add another naan, and someone has just called to book a table for Saturday night.
In many restaurants, each of these runs on a different system. Delivery orders come from an app or WhatsApp, takeaway is written on a notepad, dine-in goes through the waiter, and bookings live in a diary by the phone. Four systems means four places for mistakes.
This post explains how to run all four from one menu and one order queue, and what to think about for each.
Why one menu beats four
When your menu lives in one place, every change happens once.
- Prices stay consistent. Update the price of a mutton karahi and it changes for delivery, takeaway and dine-in at the same time.
- Sold-out items disappear everywhere. Snooze the item once and nobody can order it through any channel until you bring it back.
- Options work the same way. Half or full, mild or spicy, extra raita. Customers choose the same options whether they are at home or at your table.
- One queue for the kitchen. Every order lands in the same list, marked with how it is being served.
In Krobr, the owner switches on whichever order types suit the restaurant, and the customer picks one at checkout. The checkout then asks only for the details that order type needs. The fulfillment methods guide shows where to switch each one on.
Delivery
Delivery is usually the biggest channel for restaurants that take online orders, and it needs the most setup.
Decide where you deliver
You can limit delivery to specific cities, and within a city to specific areas. A restaurant in Karachi might deliver across Clifton and DHA but not to North Nazimabad. A customer who enters an area you do not cover simply cannot place a delivery order, so your rider never gets sent across the city by accident. The delivery coverage guide explains how to set your areas.
Set your delivery fee
You set a delivery fee for your store, and optionally a basket value above which delivery is free. A free delivery threshold is a gentle way to nudge customers towards adding a drink or dessert.
Choose how customers pay
For delivery, customers can pay cash on delivery or by bank transfer. With bank transfer, the customer places the order, sees your account details on their order page, transfers the amount and uploads a receipt. You confirm once the money is in your account. In both cases the payment goes straight to you.
The customer gives their name, phone number, address with a landmark, and city or area. When the food leaves the kitchen, you can mark the order as out for delivery so the customer knows it is on the way.
Pickup (takeaway)
Takeaway is the simplest order type, and often the most profitable, because there is no rider involved.
The customer leaves their name and phone number and places the order. There is no address and no delivery fee. When the food is packed, you mark the order as ready for pickup, and the customer sees on their order page that it is ready to collect.
Takeaway works especially well for:
- Office lunch orders where someone collects for the whole team.
- Customers who live nearby and would rather not wait for a rider.
- Evening rush hours when riders are stretched.
A counter card with a QR code lets walk-in customers order takeaway on their own phone while they wait, which frees up your counter staff.
Dine-in
Dine-in ordering lets customers order from their table using their phone.
The customer scans a QR code on the table, browses the menu, adds what they want and enters their table number at checkout. The order arrives in your queue marked as dine-in, with the table number clearly shown, so the kitchen and waiters know exactly where it goes.
This does not replace your waiters. It takes the slow, repetitive part off their hands. Instead of writing down orders and walking back to the kitchen, they can focus on serving, clearing tables and looking after guests. Families can take their time deciding, and adding a second round of chai is just a few taps.
Table tents and table number cards are easy to make with the QR designs in Krobr Partner. We list more ideas in 12 ways to use QR codes in your restaurant.
Table reservations
Reservations work a little differently from the other three, because they are a request, not a confirmed order.
The customer chooses a date, then picks a time from the slots that are actually available that day, based on your opening hours and closures. They add their name, party size and any other details you ask for. The request arrives as waiting for approval, and you decide whether to accept or decline it. Nothing is confirmed without you.
A few useful details:
- Pre-ordering is optional. By default, a reservation includes menu items, which helps for large groups and special occasions. You can also allow customers to book a table without adding any food.
- Past times are never offered. Customers can only book future slots.
- Closures are respected. If you are closed for a holiday, that day has no bookable slots.
- Close the loop. After the visit, you mark the booking as completed, or as a no-show if the guests never arrived.
The customer follows the whole thing on their private status page, from waiting for approval to confirmed. The reservations guide covers the steps for both customers and staff.
Running all four together
With everything in one place, the day-to-day rhythm becomes simple.
- One queue. All orders appear in the orders queue in Krobr Partner, each marked as delivery, takeaway, dine-in or reservation. Each card shows only the actions that make sense for that type.
- Alerts on your phone. Install the Orders app for your store and you get a push notification for each new order, wherever you are in the restaurant.
- Phone orders too. When a regular calls in an order, staff can add it from the new order button, so it joins the same queue as everything else.
- Control the pace. On a packed Friday night, turn on busy mode. For a short break, pause orders until a set time. For a holiday, add a temporary closure.
- Menus by time of day. If you serve breakfast in the morning and a dinner menu at night, dayparts show the right items at the right time across every order type.
- Staff with the right access. Add team members and give each one the permissions they need, so your counter staff can manage orders without changing prices.
When you are closed, customers can still browse your menu and request a reservation for a future time, but they cannot place an order for immediate food. That keeps expectations clear.
In short
Delivery, takeaway, dine-in and table bookings each need slightly different details, but they do not need separate systems. Keep one menu, switch on the order types that fit your restaurant, set your delivery areas and payments carefully, and let every order flow into a single queue. Your kitchen sees one clear list, and your customers always know where their order stands.