Kitchen & Waiter Floor
When a customer places an order, someone needs to prepare it, someone needs to deliver it, and someone needs to make sure nothing falls through the cracks. OKeep gives you dedicated tools for each of these roles -- so your kitchen staff, floor waiters, and managers all see exactly what they need.
How an Order Flows Through Your Restaurant
Every order follows the same path from customer to kitchen to pickup:
- Customer scans the QR code at a table, counter, or takeaway point and places an order from their phone
- The order instantly appears on the Kitchen Dashboard -- your kitchen staff sees what to prepare, with all items and options listed
- Kitchen staff prepares the order and marks it as "Ready for Pickup" with one tap
- The customer gets a notification on their phone that their order is ready
- A waiter or the customer picks up the order, and it gets marked as "Closed"
- Loyalty points are awarded automatically when the order is completed
This entire flow happens in real time -- there is no delay between the customer placing the order and your kitchen seeing it.
Orders enter the system as Preparing immediately. There is no approval or acceptance step. The moment a customer submits an order, your kitchen can start working on it.
Your Operational Tools
OKeep provides four tools that work together to cover the full order lifecycle. Each one is designed for a different role on your team.
Kitchen Dashboard
The Kitchen Dashboard is a full-screen, card-based display designed for the person preparing food or drinks. Mount it on a tablet or screen in your kitchen, and every new order appears as a large card with the item list, options, and a one-tap button to mark it as ready.
You can customize the dashboard with tabs and widgets -- for example, a coffee shop might have a "Bar" tab for drinks and a "Kitchen" tab for food, each showing only the relevant orders.
Best for: Cooks, baristas, or anyone at the preparation station.
Waiter Dashboard
The Waiter Dashboard gives your floor staff a bird's-eye view of every table and lobby in your restaurant. Each table appears as a color-coded card:
- Red -- urgent, needs immediate attention
- Yellow -- payment is waiting
- Orange -- orders are active and being prepared
- Green -- customers are connected but have not ordered yet
- Grey -- empty, no activity
From this screen, a waiter can open any table to see its orders, process payments, award loyalty points, or chat with the customer -- all without walking back to a terminal.
Best for: Floor staff, servers, and front-of-house managers.
Orders
The Orders page is a full table of every order your restaurant has received -- past and present. You can filter by status, search for specific orders, and handle edge cases like cancellations or refunds.
Unlike the Kitchen Dashboard (which focuses on what needs to be done right now), the Orders page gives you the complete picture. Use it to investigate issues, review daily totals, or find a specific customer's order from last Tuesday.
Best for: Managers, shift leads, or anyone handling order issues after the fact.
Chat
The Chat tool lets you communicate directly with customers who have placed orders. If a customer has a question about their order, needs to make a change, or wants to flag an issue, the conversation happens right inside the CRM.
Messages appear in real time, and you can see the customer's order context alongside the chat -- so you know exactly what they ordered when they write "can I switch to oat milk?"
Best for: Any staff member handling customer questions or special requests.
When to Use Which Tool
| Situation | Tool to use |
|---|---|
| Preparing food and drinks in the kitchen | Kitchen Dashboard |
| Managing tables and walking the floor | Waiter Dashboard |
| Looking up a past order or handling a complaint | Orders |
| A customer messages with a question about their order | Chat |
Most restaurants run the Kitchen Dashboard on a dedicated screen in the kitchen and give waiters access to the Waiter Dashboard on a tablet. Managers use the Orders page on a laptop when they need to dig into history or handle exceptions.
Quick Start
Ready to get started? Follow these guides:
- Set up the Kitchen Display -- configure your kitchen screen with tabs and widgets
- Use the Waiter Dashboard -- learn the lobby grid, color codes, and waiter actions
- Communicate with customers via Chat -- set up and use the real-time chat system
- Manage your order history -- filter, search, and take action on orders
Tips and Best Practices
- Dedicate a screen to the kitchen. A wall-mounted tablet running the Kitchen Dashboard means your kitchen staff never has to check a phone or ask "what's the next order?"
- Use dashboard tabs to split stations. If your restaurant has a bar and a kitchen, create separate tabs so each station only sees their own orders.
- Check the Waiter Dashboard colors at a glance. Red and yellow cards need attention first -- train your staff to scan for those colors.
- Use Chat proactively. If an item is out of stock, message the customer before they wonder why their order is taking long. A quick heads-up goes a long way.
- Review the Orders page at end of shift. A quick scroll through the day's orders helps catch anything that was missed or needs follow-up.
What's Next
- Order Statuses -- understand the full lifecycle of an order from Preparing to Closed
- Receiving Orders -- learn how orders arrive from QR codes, group orders, and manual entry
- Printers & Service Points -- set up the QR codes and service points that feed orders into your kitchen