Maitre'D vs. TouchBistro

Maitre'd is probably best suited for smaller chains where recurring monthly expenses need to be reduced and a cloud model is not a fit. It would most likely thrive for companies with 8 or less locations. If deployed to multiple locations, I would recommend having an inhouse IT department familiar with the product or a very reliable reseller because the product can be finicky from time to time.

Incentivized

For a small business like ours, it works very well, is very user friendly, but the cost to add more tablets so that we can keep one at the bar, one on the interior dining area and one on the outside dining area is difficult as they have to be iPads, and there is an additional cost to add another tablet for use on the floor

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• Very fast transaction times; I do not need to wait for the credit slip printer to respond, it is almost instantaneous.
• I can add, delete, or modify menu items on the fly and in real time in literally a handful of seconds.
• TouchBistro provides an intuitive and easy way to check my tasting room’s metrics in real time from anywhere on the globe.
• My employees are able to access a customized menu of item modifiers and discounts very quickly and easily.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• Online ordering can not be added on to once the customer arrives, can’t edit or change anything once placed
• Slow speed to place next order, and syncing with debit machines
• Frustrating that screen needs to be closed until payment goes through, hard in a very busy restaurant
• New updates always cause glitches in the system. The last update I now have drinks printing to my kitchen that never did before.
• Admin and servers not being able to do printouts
• Discounts not displaying on day printouts

Incentivized

It's an incredibly easy system to navigate both from a management perspective as well as a service member perspective.Training, programming items and inventory, day to day sales, processing payments, gathering reports and data, gift card sales and processing (with the exception of online for us) is easy and seamless.

First of all, I hardly ever need support for Touch Bistro, that’s how well it works. In the very instances over the years where I did need to call, customer support was easily accessible and fast and accurate with their responses

Incentivized

The sales support and service was the deciding factor for me choosing Maitre'D.

Incentivized

Toast overall was a very impressive system. However being new to Canada I was hesitant to sign. Clover worked well with payment processing but was not a great system for sales and service. Square would repeatedly crash and miss payments, their customer service was terrible and took too much effort to have any corrective assistance. We went with TouchBistro because in all the restaurants I have worked in this has been a consistent system and was able to integrate with Moneris payments.

• 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.

Incentivized

• The consistency of ordering with Touch Bistro has aged me money! From the customer to the person who takes the order to the person who makes the order and then back to the customer we have less room for error with Touch Bistro.
• It can be slow during large volume times, especially if a lot of my customers are laying with credit cards or gift cards.

Incentivized