CAKE POS Reviews

Pros

The price is the most attractive feature, as well as the ease of use. The flexible and affordable monthly payments are nice too.

Cons

Can't use terminal when someone is using the manager functions on other terminal. There are some short delays in running reports at times.

Pros

We switched to CAKE from another POS system in 2016, after being in operation for 1.5 years. We have been impressed with the way CAKE constantly tries to provide new features. As a farm-to-table quick-service restaurant, our menu changes weekly and we find it simple and straightforward to make updates each week. Due to COVID-19, we recently activated the online ordering and we believe it has saved our business. We were able to activate and integrate it quickly and we love the reporting capabilities the system gives us. Our customer service has been top notch--from our sysco rep to our CAKE customer support manager, we have received a quick response to any question we've had. We feel very comfortable requesting new features and integrations based on our needs and we feel like they really listen to us and try to incorporate our ideas quickly and simply. We did not have this level of customer support with our previous POS system and we really value being able to get a live person on the phone quickly and easily when we have an issue. We love the intuitive, easy-to-read sales analysis reports and use them each week with our management team to evaluate our menu items and determine our next round of specials. We really like that we can make menu edits both on the POS and with the online platform---hoping for a mobile app next for very quick and simple edits!

Cons

We first purchased in Spring 2016. The software felt a little sluggish and honestly, we were not sure if it would easily keep up with our pace. But we have been very impressed with CAKE's constant evaluation and roll-out of new features and integrations--they haven't missed a beat! We don't use all the features yet, but because of the recent success with our online activation, we are now considering two more apps. I would prefer a tiered/capped monthly pricing system depending on how many apps/additional software platforms we integrate (like accounting, customer management, 3rd party delivery apps, etc)--rather than installing each a-la carte, but hopefully that will be an option in the future. The additional monthly fee per app has made us hesitant to try new ones. We would also like to have more control over the look and feel of the online ordering page--functionally it meets our needs, but would love to integrate it into our own website and select the background color, text color, etc, to make it feel like a seamless integration rather than making our customers feel like they are "leaving" our site to go to another. There are some features/edits that are only available from the POS system (not menu items, but system preferences/settings categories) In the future, I hope they make those features editable from the online access platform as well, because sometimes I want the flexibility of making certain adjustments from home on my computer during off-hours.

Alternatives Considered

Aloha EPOS and Toast POS

Reasons for Choosing CAKE POS

Our Sysco rep at the time was very knowledgeable about different POS systems based on her career in several restaurants prior to Sysco---she was straightforward with us about her experience with multiple systems, their price points, and value. She suggested we consider CAKE and we followed her recommendation. We are so glad we did. We prefer it over our previous system, but as a small rural restaurant, we were not able to afford the much more expensive systems.

Reasons for Switching to CAKE POS

CAKE had the right combination of value, ease of use, and features. We have recommended CAKE to several of our restaurant owner friends in the region. It has a simple interface, the customer service is stellar, and the constant addition of new apps and integration makes us feel like we are getting the best value in a price range we can afford.

Pros

No answer at this time.

Cons

1. Customer service 2. Response time3. Integration of 3rd party delivery systems 4. Reports5. Look back time on reports6. Foreign pp answering support calls who do not speak English well

Pros

The POS is very intuitive - very little training is needed before staff have it figured out. It's also very customizable so we've been able to get tickets and receipts to print exactly how we want them to.

Cons

Editing the menu is pretty arduous. There are a lot of steps involved in changing just one item and there still seem to be a few bugs to sort out. The reports are also more limited than we would like and present the data as lists of numbers rather than charts, which would be easier to digest.

Pros

The system is extremely easy to operate and customize

Cons

Everything seems to be exactly how it should be

Alternatives Considered

Clover and Toast POS

Reasons for Choosing CAKE POS

Processing fees, per swipe fees, monthly fees, cost of product free.... not free.... etc! Cake has saved me $875+ Month after month

Switched From

Harbortouch POS

Reasons for Switching to CAKE POS

The cost plus simplicity of the product along with the diversity made the decision extremely easy!!! Oh now I get to work with [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN]!!!! If you and your team can’t figure something out she will!!!

Pros

The accessibility, functionality, storage and speed of the system in general. THE SEARCH BAR OMG!!!!

Cons

The chip readers inconsistency. The inability to be able split items more than 1 in a time.

Alternatives Considered

Aloha EPOS, Clover and TouchBistro

Reasons for Choosing CAKE POS

Honestly... The tipping point was the card fee. But since then it has been awesome. Why we are staying put!!!

Switched From

Aloha EPOS and TouchBistro

Reasons for Switching to CAKE POS

Everything said in the comments before

Pros

It’s user friendly. Once my employees use it for a couple hours they pick it right up.

Cons

We were unable to set up our online ordering from the table. There were too many steps for the clients to take.

Alternatives Considered

Toast POS

Reasons for Choosing CAKE POS

It was too slow

Switched From

Restaurant Systems Pro

Reasons for Switching to CAKE POS

Our food purveyor Sysco set us up with cake.

Pros

User-friendly, love that we can make changes off-site, looking forward to using their Guest Manager program and online ordering!

Cons

We wish the pizza part of their system was easier to use. Half & Half pizzas are almost 50% of our orders, and it is not the easiest to enter on this current version. The only think we liked better with one of our former systems, is that it showed an actual picture of a pizza and we could click and drag toppings from one side to the other. Much easier and better visually. We are hoping Cake implements this in the future. :) (Hope that helps).

Alternatives Considered

Toast POS

Reasons for Choosing CAKE POS

Referral from another restaurant owner, and I actually used their system before making the decision to switch.

Switched From

TouchBistro

Reasons for Switching to CAKE POS

Strictly on our referral. We never tried Toast. And, we primarily use Sysco, who is the food vendor who supports Cake.

Pros

I love the fact that I have a POS system and I do not have to have a separate CC processing

Cons

Really haven't had any bad problems. We normally call support and it is handled quickly

Alternatives Considered

QuickBooks Desktop Pro

Reasons for Choosing CAKE POS

Changed locations and my Sysco rep told me about it

Switched From

QuickBooks Desktop Pro

Reasons for Switching to CAKE POS

Wanted something different

Pros

Ease of use, ease of configuration, affordable

Cons

Back office / admin settings get a bit complicated and some are configured on POS and some through Admin Portal - I wish they were all in the same place!

Pros

Conversation Summary/Sample Review:
Before we started with CAKE, everything was done by hand so we had to write stuff down which posed a challenge because now you had to know what went on everything and how much things were to charge for extra. There was also no way for us to track anything, really. Now we can track sales of items in general as well as hourly, and there is even an option to track by 15-minute period, which is even greater. Changing the menu is easy and I don't have to have meetings to tell people about new prices and things, I just give a heads up and then it just shows up on the machine. Customization is super easy, so even if the customer wants something we don't have in there it's super easy to enter. And then my favorite part is that I can have different printers that send information where it needs to go, so I can send the fryer exactly what they need and the grill what they need which has helped us out a lot. Instead of looking at an order with a ton of information that makes it hard to see what needs to be done, each person can see exactly what they need to do for their part and then have it come together with better accuracy.

Cons

It would be great if customers could order online and pay with PayPal. An app for remote access to the system would be amazing.

Pros

We switched to CAKE because we were launching a bigger location and with an expanded menu, this was the better option for us. We were previously using Square which didn't have a lot of the functions we needed as a bigger business. It's much easier for employees to work now because CAKE allows them to do clocking in and out in one convenient location, all the menu options can be put in the system which saves their time entering and hunting, and overall it's much more organized. We can also easily change the menu from our laptops on a regular basis because we've been adding a bunch of stuff, and it's much easier from our computers. The reports help us keep records of what sells the best during each season and we can decide then to bring it back or not. A lot of our customers are really impressed as well, it's very easy for them to use and they tell us on a regular basis. It's really user friendly and it all comes down to the ease of use. We just have no complaints, and whenever I need support it's easy to get to.

Cons

The screen will freeze from time to time but it is easily fixed by restarting the machine. I also wish we could find receipts by card holders last name, it would be easier to go back if we need to find a receipt for different purposes.

Pros

The thing that I like the most is being able to connect to the POS with my computer or phone. It makes life as an owner easier, I can make buttons for items or change prices even if I am not at the tavern. Also being able to pull reports up on my computer is much better than working only with the close cash slip. The support is wonderful, I always get an answer to my question or the help I need. It is just so easy to use that even employees who have never used a POS can learn to use it easily and fairly quickly.

Cons

There are only a few features that we would change such as, if you set hours for happy hour, after it is over, items cannot be cashed out if they are already on an open order so you would have to have everyone pay as you go or cash out before a certain time. The other feature that doesn't really work for our tavern is that if a refund is performed, the whole amount doesn't show as a refund, part does and the other part is refunded on the employee's tips. We would love to see the ability to close cash and assign drawers from the website as well. Other than that, we are totally happy with this system!

Pros

Before CAKE we were a small mom and pop shop handwriting tickets with no POS system. Having everything handwritten caused issues for cooks and if we were looking for specific item sales, we had to go through every single hand-written ticket to track that kind of data. What attracted me to CAKE was that it was a rental program, so there was not a lot of out of pocket upfront cost, which is really important for a small restaurant. Having reporting capabilities to see what we're selling and how much has been an invaluable service. I can see our busy hours, how we did last week, all that information is right at my fingertips. I can also change the menu from wherever, even my phone, so I love the fact that no matter where I personally am, I can change prices, add things to the menu, take things off the menu, and check out our sales. Our payroll company can also log in and generate payroll which eliminates the chance of human error and gives them the convenience to do payroll on their time frame. A huge plus is the ability to make changes, additions and deletions on our own without needing someone from Cake to do it. In addition, they are very receptive to our "wish list" and quick with trouble shooting and response to problems. This system truly saves us a lot of time and stress.

Cons

The updates on the system sometimes catch us by surprise and cause a little bit of confusion for the staff. Most of the updates are very helpful, but a times, they will make a change that does not work for us. Perhaps a little more warning on the changes would help.

Pros

Easy to use, 24 hour support, customer services is exceptional, constantly working on improving the system and uses the customers feedback in assisting to redesign and implement changes

Cons

With the support team so far away it is sometimes difficult to pin point the base of the system problem. Especially through phone conversations. Recently we had a Pos terminal go and it would enter things units own. It was extremely difficult to capture the incidents while it happened. Sometimes you can't capture the problem through a video or it just would stop when on the phone with support team. The problem went on for a month. Cake was outstanding and replaced the terminal free of charge for a one time customer courtesy.

Pros

Our main problem before CAKE was time. It was taking too much time for servers to get something written on paper and get back to the POS to put everything in. If the internet was down everything was down so we wanted something cloud based so we could continue with transactions even if the internet had problems. CAKE meets all the needs we were looking for. We've got a much faster turnover rate on being able to get orders in and back to kitchen and out to the table, and we can continue taking orders even without internet, which have both helped with revenue. We also like using the guest manager system so when we run out of tables we can get numbers and page when tables open up which was an added benefit. I can also do things on the fly like change the menu even when I'm not on the restaurant, someone just gives me a call and I can add it from my personal laptop and it goes directly to the POS system, which has been really helpful as well.

Cons

Touch screen interaction is not instant. There is a half second lag in some of the menu screens. It may not sound like much, but anyone in the restaurant industry knows that every single second counts during the lunch rush. This lag also includes certain unnecessary animations between certain screens.
Certain features such as an on the fly print button from the table layout screen would decrease our table times.
The Split screen is very counter-productive compared to other systems.

Pros

Global modifiers. That's literally the only thing I like about it. If it wasn't for that, we would have gotten rid of this system a long time ago.

Cons

This system is completely not customizable to your specific business. They're constantly updating the software with updates that make the system even worse for my business. There should be an option to not upgrade. Customer service is absolutely useless. I've called them probably 50 times since we've gotten this system. They never have an answer, they're always "working on it". Never a solution. There was a software problem on their end last Wednesday. I still have not had credit card sales deposited into my bank account from Wednesday and Thursday of last week. It's 5:30 on Monday. I have not had a deposit since Tuesday's sales. One entire week ago. They don't provide any solutions except "We're trying to figure out what the problem is. We're working on it.", but you literally never end up with an answer. You just have to wait and wait until you notice it's finally resolved or never get it resolved at all. You're at their mercy because you paid huge for the thing. What am I gonna do? It's disgusting and these people shouldn't be allowed to operate. They do not care. Even on a normal payment schedule, you won't get Thursday's transactions until Monday, Friday until Tuesday and Saturday until Wednesday. If there's a holiday, push that back a day.

Pros

We've had 2 POS systems before we tried CAKE. The very first one we had was already 5 years old so it was running really slow and just couldn't handle what we needed it to do. We upgraded that one to Clover and we had high hopes but it just really didn't work out for us. We had batching issues, the numbers weren't matching, and honestly it ended up making more work for us with bookkeeping. Since we switched, closing and reporting have been so much easier. Everything is a lot easier to keep track of like sales and payroll and it's so much nicer because you can see all that online. It's also easier to add new menu items or move things around and just easier to use in general, especially once we got everything up and running. It's a simple set up and I'd definitely recommend just giving it a try.

Cons

No Big cons really. One minor con, is that we wish we could accept partial payment on our regular customers running tabs. It would make it so much easier.

Pros

we are very behind with the technology equipment and relationship with business and costumers daily base ...kiosk with self selfservise cash out

Cons

yes missing a lot of improved no try to update with the new technology and relationship with costumers daily base

Alternatives Considered

Toast POS

Reasons for Choosing CAKE POS

they have everything that i need

Switched From

Toast POS

Pros

Software is nice easy to navigate, the terminals have a great modern look to them, on the fly adjustments is great.

Cons

We were told this would be a direct replacement for our PosiTouch system, it is not. The system lacks many basic functions our old system could do, even though we were told it would prior to purchasing. Whenever we contact CAKE about an issue we are met with the same response over and over, "Our system is not currently able to do that function at this time, if you would like us to make a service report to our technicians who will determine if this needs to be implemented in a future upgrade."
We were told prior to purchasing some of our existing hardware would work, after implantation of the new hardware with our old it will not work. After many phone calls attempting to correct the issue we get the same response, "Our system is incapable of operating with that hardware."
We purchased two terminals second hand, but before we purchased them we called to make sure they would work before spending the money, we were told yet again that the would in fact work we would just have to pay to have the software upgraded and they would need the phone number of the original owner to get conformation to wipe out all the data on the hard drives, so that is just what we did. After receiving the shipment we informed CAKE they had arrived, and the gentleman's number we purchased them from, so they could make contact with him in regards of getting them set up for our use. A short time later we were contacted by CAKE a were told they could in fact not be used, the system were to old, even though it's the same hardware they are using now, and there was noting they could do.
Please take my advice, if you are UPGRADING FROM A LEGACY SYSTEM (positouch, aloha, digital dining, ect.) DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY LIKE WE DID.
SYSCO SHOULD BE ASHAMED FOR THE BUSINESS PRACTICE OF THIS BRANCH OF THEIR COMPANY.

Pros

Easy to use for the most part. Screens easy to read.

Cons

Check Splitting is very difficult and involves many steps. Daily Management Reports are not user friendly.
Senior Management Customer Support is horrible. They call them "Customer Success Managers" which is clearly the wrong title. They are horrible at communicating among all customer support. Guest checks are very difficult to read along with credit card slips for the customers. Fonts are very small. Cash drawers are cheap. They do not offer any loyalty programs through their system and only punch card type of discounts. Very old technology.

Pros

We used to run our restaurant old school with just tickets. We find that the computer system lets you have more readable tickets for the chefs and descriptive tickets with tabs for putting in how you want things without the servers having to write everything, so it saves them a lot of time and it's faster and neater. We use it also to take inventory, and we can see exactly how much we sold each day, which is easier for us. We can also see most popular items and if something's not selling we can try something different with our changing specials. The workers use it to clock in on our computers and it's really easy to get that to our accountant. Another thing CAKE did for us that no one else really offers is when we initially put our menu up, CAKE did all the work. They set up all the tabs and modifiers and it was super easy for us which was great.

Cons

Customer Support is not too helpful. They could work on that aspect. They are only helpful to a certain extent.

Pros

The features for me adding categories and adding items to them is great. I own a bakery and ice cream parlor which has several items under the ice cream category. Cake POS makes it easy for my employees to find items during a rush and we need to move along quickly. I love the reports I get when we close so that I can see immediately how we did without going directly into the system. It was worth the money spent. I loved it so much I bought a second one for the other location.

Cons

I wish there was a way to enter my inventory so that I would not have to manually keep up with it.

Pros

Ease of adding/deleting menu items. Additionally, that its overall easy to navigate. One of my absolute favorite things though is that if you make any changes and upload them (publish them) it happens quick and easy. There's no having to restart the systems and terminals and then wait for them to reload.

Cons

I really dislike that you cannot re-open a server "check out" once they've clocked out. Many times we have had staff missing receipts and then locate it after they've clocked out. Makes them feel like they worked for free. I've used ALOHA in the past and that was a great, frustration saving, feature.

Pros

The overall CAKE experience has been great from day 1 of asking questions to now 2+ years in business and using it daily. "Patience and care" that we knew what we were getting and the knowledge to work it was the deciding factor for our choosing CAKE.

Cons

I miss some of the features from the reports prior to the most recent updates but I like a lot, like the date range being as long or short a time frame as I want, of the new reports. I like the original "Employee Clock-Out Report". I still use it because the new "Payroll" report prints to lightly and is too busy with un-needed columns for my payroll purposes.