Likelihood to Recommend For a small company with little inventory, Lavu is a great simple POS system. For a larger company or a company where items are always changing, I would not recommend Lavu as more transactions increases room for error and ultimately takes away the time one doesn't have to figure out how to reconcile something. Customer service is not always able to fix the problem right away and can take months getting back to you on the reasoning behind a discrepancy in reports.
Read full review Maitre'D is great in a shop where multiple terminals are needed. Servers and Bartenders can use any terminal they are near (there are some exceptions, but that is up to the location to make terminals tied to people or not). On the other hand, a small single terminal shop would be a good fit for Maitre'D, there are much less expensive options for the smaller need.
Read full review Pros The Lavu system is incredibly easy to use in both front and back of house operations. The format of both sides is very intuitive. Lavu makes it very easy to add real life application to teaching inventory control, schedule control, etc. The fact that it is cloud based makes life much easier. I can make changes on the fly and they update very quickly. Read full review Maitre'd allows us to use their Broadcaster module to push product and pricing updates to all five of our regions, simplifying product rollout and updates. The program is versatile and allows for integration with loyalty and online ordering systems, however that does require some advanced technical knowledge to properly execute. The program is easy to learn from a cashier and management standpoint, new hires can get up to speed quickly which helps minimize required training time and ultimately labor hours. Read full review Cons Split check credit card transactions, seem to have issues with some of the checks not closing out properly or being charged correctly Servers being allowed to run server summary even though they have unpaid checks (not supposed to happen) Have had the system go out on a weekend and took 20 plus minutes to get back online Calling the help desk on the weekend is a joke, takes 45 to 90 minutes to get help Read full review Maitre'D could make better use of pick lists, especially when it comes to the delivery and take-out orders. The interface is out-dated and feels awkward and needlessly cumbersome. When a problem (bug) is discovered, I would like to see better and more rapid response from the company. Major improvements are slow to happen. I am on the same major version as I started with 7 years ago and I believe there are customers still using the prior version. This seems like too long for a company to allow old versions to live and must force them to support too many different variations. This situation has to detract from the company to develop new and better capabilities. Access to raw data is not possible, custom reports are not available. I consider this a major drawback. Entering a lot of new items, or changing a lot of item information is painful. Changes are made item by item, no bulk edits. For example, let's say I want to increase the price of beer by $1 and I have 50 types of beers, I will need to modify 50 individual items, that is easily more than an hour's work. Read full review Alternatives Considered Square has a simpler interface but lower quality reporting for accountants.
Read full review We have been on various versions of Maitre'd for about ten years now and came from conventional cash registers. Maitre'd obviously added tremendous value in that situation. As far as looking to the future goes, we have compared Maitre'd to various competitors and found our biggest knock on it is they haven't moved to a cloud model yet.
Read full review Return on Investment LAVU has fit perfectly into both the business and teaching usage areas for me. I feel I got an extra return on investment. Read full review My shop needs a POS to operate efficiently. We are too large to go manual, there would be way too many mistakes. Maitre'D is a good choice for our need. The Berg liquor pouring control system has a native interface into Maitre'D and our return on investment was 4 or 5 months. Read full review ScreenShots