TouchBistro Reviews

Pros

The TouchBistro POS system is a very easy to use. I don't find myself to be the best at POS systems, but the setup process was basically idiot-proof. Getting everything to work took way less time than I anticipated. Also, I have yet to see this POS system crash, even during busy hours.

Cons

Sometimes there can be a little lag when putting in certain orders. It seems like the POS system is sometimes just trying to play catch up with itself. We have noticed that moving from page to page oftentimes will slow it down. We have learned to not click as quickly now though.

Pros

User friendly, great tech support, does a lot.

Cons

Need training to buyers, better then they give. There’s video you can watch, but hands on learning is much better. You have to pay for each service, other POS’s the services come with it. Expert to have more then 1 bill….

Pros

I thought this would have a better interface than what I had been using. And while it is a little sexier and the touchscreen is handy, but those small benefits our out weighed by the other problems with their lack of competent support and other functionality.

Cons

The biggest problem is that they oversold and under delivered. They told me that all my current printers would work with their requirements. Opps get ready to go live, go live and then find out you have to purchase a $350 printer bc your visa printer isn't "actually compatible" after all. Print all of your visa slips to a boh printer and run to the kitchen to retrieve them for a week while the new printer arrives- so much fun!!! They didn't explain that each device must have it's own Moby Visa device, no problem, that's only about $200+ to get another one of those. Sales person sold me on how they set up your menu, oh not that costs $800, even the promotional video they sent says the same thing.

It is not reliable, there are constant glitches in the system. They roll out updates with out thoroughly testing them. I'm not paying them $120 per month to be QA for their shitty updates. The interface with the Mobi CC machine from Chase it completely intermittent. For at least half the transactions of the day, you have to send the info to the machine twice bc it automatically craps out an error on you. During one painful update, the system stopped communicating our visa terminals altogether. Really fun to ask customer if I can write down their info and run it later, that didn't make us look ghetto or anything.

Alternatives Considered

Toast POS

Reasons for Choosing TouchBistro

Because the Sapphire system was not very user friendly and had limitations that we were constantly trying to work around. It looks like an old dos program from 1999, for the most part.

Reasons for Switching to TouchBistro

They start up cost was supposed to be much cheaper.

Pros

I love that it is so easy to navigate through my menu. Payment options are made simple and easy for the employees and customers. You don’t need to be tech savvy to understand how the program works so it’s great for all age employees.

Cons

Sometimes it takes a while to reach support

Pros

The ease of switching over from our old system to the TB system

Cons

Nothing . Everything works exactly they way we wanted .

Pros

The functionality of the POS with our iPad minis for order taking is great, and saves our staff time that was traditionally reserved for having to go directly to a work station.

Cons

Reporting is horrific. Daily reports do not provide all information needed (comps, promos, takeout vs. dine in totals,etc.) and also does not subtract cash payouts from total cash on report. When creating EOM reports, we have to look at 5-7 separate reports to get all the data needed.Labor reports do not consolidate tip reporting with labor, nor does it populate total earned for each employee with different job types/rates of pay. I had to create my own spreadsheet so our accountant can actually navigate our payroll.When trying to drill down numbers for a certain menu item and create an Excel report, it will not let you isolate. Onboarding is horrendous. The training materials provided are cursory at best, and support is minimal. We had to figure out how to use the system through trial and error, and I had to write a user's manual for our staff myself. What was promised as functionality/support by the sales team turned out to be patently false.Since the second to last TouchBistro software update, we have had a total breakdown on payment processing with our iPad Minis and V400m. I have called to work this out I think 6 times now? It is still an issue and no one has any answers. The V400m freezes, does not connect to the iPad, cancels payment, takes double payments, and a whole myriad of other issues. Nightmare is putting it gently. All systems are updated and WiFi connectivity is perfect. DO NOT USE WE PAY OR CHASE AT ANY COST!There's so much more that is awful.

Alternatives Considered

Heartland Restaurant and Toast POS

Reasons for Choosing TouchBistro

Our Aloha system was no longer supported.

Switched From

Aloha Cloud

Reasons for Switching to TouchBistro

Oh, you know, the song and dance. Which turned out to be Cats or Xandau the films instead of Singin' in the Rain or Cabaret.

Pros

SO easy to use - programming buttons, menus, integrating payment, splitting bills - everything about it is so easy

Cons

In person set up would have been alot easier but that's the only con I can think of

Pros

Touchbistro is capable for sure as it has all the features, but is a bit awkward to use. We have to integrate several apps to get what we need and of course each one cost more money.

Cons

Support is not great. There are way way too many touches involved in a purchase or we have it set up all wrong! We suggested that to support, but no action. The different menu pages, items, etc are not intuitively set up. It honestly does not make sense in so many ways.

Pros

The most impactful feature is the ability to use an IPAD to service guest at their tables. TouchBistro is easy to use with the ability to send orders to our Kitchen staff eliminating paper orders.

Cons

There are no Cons using TouchBistro, integrated easily with our business processes.

Pros

online access from remote allows me to stay on top of my business when not in town

Cons

there are some reporting details I would like to see more details on

Pros

The idea behind it it's great, if it were to actually work as it should.

Cons

Our team is hating that we changed the POS because this one is so slow and gives them connectivity issues daily. We were sold a product that does not actually operates as they tell you it would.
- You can not restrict servers from opening someone else's table unless you assigned sections. Seriously?
- You can not use the main iPad to try to input a reservation because the second iPad won't work unless the main iPad is on the TouchBistro app? lol are you serious?
- The integration of TouchBistro POS with TouchBistro reservations system that I was told was gonna make everything so smooth is a complete joke. As I said, you can not try to take a reso or waitlist with the main iPad. You basically need an iPad that's gonna sit there and look pretty but not be used for anything beside clocking in/out, otherwise it will compromise the entire operation.
- The payment integration is ridiculously slow (when it actually works) but it has only worked a couple of times and the rest of the time gives an "error connection". It's a brilliant idea, if it were to actually function.

Pros

The first year went well! I actually liked it.
Then according to their own tech support.. the company took on way too many customers than programmers or tech support could keep up with creating a domino effect of pure frustration and no support.

Cons

Many issues.
Tech support is hit or miss sometimes can take up to an hour get someone. Often they can not fix problem. They "escalate it" which means you will never hear back from them. Remote report app for phone rarely works and full of problems. If its a hardware issue no phone tech support. Have to email and wait for email which takes days.
Would not recomend.

Pros

The system seems like it should be great. The loyalty options seem great. They problem is they lie about features and the onboarding support is basically zero. To quote the onboarding rep, "As soon as you process your first transaction, my job is done". It doesn't matter that over 80% of the features aren't working and we don't have any online menu working, once one transaction is processed, you are on your own.

Cons

At this point, I have personally spent over 200 hours of my time to get this system running and I have 50% of the system running at one store and 25% at another. The system has zero support for multi-units and everything has to be repeated numerous times to make any changes. For example, for two stores, every change has to be done 4 times: 1 for instore, 1 for online and then the exact same changes again for any other location, every with the exact same menu. This is a terrible system for multi-units.

Pros

I can use a manager card (qr code) instead of a manager code to override manager funcions. You can choose what credit card merchant you want to use.

Cons

You can do very little from home. You will get glued to the restaurant. It only has one "admin" code so two people can not work on programming, setting up or doing anything at the same time. You can in a very limited way change menu items online. Any payroll issues, major menu changes, adding staff etc, you have to be in the restaurant, on the Ipad, on the same wifi as the "brain". Forget owning more than one restaurant or go on vacation, nothing can be done remotely. Even the reports is bad and you have to be at the restaurant to pull anything. I easy spent 20 hour online, on the phone just to set up such a basic thing as gift cards and that's an additional cost. I can still to to this day not log in to my merchant account to match deposits with my account. Nothing is user-friendly so to try to train any staff that is not a computer engineer is impossible, so again, you have to drive to the store any hours of the day to solve an issue.

Pros

Ease of use with menu items, modifiers, etc

Cons

When an update about 2 years ago made every IPAD in the building unusable, and there was no way to undo the update. Made my restaurant not have a POS for 4 days while i waited to find 8 new IPADS, a new Mac Mini, and 8 new IPAD stands. There were emails sent about the update but they went into the clutter/junk folders\...WHERE WAS THE PHONE CALL??????????????????????????????????????????????? ANd then the sad "here is 3 months of free touchbistro". This cost us thousands of dollars in new equipment, lost sales/transaction, and man hours. It also meant that for 4 days every employee had their worst days ever in the building, hand writing orders, hand delivering order to the kitchen, hand writing CC orders, tax, reciepts, etc (many payments didn't end up going through either)

Pros

I love the inventory tracking that is available with this POS system. That being said, it does take ALOT of ingredient entry and programming on your end but it is worth it! I also think their customer service is great! We have a direct email contact and Monday through Friday you can logon to their website and chat with an associate.

Cons

I am used to a lot of other POS systems so this just took getting used to. I definitely referenced their "How to step by step" references for a few items. I had to figure out some work arounds in order to account for all inventory. For example, in past systems I've used, if I rang up a shot of Jim Beam bourbon, there was a modifier button for 'Double Shot' and it would automatically deduct $2.00 off the second shot and account for the inventory. In TouchBistro my option was a discount code with a custom modifier that I type in, but it wouldn't account for the inventory, so I had to add a separate menu for 'Double Shots' which wasn't the worst thing but again, a lot of time.

Pros

One of the only restaurant POS systems that has a search function for servers. 5 stars for the ability to hold credit card information for tabs. Backend menu and employee management is the simplest I have ever used. Very user friendly and intuitive. New features and products are being rolled out often and TouchBistro was very supportive of their restaurant partners through Covid.

Cons

Creating and managing the floor plan is incredibly difficult and could be improved. Reporting and analytics are somewhat lacking and something I would like to see improved to be more in-depth and easier to access more information.

Pros

Dashboard and cloud reporting. ease of use.

Cons

Technical support seems to be overwhelmed and you can rarely connect with them when you need them most. They try to get back to you within 24 hours, but in most cases that's too long and have significant impact on our business.

Pros

We had a great, helpful sales contact. Unfortunately, once we were turned over to their overall automated system for deployment of the software, we couldn't continue to work with them. At one point, they canceled our account without authorization.

Cons

We signed an agreement that would allow us a refund of more than $2,000 if we didn't want to continue using Touch Bistro. I've been trying to contact them for months for a refund, and have been ignored by their sales contact and their customer service line. We are having to hire a lawyer just to get our refund (even though the contract specifies we could get refunded.)

Pros

Ease of touching, direct sending to kitchen, really a great system, just a few things could make it better and easier

Cons

Some function are not easy to understand...Don't like having to try and figure them out....need a code set up that is not a login code of a manager that is just for discounts....also a tab that is one touch for takeout and delivery displayed at the top with the name would be good...so it one touch check out for them...also bar tabs should print the customers name, so when a bar tab customer decides to order food the chit in kitchen has their name on in and not just "bar Tab"

Pros

It is super easy to fill your menu in and start using. There is high possibility your crew is familiar with it and if anything goes wrong just call the support and they gonna help you.

Cons

Some features needs extra clicks and attention, like updating menu, photos and prices etc. it is not a daily task, but would be nice to make edits on better ui.

Pros

Simple interface.
Price Point of monthly subscription.

Cons

Once you buy in, you are VERY low priority for them. it takes weeks to hear back by email and hours to connect on the support line. This is all before even attempting to trouble shoot your issues.
Dev Team launches updates that arnt tested and working thoroughly. Wish i chose a different system off the bat.

Pros

When I started my business, the company that ran the POS system I inherited gave me trouble 24 hours before I opened. In stepped TouchBistro. They went above and beyond to have me up and running in time for my opening. I have never seen support they offered from another company. Their customer service was second to none.
On top of that, the system is so easy to use. I set up my menu from scratch, in a rush, the night before opening. Training staff on it is a breeze as well.

Cons

There isn't much to complain about. It would be nice to be able to adjust the menu remotely but they're constantly upgrading the features available via cloud, so I'm sure that's on the horizon as well.

Pros

It’s so easy to use. And the supper team is constantly ready to help. We use it for our restaurant and coulld imagine it without it.

Cons

There are sometimes too many features when all you need is the basics, all of the options can be overwhelming.

Pros

It's easy to use. That's it. it is intuitive enough to use which lulls you into a false sense of security at first because as with any product you are bound to run into problems and then who do you call? No one! You would think the people who sold you the product would be happy to stand by their product and help you out. Negative they don't do diddly.

Cons

They don't answer the phone. You will note that I titled this review non- existent customer service because they simply do not answer the phone, call you back... NOTHING. The few phone calls they have returned they tend to call at noon, as in lunch time. lunch time would be a good time for them to take lunch not to contact a restaurant.