Odoo restaurant setup: what it covers and what to add

Owners searching for an odoo restaurant setup are usually asking one of two questions. Either they already run Odoo for accounting and want to know whether the same system can run the dining room, or somebody has recommended it and they want to know what they are taking on. This page answers both in plain terms, then explains the part that sits outside any counter system: how a customer places the order in the first place.

Nothing here is a complaint about Odoo. Every fact about it is taken from Odoo's own pages.

What Odoo covers in a restaurant

Odoo is business software made of separate applications that share one database. Accounting, stock, purchasing, staff records and the shop counter are all modules of the same system, which is why finance people like it.

For a dining room, the restaurant part of its point of sale is where the work happens. Odoo's own page describes a real-time floorplan so staff can see which tables need attention, a preparation display that tells the kitchen what to make and when, with separate displays possible for the kitchen and the bar, and split bills and tips. It also states that payments taken while the internet is down are synchronised once the connection returns. On pricing, the same page says one application is free permanently with hosting and support included, and that adding further applications is paid.

Its documentation goes further into the day to day, listing floors and tables with live occupancy, order transfer between tables, courses within one order, kitchen order printing, bill splitting and receipt printing, along with different tax treatment for eating in and taking away.

That is a serious set of tools for a restaurant with a floor, waiters and a counter. If your problem is a busy dining room and a finance team that wants everything in one ledger, this is the shape of software you are looking at.

The part a counter system does not solve

A counter system starts working when the customer is already standing in front of it, or when a member of staff types in a call. It answers a question that begins inside the building.

Most orders now begin outside it. Someone sees your food on a phone, wants to order, and needs a page to order from. That page, the messages that follow it, and the driver who has to find the flat are a different job. This is where Get Menu sits, and it is deliberately not an ERP.

Your restaurant gets an ordering page on an address of its own on getmenu.ae, included in every plan. There are 12 page layouts to pick from, plus colour themes and a font, so the page looks like your restaurant instead of a template. Photographs are compressed as they upload so the page stays quick on a phone.

Menus are built once and then edited in seconds. If yours already exists in a spreadsheet, upload it and the whole list appears rather than being typed. Options and add-ons carry their own prices, and any choice can be made a required one, so nothing reaches the kitchen half-described. Item names can be written in Arabic.

Where the order goes

When a customer confirms, every line is priced again from the live menu, so the total on the screen is the total they pay. A repeated tap cannot create a second order.

Three messages then leave within about 2 seconds. The customer receives a confirmation and a link to a status page needing no login. The managers' group receives the ticket. For a delivery, the riders' group receives a dispatch link carrying the GPS pin the customer set at checkout, and a driver can open it without an account or an install.

Live stock counts sit under the menu. A count drops as orders arrive, an item turns itself grey at zero, and the counts run at option level too, so one sauce running out does not close a whole dish. Cancel an order and everything it held comes back.

"I have spent years teaching people to use web tools, and the pattern never changes. Software gets used when nobody has to be trained on it. A kitchen at seven in the evening has no spare hour, so the order has to arrive somewhere the staff are already looking." — Tanzeel ur Rehman, co-founder of Get Menu

Inside the room, and after the meal

Dine-in is handled with a QR code on every table, generated for you. A designer puts your own colours on the printed code, and the print pack arrives by email ready for a print shop. The table is the address, so the ticket knows where it came from without anyone typing a number. A table of six can each order from their own phone and still get a single bill at the end.

Delivery fees are set per building rather than per zone, which matters in a city of towers. The customer picks the building and unit from a list you maintain, and you can make delivery free above a total you choose.

Afterwards, loyalty runs itself. Stamps can be earned per order, per dirham, or only on one dish you want to move. Regulars grow into tiers, and a tier can carry a discount that applies without anyone remembering. The card sits in Google Wallet and updates itself, with no application to install; the Apple version is built and waiting on a certificate.

Promotions are switched on one at a time: coupons with caps, exclusions and expiry dates, bundles at a fixed price, and ten kinds of upsell. Two automatic discounts never combine by accident, because the better one wins. Tax invoices are produced as a PDF carrying your registration number in one unbroken run of numbers, and the sales dashboard shows what sold by day, item and channel.

Running both, or running one

These are not rival answers to the same question, and plenty of restaurants will use a full system for the books and something separate for the ordering page.

If you are weighing that up, ERP systems for restaurants explains what an all-in-one platform involves, restaurant management software covers the middle ground, and online ordering systems for restaurants covers the ordering side on its own.

The honest summary is this. A restaurant with several floors, table service and a finance department has real reasons to want one database for everything. A five-table cafe, a home kitchen or a delivery-only unit usually needs its customers to be able to order, its kitchen to see the order, and its driver to find the door.

What Get Menu does not do

There are no online payments. Payment is cash or your card machine at the door, so no card details are stored anywhere in the system. There is no scheduled ordering and no pre-order. We do not sell hardware, count ingredients by weight, run payroll or take reservations. We are not an accounting system, which is exactly why an Odoo user might keep both.

Pricing is one flat monthly amount with 0 percent taken from sales, so a strong month costs you nothing extra. Your customer list is yours to export on any day, and the details on an order older than 120 days are cleared automatically. A new account is free to use for 15 days and no card is needed to open one.

Frequently asked questions

Can Odoo and Get Menu be used together?

Yes. They answer different questions. Odoo runs the counter and the back office; Get Menu gives customers a page to order from and puts the order into your WhatsApp groups. Nothing about one prevents the other.

Does Get Menu do accounting or stock purchasing?

No. It tracks stock counts on the items and options you sell, so a sold-out dish greys itself out, and it produces tax invoices as PDFs. Ledgers, purchase orders and supplier accounts belong in a system like Odoo.

Can customers pay online?

No, not through Get Menu. Payment is cash or a card machine when the order is handed over. That is a real limitation, and it also means there is nothing sensitive stored for anyone to steal.

Do I need a point of sale terminal to use Get Menu?

No. It runs in a browser and the orders arrive in WhatsApp, so a phone in the kitchen is enough. If you already own counter hardware, keep using it for walk-in customers.

How long does the menu take to set up?

Most restaurants are taking orders the same day. A spreadsheet menu uploads in one go, and options, required choices and stock counts can be filled in afterwards while the page is already live.