Square Restaurant POS Reviews
As one of the most comprehensive point-of-sale systems for quick-service restaurants out there, Square For Restaurants is in high demand.
But is this feature-rich restaurant POS system the best option for your specific needs?
Today, we're going to dive in and take a look at whether or not Square for Restaurants has what it takes to run your operation successfully and efficiently.
What Is Square For Restaurants?
Square for Restaurants is an all-in-one point-of-sale system for dining establishments. This unique bundle comes with an iPad kitchen display system and online ordering capabilities, making it perfect for quick-service restaurants.
With its intuitive and ultra-functional design, Square for Restaurants has remained on-brand compared to the company's other offerings. Even if you only have limited knowledge of iPads, you'll be able to use Square for Restaurants with ease.
Square POS For Restaurants - Price
Square for Restaurants has a pricing platform that is clear and tier-based. You'll find three separate tiers in Square's pricing, including:
Note that you will also have to pay for payment processing with a Square POS plan. For the Free plan and Plus plan, you will pay 2.6% + $0.10 for every swipe, tap, or dip. When it comes to orders placed through Square online or QR code ordering, you will pay a 2.9% + $0.30 processing fee.
Square payments accept cash, cards, and contactless payment options, such as Google Pay and Apple Pay.
The Premium plan has custom payment processing rates. Visit Square POS System Cost to learn more.
For a more in-depth look at pricing for best POS systems on the market today, make sure to click the button below. Our free service will provide you with price quotes directly from providers in your area.
Features and Benefits
Square For Restaurants has all of the features you would expect from a quality restaurant POS system. To help you select a plan that's right for you, we'll point out the benefits of each tier different tiers that Square offers.
Square For Restaurants Free Plan
Square Kitchen Display System
As one of the best POS systems for small business, the Square For Restaurants Free plan comes with an integrated kitchen display system that uses an iPad. But it is worth noting that you will need to pay $10 per month per kitchen display system device.
This quality kitchen display system includes real-time order updates, ticket routing, timers, and much more. You can also sync up multiple devices with this system to create kitchen performance reports.
Split Tender
More than one form of tender can be used for a single check. For example, one customer can pay with a mixture of cash, check, and card. With Split Tender, customers can also split the bill across several credit cards.
Open Checks
Customers can add more items to their check by keeping their tab open. Repeating and editing items is also easy with the Open Check function.
Inventory Management
You'll find a few basic inventory management features in the free tier, such as inventory alerts and auto-86 functions.
Tableside Ordering
Using the Square Terminal, iPad, or other tablet compatible with Square, you can provide tableside ordering and payment processing. It's important to note that the Square Terminal was not built to manage all of the features specific to restaurants, including auto-gratuity, seat-tracking, coursing, and conversational modifiers.
Online Ordering
Every Square account comes with a free online ordering page that is mobile-optimized. This website allows customers to make orders online for pickup and delivery, which is perfect for restaurants supporting contactless in-person dining. The online ordering feature also allows for QR code ordering.
Delivery App Integration
Beyond the fact that customers can place orders online, you can also use third-party delivery apps in your Square for Restaurants POS system, which is great if you don't have delivery capabilities yourself.
Every delivery order made through these third-party apps is sent to the kitchen display system along with your other orders.
Beyond these features, you'll also find:
Square For Restaurants Plus
In the Square for Restaurants Plus and Premium plans, you'll find all of the same features that come with the Free plan. It is important to note that you'll need to use an iPad if you want to take advantage of all of the features for Square for Restaurants, as the Square Register does not support all of the features found on the Plus and Premium plans.
With that said, here are some of the main advanced features of Square for Restaurants Plus:
Advanced Table Management
This bundle of features allows you to create custom floor plans and see individual table status using the intuitive color-coded timer system. With a simple tap, you can assign checks to each table.
We all know how much of a headache splitting checks at the same table can be. But Square's advanced table management makes life easy. You and your employees can track orders by seat, and when the time comes to split checks, you'll know exactly who ordered what.
Advanced Reporting and Analytics
The reporting is far more robust on the Plus plan than on the Free plan. Beyond the regular reports, you can also check the types of discounts customers are receiving and see the amount that those discounts are worth.
You can also quickly review labor costs and set up individual modifiers for a more zoomed-in, granular view of your restaurant. Standard reports include the "live sales" view, the close-of-day analytics, and shift reports.
Course Management
Full-service restaurants that work in the higher echelon often need to plot out how their courses will come out. With the course management system, you can check the status of each customer's meal at the table and track how long customers have been at their table.
Employee Management
Employee management features are more far-reaching on the Square for Restaurants POS system Plus plan. For starters, each employee gets their own passcodes, to which you can assign various permissions. Essentially, different employees can get different levels of access.
You can also cut back on fraud using this system to track voids, review per-labor hourly reports, look at employee sales reports, and see which of your employees is a top seller to reward them.
We love the fact that management can detect suspicious activity using this portion of this system, such as recording cash drawer openings.
Unlimited Kitchen Display System Devices
The Plus plan offers unlimited KDS devices without any extra charge, perfect for larger kitchens or full-service restaurants.
Beyond these main features of the Square for Restaurants Plus plan, other notable features include:
Square For Restaurants Premium
The Square for Restaurants Premium plan is great for restaurants with multiple locations. You get everything that you would expect from the Free and Plus plans, as well as a few more advanced features, including:
Square Loyalty
Square Loyalty takes the tried and true concept of a punch card and amps it up. You can set up a custom loyalty program that gels with your business model to keep customers coming back with incentives, discounts, and rewards.
Square Marketing
To this day, email marketing is one of the most cost-effective forms of marketing for businesses, thanks to its versatile design and low-cost setup. The Square for Restaurants Premium Plan offers Square Marketing, which provides a wide range of email marketing tools for restaurants to take advantage of.
Some of the major Square Marketing features include:
Square Payroll
Square's cloud-based payroll software offers a wide range of helpful payroll tools, including tax support, PTO, benefits, direct deposit, and more. This simple system offers a simple way to streamline your timecards, payroll, and sales.
Compared to other similar POS software, the Square for Restaurants Square Payroll system is incredibly easy to use, perfect for full-service restaurants and other mid-sized restaurant businesses.
Third-Party Add-Ons and Integrations
It's worth noting that the Square app marketplace is very diverse, allowing you to fill in the gaps of your Square plan to fit the needs of your business. For example, Square for Restaurants can connect with Deliverect, DoorDash, Postmates, Chowly, GrubHub, and UberEats. If your restaurant does not have delivery capabilities, these third-party delivery integrations can be very helpful.
You'll also find a number of integrations on the app marketplace for customer loyalty features, employee management features, order management features, and much more. Square's open API is great for those who want to enterprise and create a new third-party app for their needs.
While there are many to list, some of the most popular Square for Restaurants integrations include:
Complaints and Limitations
Limited Inventory Management Features
Though the Square for Restaurants POS system includes features for basic inventory tracking, it does not have the capability to track raw ingredients. If your restaurant needs raw ingredient tracking, you will have to install, integrate, and potentially pay for a third-party add-on.
Customer Service Issues
There have been a few notable customer service drawbacks with Square for Restaurants. With a customer code, you can get live technical support with one of the company's 24/7 agents. However, there are several customer reviews noting that the support offered by these live agents isn't the most helpful.
Many customers choose to use the troubleshooting resources found on Square's website.
Fund Holds
When Square deems a transaction fraudulent, it will place an immediate hold on funds. Not only does Square for Restaurants not provide any notice when placing a hold on funds, but it can also take quite a while to resolve these issues.
For just about any vendor, this can be extremely frustrating.
Lack of Front-of-House Features
The FOH features found on Square for Restaurants are far less adequate than other mid-sized POS system options for restaurants.
TouchBistro is a high-end POS system for restaurants that can manage more complex establishments than Square for Restaurants.
For example, TouchBistro keeps track of loyal customers so your business can provide them with the best personal experience.
As an inventory management feature, TouchBistro takes note of special occasions and allergies when customers make reservations.
The reporting and analytics available on TouchBistro are some of the most in-depth on the market.
You can get access to more than 50 reports using this POS software.
Visit TouchBistro POS reviews for more information.
Toast has a wide range of POS software and POS hardware that is built specifically for restaurants.
For example, the company's kitchen display system is meant to withstand grease and high heat that is often found in kitchen environments, while the Square POS system hardware and Square Stand rely on the durability of an iPad.
Still, Toast's handheld device is very slim, perfect for those restaurants taking advantage of tableside ordering.
Learn more at our Toast POS reviews guide.
Final Verdict
Though Square for Restaurants has incorporated a few more complex elements from the time of its inception, it has managed to remain one of the most intuitive and user-friendly restaurant POS solutions on the market.
If you need highly advanced features, such as the ability to track raw ingredients, Square for Restaurants might not be the best point-of-sale system for you.
Of course, Square for Restaurants does have the ability to integrate with several third-party apps, filling voids in the Square point-of-sale system functionality.
Of course, these additional apps will increase the cost of using this system, which kind of takes away from the incredible value that the system initially presents itself with.
From online ordering to delivery integrations to built-in payment processing, Square for Restaurants delivers a lot. And with the initial free plan, it's hard to beat.
Overall, if you're running a quick-service restaurant business, such as a small café, coffee shop, or food truck, we highly recommend using Square for Restaurants.
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Tyler Connaghan
Contributing Author
