Choosing a point of sale is a decision your team lives with every shift, so it deserves more than a glance at a feature list. Here’s what actually matters when you pick a restaurant POS, based on the service flows we design Garivio around.
Start with the busiest ten minutes
Any POS looks fine in a calm demo. The real question is how it behaves with a full room, a queue at the counter and three tickets landing at once. Before you commit, picture your worst rush and ask: how many taps to take an order? Can a new server read the screen at a glance? Does anything make you wait that doesn’t have to? A POS built for the rush — fast input, no dead ends, a clean screen — pays you back in covers, not features.
It has to keep working offline
Connections drop. Routers reboot. Someone unplugs the wrong thing mid-service. If your POS stops taking orders when the Wi-Fi does, it isn’t really built for a floor. Look for one that keeps taking orders and payments offline and syncs automatically when the connection returns — and ask specifically how it handles coming back online, because that’s the part most systems get wrong (lost orders, or duplicates).
Run it on hardware you already own
Some vendors sell a locked-in terminal with a locked-in margin. You don’t need that. A modern restaurant POS runs in the browser on the iPads, Android tablets or computers you already have, and works with ordinary receipt printers, kitchen printers and cash drawers. Hardware freedom keeps your upfront cost low and your options open.
Match it to how you actually serve
Dine-in with tables and tabs? Counter service with a queue? Takeaway and delivery? The POS should fit your service, not the other way round. Look for a live floor plan, table sessions, split bills (by item or evenly), a kitchen display or run board, and modifiers that are quick to add. If you run more than one service style, make sure it does all of them without bolt-ons.
Check what’s included — not just the headline
The register is the baseline; the difference is the operation around it. A guest QR menu, gift cards, a customer-facing display, and live reporting with a Z-report during the shift can change the day-to-day rhythm of the venue. Ask what’s in the base product and what’s a paid add-on — the answer tells you how you’ll really be billed.
Watch the contract, not just the price
The cheapest sticker can hide the most expensive deal. Red flags: long lock-in periods; per-terminal fees that punish you for getting busier; a setup fee to load your own menu; or a cut of every sale. Fair is simple — try before you pay, add terminals as you grow, and leave if it isn’t working.
Test it on a real service
The only test that counts is a real one. A good vendor lets you start a free trial with no card — Garivio gives you a full 1 month — and run real shifts before you decide. Load your menu, set your floor, take real orders. If it survives your Friday night, it’ll survive the rest.
That’s exactly how we built Garivio POS — for the rush, offline-first, on the hardware you already own, with the QR menu included and no lock-in. See Garivio POS, or book a 20-minute walkthrough and we’ll set it up live in the browser, with your menu.