User Reviews Overview
About Lavu POS
Lavu is a Point of Sale solution designed for use by restaurants, bars, and nightclubs - from full-service, quick-service, and franchise restaurants, to food trucks, coffee shops, and lounges. Users can choose between bar,...
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- Industry: Wine & Spirits
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Love Lavu and the team !
My experience with Lavu is second to none insofar as POS systems. We love this system and look forward to seeing the new implementation once released in November.
Pros
This software continues to grow with the customer demands. We seem to never be outdated or lacking. The servers have an ease of use on the floor with the iPads at table side. We love the software so much so that we will be implementing it at two other facilities.
Cons
There are cons to each software but there is not a dealbreaker for us with this software. It continues to grow and with that growth sometimes there seems to be the older than time conflict between tech and accounting due to reports however, the Lavu team are able to populate these reports in a timely manner. We have gotten everything we need from this program to meet the consumer demand of our growing winery.
Alternatives Considered
Toast POSReasons for Switching to Lavu POS
The service team was extremely helpful in designing the system to meet our needs. Ironically we are more busy than we ever have been and this software and the tech team have been amazing in helping us realize the potential of what we can do with this software and realize efficiency through growth. We are happy to have made this decision.Response from Lavu
Hi Gladys, thanks for your feedback. We appreciate hearing firsthand from our customers, and it really helps to hear what works so great and what can be improved upon. We appreciate your business and we thank you for being a loyal Lavu customer!
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Great inventory and POS software
Great inventory and POS software. Ease of use and easy to teach employees to use.
Pros
Ability to have multiple locations. Ability to make inventory items easily. Ability to use an iPad for inventory counts.
Cons
Have to manually bath credit cards at end of day.
Response from Lavu
Hi Michael, thanks so much for your review! We're very happy that Lavu helped your multiple locations streamline operations. We appreciate your business!
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used for 1+ year
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Review Source
Stay Away!
I purchased a complete system from LAVU on April 2019 with the intent to upgrade my existing POS from CAKE which served me well the first 4 years of running my restaurant, but being somewhat of a basic system I started feeling like it was holding me back. LAVU was running a 50% off on hardware so I called and spoke to a salesperson. Let me tell you, I wish I had recorded the conversations, as there was very little in common between what was verbally promised and what was actually delivered, VERY LITTLE! Typical sales tactics, they put extreme pressure on you to sign up (do it in the next 6 hours or the promotion expires), give you practically no time to read the fine print, and all of a sudden you find yourself in a 3 years contract with ridicules early termination penalties and a service provider that is incapable of delivering half of what was promised. They count on you not having the time or resources to take them to court. Last remaining hardware piece originally promised arrived 5 months later! Thank god I kept my CAKE system going or I would have gone out of business. Their customer service is of the lowest level you would ever see, especially from an IT company, they provide practically no solutions to issues or a very vague future fix, and their system keeps crashing leaving you with no ability to run your business mid-day and with no warning, time after time. They send you system-wide emails apologizing saying their system was hacked and therefore the interruption i
Pros
There are no Pros, this is an awful system and the worst customer service / sales team in the industry
Cons
Be very careful when they offer you interest free financing for the hardware, that's how they trick you into paying the software fee for 3 years in advance with NO way out
Alternatives Considered
Toast POSReasons for Choosing Lavu POS
Was looking for a more robust systemSwitched From
Mad Mobile Restaurant POSReasons for Switching to Lavu POS
Their sales people promise the world and then some. You find out way too late they can't deliver.Response from Lavu
Hi Guy, thank you for your feedback. We really appreciate hearing how Lavu worked for your business, and what can be improved.
Top Lavu POS Alternatives
iPOS
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Lavu Review
The ease of training a 16-year-old worker on how to use the system. See live data and track history and react to the business trend.
Pros
The ease of going back to items ordered and changing modifiers.
Cons
Needs to improve on the reporting, lack of enterprise, and consolidated multiple store reports
Response from Lavu
Hi Tom - thank you for reaching out, we appreciate the feedback. We are glad to hear that Lavu is working so well for you.
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Excellent POS for beginners
Pros
Is an easy to use, easy to program POS system. We use it from the beginning of our opening. Easy to use for employees and low cost for owners.
Cons
Probably make improvement on the schedule part to be more robust.
Reasons for Switching to Lavu POS
Prices, and easy use and opportunity to growResponse from Lavu
Hi Angel, thank you for your feedback! We are always trying to improve our POS system, and scheduling is on that list!
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
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Review Source
New User Review
Overall, we have great support. all specialists are knowledgeable and helpful to resolve any issues, questions or concerns that come up.
Pros
Ease of use is important to a beginner in the field.
Cons
Backend layout is a bit clunky, too many drop down and making groups and stuff is a bit of a pain. Also when saving sometimes it seems to not save.
Alternatives Considered
Linga rOS SystemReasons for Switching to Lavu POS
Easier platform that Linga and pricing was better. also online ordering w/doordash integration with lavu was a must and they offered it but with much higher fees.Response from Lavu
Hey Philip, thank you for your feedback! We're happy that you are satisfied with Lavu and our customer support team!
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Good product, hard to find anything that compares.
Pretty good experience overall. Over the years we've had communication issues. There have been some price increases and fees snuck in that I wasn't happy about. I can usually read between the lines and see when they are doing things to attempt to make.. and they haven't always been the most upfront about it. I usually call them out on it and at times have had to email the[SENSITIVE CONTENT] about issues that weren't getting resolved. I will say he's immediately gotten on the issues each and every time I've email and gotten me taken care of. Years ago there were some pretty bad issues with the service going offline and we were totally down. This has gotten 1000% better since they switched to AWS hosting. We did have another several hour outage recently, but that's the first and only one in years.
Pros
Pretty easy to use, stable for the most part. We've been using the software for 7+ years I believe. Over time we've integrated and started using more and more of their products such as KDS and card processing. Recently restructured their pricing and we now get the same service for less!
Cons
At times, certain things could be easier. I don't think the pizza building is perfect and could still use work. This goes for both Lavu and MenuDrive. We make it work and they've made lots of improvements over the years with help from our input.
Response from Lavu
Hi Brian! First off, I'd like to thank you for your continued business, and for your feedback! We really appreciate your comments, and we are continuously improving our product to fit the needs of each customer.
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
UNBELIEVABLE!!!
But wait there's more! How about the fact that the kitchen printer prints two checks, that no one can seem to fix. Not only does it waste an enormous amount of paper but it is confusing as the checks are not identical and it blows through a ribbon in 3 or four days!
Occasionally it will resend an order back yo the kitchen that has already been made, etc...
The is no individual item printer assignment either which means that you have to send an entire category instead of just one item to a screen or printer.
Pros
The iPhone app. Really nothing else, really.
Cons
WOW! Where do I begin? Should I start with how they outright lied to me to make the sale? How about sending a completely incompetent tech support personnel company to help me with my network? Maybe I should start with the fact that they billed me today for Quickbooks integration that I DON'T EVEN HAVE!
Let's start with the outright misrepresentation of their product. I specifically asked if they had online ordering and I was told yes we do. After I had purchased the system and went to set it up I asked "Well how do I set up the credit card integration for the online ordering?" Then I was told "Oh we have online ordering but we don't have online payment" WHAT!!? This is 2017 not 1999 what do you mean you don't have online payment? "We had a problem with it and had to take it off line, we should have it back up by Nov."
Well today is 08-21-2018 and guess what I still don't have? You got it - online payment.
Response from Lavu
Hi John,
We are very sorry to hear about the problems you are experiencing. I will have someone from our care team look into this and get back to you as soon as possible.
Thank you
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
We love it
We have been using it for 6 years and think it is great. When we have new employees, most of them have never heard of Lavu, but after using it they typically remark at how easy it is to update and how easy it is to use
Pros
It is very intuitive with a simple and easy to use layout. Pretty much everything is easy to find and easy to customize. It feels light and responsive where other, more expensive options often feel cumbersome. The chat and phone based service have also proven very useful at times
Cons
The online ordering platform didn't work very well for us, unfortunately, so we abandoned that. We love the everything else, though
Response from Lavu
Hi Mark,
It's great to hear how well Lavu has worked for you. Thank you for being a loyal customer for 6 years!
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Seafood restaurant
Lavu has made it much easier for our restaurant to handle the influx of customers during the summer months
Pros
Used Lavu as our Point of Sale for years, I really like how easy it was to use and how portable the iPads are. Simple setup, we got it done ourselves in a few hours. Support team always there if we need it.
Cons
If wifi is flaky, system slows done, especially in busy times
Response from Lavu
Hi Mia, thank you for your feedback! It's great to hear how well Lavu has worked for your restaurant and staff. Please reach out if you have any questions!
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Not really for Bars
We're a high volume craft beer bar. It can start tabs. It works for now. If the complaint list keeps growing, we'll have to switch. It works fine, but when it doesn't work, it totally halts service.
Pros
I guess it's easy to use, but it's kinda clunky. Programming is inconsistent across different devices. The speed is ok. It does what I need it to do, which the #1 reason I went with Lavu over Square was that you could start a bar tab with a preauthorization.
Cons
LAVU complaints
Should get Free set up support 1 month a year; if there is an update we should get free support
Quick serve shouldn't disappear
Can't Add a cc to an existing tab - currently deletes the new order
Needs Select and Repeat button
Needs Fewer approval buttons
Should Show change on screen
Should add auto grat to total tips
Can't Change auto grat, % or amount
On tip page, be able to enter tip or total, and show total.
Entered tips should disappear from screen - be able to filter list
On End of Day reports page, discounts and auto grat need to be included. Auto grats dont go to the business. Service charges do.
Auto grats need to show on payments page
Chip cards cant start tabs. Cant have 2 processors in lavu - chip card and swipe card types
Tip screen times out , and deletes entered tips
Response from Lavu
Hi Stephanie, thanks for your review. It's extremely helpful for us to hear how Lavu works for all restaurant types, including bars. We are constantly improving our product so that it runs seamlessly for every customer.
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
STAY AWAY
Pros
The interface is user friendly, and tickets get sent to kitchen without many problems. But we could do this with paper
Cons
Everything else! Whenever we have a issue they send it to the "developmental team" also known as the black hole. When we signed up they said "offline processing was in the works" that was 2 years ago. Reports are literally ALWAYS wrong. If you look at sales on two different reports they never are the same. For a span of about three months they miscalculated sales tax, having us over pay hundreds of dollars! For a long time they randomly doubled numbers on server reports, and now there is a random .50 added to numbers on servers reports. I have a tax background an I informed them the liability they were putting on us and our servers by misreporting so they showed me on the IRS website where they were right, THEY SET UP THERE SYSTEM BASED OFF THE WRONG PART OF THE IRS CODE. Not to mention that it randomly opens tickets from all different times that we have to re-close and I'm not sure we get paid for them or not. When we call customer support they are really nice, but our issues always get sent to the "Developmental Team" to never be heard about again!
Response from Lavu
Hi Wes, we are sorry to hear that your experience Lavu was less than perfect. We are constantly working to improve our product and fix bugs as fast as possible. We encourage you to reach out to our customer support team for any other questions.
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Great on-line ordering system for Breakfast/Lunch restaurant
We are happy with Menudrive, the cost is acceptable and we like how our staff doesn't need to answer the phone to get the order. Our diner is loud and it's hard to hear the order, get the payment info, delivery address etc. Plus they often want to know their total price. Menudrive allows them to easily place their order & pay for their order - without taking up staff time. We wish all of our take out and delivery orders would be via Menudrive.
Pros
Menudrive is easy to program; took some time but our menu is large and we being a breakfast diner we had many options for customers ie: how do they want their eggs cooked, meat type, bread type, etc. Menudrive allows an unlimited amount of items & required info
Cons
when entering items it was redundant having to enter the time available (if it wasn't an all day availability). Lots of key strokes but once it's done, it's done.
Response from Lavu
Hi Patty, thank you for your feedback! We love to hear from our MenuDrive customers, and how the product can help out businesses like yours!
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Review Source
Saves us time and money, works great for us!
I started using Lavu Point of Sale about 2 years ago. Before switching to the system we were using paper tickets, I didn't realize how inefficient this really was until I made the switch to an electronic system. Not only are we now spending less time managing each order, accuracy has gone up, and my shrinkage has gone down. The kitchen is only allowed to make items that are rung into the system and print out which has help cut down on theft or giving items away. The biggest time savings is getting the customers checked out. Previously during our lunch rush we would have a line of people waiting to pay and leave, now we are able to handle them as they come up to the counter since everything is already totaled up in the system.
Another big help has been the ability to use iPods to take orders at the table. We usually have a rush after church on Sundays, sometimes a line at the door. Before my servers had to go to the table, take the order, then take the ticket back to the kitchen. Now my servers go to the table, take the order, hit send and it prints in the kitchen. Then they can go straight to the next table. Anything we can do to speed up the time it takes to turn a table is a plus.
The amount of features that have been added in the last couple years has been amazing, it's nice to see that they are actively working on the software. The biggest thing for us has been the addition of 'always offline mode'. You just use the system and the orders go to the cloud in the background. When we first got setup we had some issues with the internet which interfered with using the system. They offered us a local server option but I did not want to install more hardware. While my internet situation was much improved by switching from DSL to cable I always worried that my connection going out could be a possibility. With the new version (3.0.3) the system keeps working even if my internet connection were to go out.
The Lavu POS software has worked great for us and I highly recommend it.
Response from Lavu
Hi Dennis, thanks so much for your feedback. We're so happy that you chose to use Lavu for your restaurant, and that it is working well for your operations. Please reach out if you have any questions!
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Great solution....as long as you never plan on leaving!
Multiple price increases with no communication. Have tried to cancel for 5 months, multiple emails, cases, conversations and promises to cancel, just got our 4th email this week that they can't process our card. No access to accounting, don't believe me call their number. Had to fight charges and cancelled the credit card to stop them from billing. Do yourself a favor pick something else. We moved to Square for everything!
Pros
Used the software for 9 years, pretty easy to use and setup decent feature set, great that it was Ipad/iphone based instead of having to buy specific hardware.
Cons
Light to non-existent integration to Square for credit card processing.
Response from Lavu
Hi Sean, first off we would like to thank you for your business and for being with Lavu for 9 years. We are very sorry to hear you went elsewhere. We apologize about the billing discrepancies. Please reach out if we can do anything for you.
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Best software and easy.
Easy to use and the customer service are amazing.
Pros
Easy to use the pos while you are busy.
Cons
The customer service is one of the best customer service ever.
Response from Lavu
Hi Ahmad, thank you for reaching out and letting us know how happy you are with Lavu! We're always eager to help if you have any issues.
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
LAVU complete POS system
LAVU has been a really helpfull tool from organizing the orders that goes to the kitchen, to getting special reports.
Pros
It´s an easy sytem to learn and to teach to third parties, alot of filters to get the detail information needed.
Cons
One thing that i notice is that i can not move the category windows as i desire, to have a better organization in the POS. And another thing is that from time to time the POS in the tablets won´t let us login until some billling issues are resolved, not sure what is that about.
Response from Lavu
Hi Luis, thanks for your feedback! We're glad to hear that Lavu has been helpful in all aspects of running your restaurant. We are constantly working to perfect our product and eliminate bugs in the software. Please reach out if you need anything!
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
As good as any "Industry Standard"
We used this in a tequila bar that I was a bar manager at. We were very high volume so we needed a good POS system that never crashed, and operated quickly to minimize waiting on the system to perform functions. I think in that regard this is a great system and I would recommend it to anyone.
Pros
Better price point
Very intuitive and easy to pick up user-interface
Speedy screen operations, no waiting for screens to load
If you have experience with other POS systems this one will be very easy to get started with
Great team behind it
Easy to add new items to menu (you dont have to be an expert to fulfil managerial roles on the system)
Cons
There is not much that I can say against LAVU. As far as Point of Sale Systems it is just as good as any of the big dog's systems but with an affordable price point. I never had an issue with the system in my year of using it.
Response from Lavu
Hi Sean,
Thank you for your review. We're so glad to hear Lavu is working well for you and your team! Don't hesitate to call us at 855-767-5288 if you have any questions.
The Lavu Team
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Lavu POS
Overall solid 8.
Pros
Good data collection, can pull various reports easily.
Cons
A few key functions made it hard for our front end.
Reasons for Switching to Lavu POS
I don't know.Response from Lavu
Hi Joaquin, thank you for your feedback! We are constantly working to make Lavu a perfect POS for all customers!
- Industry: Hospitality
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Use as a server and bartender at independent restaurant
Lavu has helped our business stay afloat, especially during Covid as we had to close down. We use their online ordering software, Menudrive, as well. It made it easier for us to survive the pandemic financially and be able to open our doors again when restrictions were up.
Pros
At our restaurant, we pool tips each night, and Lavu makes it really easy to print out our tip report and figure out how much each server should be bringing home. Saves us a lot of time and effort.
Cons
The inventory feature could be better, but we don't use it that much, to begin with.
Response from Lavu
Hi Caryn,
Thank you so much for your feedback, we really appreciate it! It's so great to hear that your restaurant was able to make it through Covid with the help of MenuDrive. Please let us know if you need anything!
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Nice Job Lavu
I have a pretty big place, with a long wine and cocktail list, but this handled all of our menu, and getting running was fast with one of the distributors we found in our area. We switched from an older POS after our contract ran out, and this seemed like the new, efficient thing to try out. It was a quick install, and way less than what I paid before. I miss some of the inventory ordering and employee scheduling my old system had, but this makes up for it in other ways. My servers picked it up right away, almost no training needed
Response from Lavu
Hi Steven, thank you for your review! We love to hear that Lavu has worked so well for your restaurant. We're especially happy that Lavu was a better pricing point with more customizable features than your previous POS.
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
After one full year - still happy
Overall, a good product and always recommend to others.
Pros
System is fairly easy to use and navigate. Easy to setup menus and configure accordingly. Customer support is pretty responsive and quick although sometimes questionable knowledge to help with all situations. Cost for system is excellent.
Cons
Fonts can be a bit small on pos interface and thus hard to read. No big cons to comment on other than have had some big hassles configuring system to work with different credit card merchants and being bounced back and forth with customer support to resolve.
Response from Lavu
Hi Brian, thank you for your feedback! We are very happy that Lavu has worked so well for your business. Please let us know if you need anything at all at (855) 767-5288.
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Constant Interruptions
I enjoy the reports and the admin website.
Pros
The software is very easy to use and the reporting system is great.
Cons
We have constant interruptions including but not limited to: data parse errors with the credit card processing company, iPads going down, the admin website going down, drawers locking up and printers going offline, etc. The customer service is mediocre when you can actually reach someone. Don't bother calling in for help, they don't answer the phone.
Response from Lavu
Hi Lauren, we're glad to hear Lavu's reporting was helpful to your business. We are sorry to hear that you experienced some technical and customer support issues with us. Please reach out if you have any questions.
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Excellent POS System
Bought the system for my pub about three years ago and I'm glad I did. Lavu has helped my staff open/close tabs much quicker than before I bought the system. I'm making more money and I can say that part of the reason is due to Lavu. Excellent POS system.
Pros
Ease of use and the reliability. Hasn't crashed on me in the three years I've had it.
Cons
Lags every once in a while.
Response from Lavu
Hi Kevin, thank you so much for your feedback! We are very happy that Lavu has streamlined your restaurant operations, and made it easier to track your reporting. Please reach out if you need anything at (855) 767-5288.
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Casa Mex
Pros
Send orders From table, and being able to not use a paper printer we use a kitchen display really helpful
Cons
When there’s a big table with several tickets how to put everything in one ticket and send it
Response from Lavu
Hi Gonzalo, thank you for reaching out with your feedback! We really appreciate it! If your servers need help combining tickets - please reach out to customer service and we are happy to help!
