Questions
The questions owners ask before they say yes.
Straight answers, written for how the product works. Where an answer depends on a decision we've made, we say what the decision is.
- Do guests need to download an app?
- No. The QR code opens the menu in the phone's browser, the same way any web link does. There is no app to install, no account to create and no email address to hand over before ordering.
- What if a guest doesn't want to order from a phone?
- A member of staff takes their order the way they always have and enters it on the guest's behalf. It reaches the kitchen exactly like a phone order, so the kitchen can't tell the difference and the table's bill stays in one place.
- What hardware do I need? Do I need a tablet in the kitchen?
- Nothing to buy from us. The console runs in a browser, so the kitchen display works on any tablet, laptop or wall screen you already have, and the take-payment queue works on the same. QR codes print from the browser onto ordinary card. Guests use their own phones.
- Does it work with my POS?
- It runs alongside it. Gilded Plate takes over the part of service where a guest reads the menu, orders and pays at the table or the window, and sends card payments to your own Square or Stripe account; your POS keeps doing the register, inventory, payroll and reporting. There is nothing to integrate and nothing to migrate — the menu you build here lives here, and your existing setup carries on untouched.
- How this compares with a POS add-on →
- Which payment processors? Do I keep my own account?
- Square or Stripe — your own account, connected to Gilded Plate — plus Apple Pay and Google Pay. Every card payment settles into your account directly. We never hold your guests' money, and a card number never reaches our servers; the processor's own checkout form handles it.
- How payments and data are handled →
- Do you take a percentage of orders?
- No. There is no commission on orders. We don't publish a price list: early clients get preferential rates held as we grow, and you know what you'll pay before you owe anything. Your processor's card fees are paid to the processor as they would be for any card sale — they are not ours and we don't mark them up.
- Can guests pay cash?
- Yes. A guest can choose to pay at the counter instead of by card. Their order waits in a Take payment queue until someone on your team takes the money and enters what was handed over — the change owed is worked out for them — and only then does it reach the kitchen. Cash is a per-location setting, so a dining room can take card only while the counter takes both.
- What about tips, tax and service charges?
- Tax is applied by jurisdiction and by class of item — so a bottle of wine and a bowl of soup can carry different rates — and tips and service charges are added to the guest's total the way you configure them. The guest sees the full breakdown before they pay.
- Is there a contract or lock-in?
- No lock-in. Your payment account is yours and can be disconnected from Settings at any time, and your menu and order history are yours to take with you. Early access is an invitation and a conversation; the terms of service say the rest, in plain language.
- Read the terms of service
- Who owns my menu and order data, and can I export it?
- You do. Settings › Export data takes a copy of everything your restaurant holds, whenever you like: menus, orders, payments, staff and photographs. If you end your plan, the restaurant stays yours in the console for 60 days, then is locked for 60 more while you can still ask us for a copy, and is then deleted outright rather than archived. Nothing in the product is designed to make leaving hard.
- How payments and data are handled →
- What happens if the wifi drops mid-service?
- Guests' phones use their own data or your wifi. A cart that was mid-order is kept on our servers for the whole visit and is exactly where the guest left it when they reconnect. The kitchen board refreshes itself when the connection returns, and checks every thirty seconds regardless. Card payment needs a connection at the moment of paying; cash does not.
- How payments and data are handled →
- Is it only for table service?
- No. A location can run in counter mode instead: one QR code at the counter or the window, every order gets a daily order number, the guest pays by card or in cash at the counter, and their phone tells them when it's ready. Food trucks, coffee bars and quick-service counters run this way.
- How it works for food trucks and counters →
- How long does setup take, and who does it?
- We do it with you. Creating the restaurant, its menu, tables and QR codes is a few screens each, and connecting your payment account is a sign-in that takes a minute. For early clients we sit down and get it all in place together rather than handing you a signup form; how long that takes depends mostly on the size of your menu.
- What does "early access" mean, and how long is the wait?
- Setting up a restaurant on Gilded Plate is invite-only. Joining the waitlist puts you in line; it doesn't create an account, and anyone can create one of those at any time — the invite is what lets an account set up a restaurant. We onboard a few restaurants at a time, by hand, and get in touch personally when it's your turn. Telling us what kind of place you run and how many locations helps us decide whom to invite first.
Ask us the one we missed.
Request early access and tell us about your place. We answer in person.
Request early access