Kitchen display system for independent restaurants and takeaways

A kitchen display system (KDS) is a screen in the kitchen that shows every order as a digital ticket. Orders arrive from the till, your ordering website and, on some set-ups, the delivery apps. Each ticket carries the items, modifiers, allergy notes and a running timer. A cook taps the ticket when it is done and the next order moves up.

For an independent restaurant or takeaway, the choice is practical. A kitchen display system costs a monthly software fee plus screens, mounts and a steady network connection. It earns that money back when paper tickets get lost, misread, splashed or cooked out of order. It rarely earns it back in a two-person chipper with one fryer and a short menu.

Rule of thumb: use screens when you run two or more stations, take frequent order changes, promise collection and delivery times, or want to know how long tickets really take on a Friday. Keep a printer when one person cooks a short menu, when the only free wall is above the fryer, or when you need stickers for delivery bags. You can also run both.

Kitchen display system basics

The order flow is the same on almost every system.

1. Order taken. A server, the counter, the phone, your website or a delivery app creates the order.
2. Order sent. The POS sends the items to one or more kitchen screens. With station routing, the grill sees burgers, the fryer sees chips and the pack counter sees the whole order.
3. Ticket shown. The ticket shows the order number, order type (eat-in, collection or delivery), table or customer name, time placed, items, modifiers and notes.
4. Cooking. Cooks mark items as started or done. Most systems change the ticket colour as the timer runs.
5. Bump. When a station finishes, the cook bumps the ticket off the screen. The pass or pack screen shows when every part of the order is ready.
6. Hand-off. The server, customer or driver takes the food. The system stores the timestamps.

Terms used on kitchen screens

• Ticket. One order, or the part of an order a station needs to cook.
• Bump. Marking a ticket done so it leaves the screen.
• Recall. Bringing back a ticket that was bumped by mistake.
• Station routing. Sending each item to the station that cooks it.
• Expo or pass screen. A screen showing the full order so one person can check it before it leaves.
• All-day count. A running total of each item across open tickets, for example 14 portions of chips waiting across 9 orders.
• Bump bar. A wipeable keypad used instead of touching the screen with greasy hands.
• Hold and fire. Holding a course until the server or pass releases it to the kitchen.

What providers include

Feature lists differ, so read them side by side. Lightspeed’s UK KDS page lists pass, production, expedite and delivery stations, item-level and ticket-level status updates, and timestamps for when an order was received, started and finished (Lightspeed KDS, checked September 2026). Square’s UK page lists routing to prep stations, an expeditor mode and customisable ticket layouts, timers and notifications (Square KDS UK, checked September 2026). Epos Now lists colour-coded timers, an expeditor view, a table view and different alert sounds for new and updated orders (Epos Now KDS, checked September 2026).

Square KDS and Lightspeed KDS are both built around their own company’s POS. Square lists its KDS working with Square POS and Square Online; Lightspeed describes orders flowing from its ePOS to the kitchen screen. The till you choose decides which kitchen screens you can use, so if you are replacing both, start with the restaurant POS system buyer’s guide.

Kitchen printer vs KDS

A kitchen printer prints a paper ticket at each station. A KDS shows the same information on a screen and keeps it there until someone acts on it. The practical differences show up on a busy Saturday, not in a sales demo.

Two rows usually decide it: order changes and timing. If customers rarely change orders and nobody asks how long the kitchen takes, paper works. If a server walks into the kitchen three times a night to say “table 6 is no onions now”, a screen removes that walk and the risk of the old ticket being cooked.

Kitchens better served by a printer

• One cook, short menu. A chipper, kebab shop or café where one person cooks a short menu reads a paper ticket as fast as a screen.
• No safe wall. If the only place a screen can go is above the fryer or beside the dishwasher steam, a printer is the safer choice.
• Bag labelling. Delivery bags need a ticket or sticker. In the UK, allergen information for delivered food can be given at delivery by allergen stickers on the food or an enclosed copy of the menu (GOV.UK, starting a food business, updated 19 August 2026). A printer does that job. A screen does not.
• Low volume. If you do 30 orders on a Saturday, the software fee for two screens may cost more than the mistakes they prevent. The worked example further down shows how to check.
• A team that never looks up. Some cooks work by feel and by the rail. Forcing a screen on a settled team in a small kitchen costs goodwill for little gain.

Mixed set-ups

A common layout puts screens on the cooking stations and keeps one printer at the pack counter. The printer produces the bag ticket and, where used, allergen stickers. The screens handle timing and changes. If your POS supports both, move one station at a time and keep the printer as a fallback for outages. The restaurant POS hardware page covers printer types, thermal paper and connections.

Station set-up by kitchen type

The number of screens follows the number of places food is made independently, plus one place where the order comes together. The table shows example layouts. They are starting points, not rules.

Routing rules

Routing is set in the menu, not on the screen. Each item, and sometimes each modifier, needs a station.

1. List every menu item, side, drink and modifier.
2. Write the station that makes it next to each line.
3. Decide what the pass or pack screen sees. Usually it sees everything.
4. Decide where drinks go. Canned drinks picked at the pack counter should show there, not on a cook’s screen.
5. Check meal deals. A deal with a burger, fries and a drink must split across grill, fryer and pack.
6. Check modifiers that change the station, such as “add a side of wings” on a pizza.
7. Check items that appear on two screens, such as a garnish added at pack to a dish cooked on the wok.

Clean menu data makes routing simple. Messy menus with duplicate items, free-text notes and old deals make it fail. The restaurant menu management page covers how to structure items and modifiers once for every channel.

Pass and pack screens

The pass or pack screen prevents the most expensive mistakes. It shows the whole order, which parts are done and which are missing. One person checks the bag or tray against the screen before it goes. In a takeaway, that person also confirms the driver or collection name. Put this screen at eye height where the bags are packed, not where the food is cooked.

On a busy night, the pack screen also shows the sequence. If a delivery driver is due back in four minutes with room for two orders going the same way, the packer can see which two to finish first.

Screen placement

• Mount screens at eye height for the cook, angled away from overhead lights and windows.
• Keep them out of the steam path from the pass, fryers, bain-maries and the dishwasher.
• Leave room to reach the screen without leaning over a hot surface.
• Run power from a fixed socket, not an extension lead across a prep bench.
• Stand at each station during a service and check you can read a ticket without stepping away from the work.
• Check left-handed and right-handed cooks can both reach it.

Order timers and ticket times

Timers turn a KDS from a paper replacement into a management tool. Each ticket counts up from the moment it arrives, and most systems change colour at thresholds you set.

Setting thresholds

Set thresholds by order type, not one number for the whole kitchen. The numbers below are examples only. Set yours from your own ticket times after the first two weeks.

Red should mean “someone needs to act”, not “normal Friday”. If half the tickets go red every Saturday, the thresholds or the staffing are wrong.

Promise times

The collection and delivery time shown to customers must match what the kitchen can do. If your website promises collection in 15 minutes and your Friday tickets average 19 minutes, customers wait at the counter and the complaints follow. Check the ticket-time report each week and set a longer promise time for the busiest hours. For delivery, the time the customer sees is kitchen time plus driver time. The restaurant delivery management software page covers the driver side, dispatch and cost per delivery.

Ticket-time report

Worked example, labelled as an example: on a Friday between 7pm and 9pm a pizza takeaway sends 84 tickets. The average ticket time is 16 minutes. Eleven tickets go past red at 18 minutes, which is 13 percent (11 ÷ 84 = 0.131). Nine of those eleven arrived between 7.30pm and 8pm. The fix is not a faster oven. It is one extra person on the make line for that half hour, or a longer promise time on the website for that window.

What to look at every week:

• Average ticket time by hour of the day and day of the week.
• Average ticket time by station, to find the station that holds up the order.
• The ten slowest tickets and what was on them.
• Share of tickets that went red.
• Time from “food ready” to “collected” or “driver left”, which shows front-of-house and driver delays rather than kitchen delays.
• Tickets recalled after a bump, which shows orders bumped too early.

For how ticket times fit into sales, labour and channel reports, see restaurant analytics software.

Scheduled orders

Orders placed for later, such as a 7.30pm collection ordered at 5pm, should not appear on the kitchen screen at 5pm. Ask each provider when a scheduled ticket appears and whether you can set a lead time, for example 20 minutes before the promise time. Test it with a real scheduled order before you rely on it on a Saturday.

Delivery, collection and marketplace orders on one screen

A takeaway kitchen cooks for several channels at once: counter, phone, website and one or more delivery apps. The kitchen does not care where an order came from. It needs to know what to cook, when it is due and who is collecting it.

Order type labels

Show the order type in large text or colour on every ticket. Collection tickets need the customer name. Delivery tickets need the driver or courier name once one is assigned. Eat-in tickets need the table. A pack screen that mixes these without labels sends bags to the wrong person.

Delivery app tablets

Each delivery app usually has its own way into your kitchen. Uber Eats, for example, charges an activation fee of €650 in Ireland and £650 excluding VAT in the UK, covering a tablet, a printer, menu creation and photography. On the Irish page the fee is deducted from revenue in the first 8 weeks, at a maximum of €50 a week (Uber Eats Ireland pricing, Uber Eats UK pricing, checked September 2026).

Three app tablets on the counter means someone reads three screens and often re-keys orders into the till. Re-keying is where wrong items and missed modifiers happen. Ask your POS provider whether marketplace orders can reach your kitchen screens directly and what that costs. Square, for example, lists delivery app orders reaching its KDS through Deliverect. If the answer is no, keep each app tablet beside the pack screen, not inside the kitchen, and make one named person responsible for accepting and re-keying app orders. The Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats commission guide covers what each app charges.

Direct orders

Orders from your own ordering website go straight into your POS and on to the kitchen screen, with no re-keying and no marketplace commission. The same ticket carries the pickup time or delivery address the customer chose. The online ordering system for restaurants page covers how to choose one.

Allergens and special requests on the kitchen screen

A kitchen screen can make an allergy note harder to miss. It cannot make the note correct. The law sets out what you must tell customers. Kitchen practice decides whether that information reaches the person cooking.

Ireland

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland says allergen information for non-prepacked food must be given in writing, in English or in Irish and English, and be easy to find before the sale. The rules come from EU Regulation 1169/2011 and S.I. No. 489 of 2014, as updated by S.I. No. 656 of 2024. Staff can tell customers verbally only as a supplement to the written information. For distance selling, allergen information must also be provided at the point of delivery (FSAI, allergen information for non-prepacked food, checked September 2026).

UK

Food sold online or by phone needs allergen information before the purchase is completed and again when the food is delivered (GOV.UK, starting a food business, updated 19 August 2026). The Food Standards Agency’s best-practice guidance says allergen information should reach kitchen staff in writing, with confirmation that it has been understood, and that the server should confirm the meal meets the customer’s requirement (allergen information for non-prepacked foods, best practice, updated 24 February 2025).

Screen practice

• Structured options. Build “no nuts”, “no dairy” and similar requests as menu modifiers, not free-text notes that get misspelt or cut off.
• One colour. Give allergy requests a colour nothing else uses.
• Every station. If the pack station adds a dip or garnish, the pack screen needs the note too.
• Acknowledgement. Where the system allows it, make the cook tap to confirm an allergy ticket before starting.
• Bag label. Print a sticker or ticket for delivery orders so the information travels with the food.
• Records. The screen is not your allergen record. Keep a per-dish allergen matrix and update it when a recipe, ingredient or supplier changes.
• Free-text limits. If the system allows customer notes, decide who reads them and what happens when a note mentions an allergy that the menu cannot cater for.

Kitchen display system prices in Ireland and the UK

Software prices below come from each provider’s own website, checked on 10 September 2026. Prices change. Hardware is extra unless stated.

Square’s Irish price is shown plus VAT. At Ireland’s standard VAT rate of 23% (Revenue, current VAT rates), €15 + VAT is €18.45 a month per screen.

Two pricing models matter. Per-device pricing is cheap for one or two screens and grows with every station you add. Per-location pricing costs more at the start and stays flat as you add screens. Work out which is cheaper at the number of screens you will have in two years, not today.

Costs beyond software

• Screens. Tablets or commercial kitchen touchscreens. Ask for a written quote.
• Mounts and cases. Wall arms, stands or enclosures.
• Network. An extra Wi-Fi access point or an Ethernet run to the kitchen.
• Electrics. New sockets near each station, fitted by an electrician.
• Bump bars. Optional keypads for wet or greasy stations.
• Installation and set-up. Some providers charge for this; some leave it to you.
• Support and replacement. What happens when a screen fails on a Saturday, and how fast a replacement arrives.
• Plan upgrades. Some KDS features, such as reports or extra stations, sit on higher plans.
• Exit costs. Contract length, cancellation terms and whether hardware is locked to one provider.

If your POS plan already includes a kitchen display, the software line is zero. The hardware lines still apply.

Worked example: screens versus printers over three years

Example only. The hardware and paper prices are illustrative assumptions, not quotes. Square’s per-device fee is its published price. Replace every assumption with your own numbers.

A takeaway has three stations: wok, fryer and pack. It is open six nights a week and serves 70 orders a night.

Ireland, in euro

The screens cost €1,244.80 more over three years. That is €414.93 a year (€1,244.80 ÷ 3), or €7.98 a week (€414.93 ÷ 52). Across 21,840 orders a year (70 × 6 × 52), it is about 2 cents an order.

The owner’s test: do the screens prevent at least €8 of waste a week? Count a wrong curry, a missed side or a lost ticket at food cost, packaging and any refund. Add the driver’s second trip when a bag goes out incomplete. If that comes to more than €8 a week, the screens pay. If you rarely remake anything, keep the printers.

UK, in sterling

The screens cost £956.40 more over three years: £318.80 a year, or £6.13 a week.

A bundled plan instead

Per-device pricing adds up once you pass three or four screens. Square for Restaurants Plus in Ireland costs €69 + VAT a month per location with unlimited KDS devices. Over 36 months that is €2,484, or €3,055.32 with 23% VAT. It also includes other POS features, so compare it with what you would pay for your till plan anyway, not only with screen fees.

What the example leaves out

• Card processing, which applies with or without screens.
• Staff time saved walking changes into the kitchen.
• Electrician and network work, which varies by building.
• Replacement tablets. Budget for at least one failure in three years in a hot kitchen.

Kitchen display system hardware

A KDS screen lives with heat, grease, steam and noise, and it gets touched with wet hands. Choose hardware for the station, not for the showroom.

Screen types

Size and viewing distance

A 10-inch tablet works when the cook stands right in front of it. A pass or pack screen read from two or three steps away needs a larger display. Test the text size with your longest real order, such as a family meal with 12 items and modifiers, before buying. If the ticket needs scrolling, the screen is too small or the layout is wrong.

Heat, grease and cleaning

• Keep screens out of the direct rise of steam and fryer vapour.
• Use a sealed case or a commercial screen near cooking lines.
• Clean with what the manufacturer recommends, not the kitchen degreaser.
• Put a bump bar at stations where cooks wear gloves or work with wet hands.
• Keep a spare tablet charged, paired and labelled in the office.

Network and power

A weak signal looks exactly like a broken screen. Stainless steel, walk-in fridges and thick walls weaken Wi-Fi. Walk the kitchen with a phone during service and check the signal at each station. Run Ethernet to fixed screens where you can. Epos Now, for example, says its KDS must be on the same network as the POS. Put screens and routers on sockets not shared with fryers or heat lamps, and switch off sleep, battery saving and automatic app updates during trading hours.

Sound

Printers make a noise; screens need one. Choose an alert tone the team can hear over extraction fans. Epos Now lists connecting an external speaker through the headphone jack. Distinct tones for new orders and changed orders help cooks react to the right thing.

The restaurant POS hardware page covers tills, receipt and kitchen printers, cash drawers and network kit in more detail.

Internet outages and the kitchen screen

When the internet drops, a kitchen needs orders to keep flowing from the till to the cooks. Systems handle this in two ways.

• Local network. The till and the screens talk to each other over your in-house network, so counter orders keep reaching the kitchen during an internet outage. Online orders stop until the connection returns.
• Cloud relay. Orders travel from the till to the internet and back to the screen. When the internet drops, the kitchen screen stops updating.

Providers describe this differently. Lightspeed lists an offline mode on its KDS page. Ask each provider for a straight answer, then test it yourself.

Outage test

1. Pick a quiet afternoon.
2. Unplug the internet connection at the router, leaving the in-house Wi-Fi switched on.
3. Take three orders on the till, including one with a modifier and one cancellation.
4. Watch each kitchen screen. Note what arrives, what does not and how long it takes.
5. Reconnect and check that orders, times and payments sync without duplicates.
6. Write down what staff should do next time, and pin it by the pass.

Keep a fallback: a kitchen printer that prints over the local network, or numbered paper pads and a rule for who writes tickets. Eclyde POS keeps taking orders during an internet outage and syncs to the cloud when the connection returns. The offline POS system guide covers outage planning, 4G backup and card terminals.

Kitchen display set-up steps

1. Walk the kitchen during service. Note where each dish is made, where orders are packed and where people stand.
2. Count stations. One screen per station that cooks independently, plus a pass or pack screen.
3. Clean the menu. Remove duplicate items and old deals. Turn common notes into modifiers.
4. Assign stations. Give every item, side, drink and modifier a station.
5. Survey power and network. Test Wi-Fi at each station during service and plan sockets and cables.
6. Choose and mount screens. Match size to viewing distance and keep them out of steam.
7. Install and pair. Install the KDS app, connect each screen to the POS and name it by station.
8. Set colours, timers and sounds. Use thresholds by order type and give allergy requests one colour.
9. Test with fake orders. Run 20 orders: eat-in, collection, delivery, scheduled, a meal deal, an allergy request, a change after sending and a cancellation.
10. Run in parallel. Keep the printers on for one quiet shift so nothing is missed.
11. Train the team. Five minutes each on bump, recall, fixing a mistake and what red means.
12. Go live on a quiet night. Not a Friday, not a bank holiday.
13. Review after a week. Check ticket times, red tickets, recalls and remakes, then move thresholds or screens.

Kitchen display checklist

• Every station has a screen it can read without stepping away from the work.
• The pack or pass screen shows the whole order and the collection or driver name.
• Every menu item, side, drink and modifier routes to a station.
• Allergy requests are structured modifiers with their own colour.
• Delivery bags get a printed ticket or allergen sticker.
• Timer thresholds are set by order type.
• Scheduled orders appear at the right lead time.
• Screens are on fixed power, sleep mode is off and alerts are loud enough.
• Wi-Fi or Ethernet has been tested at each station during service.
• The outage test is done and a fallback printer or paper plan is agreed.
• A spare tablet is charged and paired.
• Every staff member knows how to recall a bumped ticket.
• The ticket-time report is reviewed weekly.

Questions to ask a KDS provider

• Does your KDS work with my POS, my ordering website and each delivery app I use? Which of those need a paid integration?
• Is the software priced per screen, per location or included in the POS plan? What does a fourth screen cost?
• Which devices are supported: Android, iOS or browser? Which models do you recommend for a hot kitchen?
• Can items and modifiers route to different stations? Can one item show on two screens?
• Is there a pass or pack view that shows which parts of an order are still missing?
• Can a ticket be edited after it is sent, and how is the change shown to the cook?
• How are allergy requests shown? Can I require a tap to acknowledge them?
• What happens when the internet drops? Show me in the demo.
• When do scheduled orders appear on the screen?
• What reports do I get on ticket times, by hour and by station?
• Is there a minimum contract term? Is the hardware locked to your software?
• Who do I call on a Saturday night when a screen stops showing orders, and how fast do they answer?

Common mistakes

• Screens the cook cannot see. Mounted above eye level, facing a window or behind a hot shelf.
• Everything routed to every screen. The grill cook reads drinks and desserts and misses the burger.
• Free-text allergy notes. Misspelt, cut off or ignored.
• Going live on a Friday. Every new system has a first-night problem.
• Removing every printer. The pack counter still needs bag tickets and stickers.
• Ignoring the Wi-Fi. The screen gets blamed for a weak signal behind a fridge.
• Never reading the ticket times. The data is a large part of what the monthly fee buys.
• Consumer settings on kitchen tablets. Sleep mode, auto-updates and notifications interrupt service.
• One screen for a split kitchen. Two stations crowding one tablet recreate the paper rail problem.

Eclyde kitchen display

Eclyde is the restaurant growth platform for independent restaurants, Ireland and the UK first. The kitchen display system is part of the platform, not a separate product.

• Real-time orders. Orders appear on the kitchen display as they come in.
• Order timers. Each order shows how long it has been waiting.
• Status updates. The kitchen updates the status of each order as it moves.
• Kitchen hardware. It runs on a tablet or screen in the kitchen.
• Same system as the till. Eclyde POS runs on existing Android tablets and SUNMI Android POS devices, works with 50+ compatible receipt and kitchen printers, and keeps taking orders during an internet outage. Hardware can also be bought, financed or rented.
• Direct orders. Your branded ordering website on your own domain takes pickup and delivery orders, with no Eclyde commission on direct orders.

Pricing is €499 to launch, which covers menu build, website and ordering set-up, POS and printer configuration, customer import, staff onboarding, testing and go-live support. It is refunded in full within 30 days if Eclyde is not right for your restaurant. After that it is €99 a month for the whole platform, with no limits on orders or customers. See Eclyde pricing.

If you run a large table-service kitchen that needs detailed course firing across five stations, ask Eclyde to show your exact station layout before you commit, and compare it with the specialist KDS providers above.

Your kitchen’s numbers

A kitchen screen fixes what happens after an order arrives. The bigger money question for most independents is where orders come from and how much of each one you keep. The free Eclyde restaurant audit takes about 2 minutes. It checks your Google profile, your website and how much you depend on the marketplaces, then shows what you pay in marketplace commission a year and what direct ordering is worth to your restaurant.