Chef Haytham's café Zawya: how the kitchen got organized and tables started ordering themselves

Chef Haytham opened café Zawya a year and a half ago, and what wasted the most time was the gap between taking an order and executing it: the waiter writes it on paper, walks to the kitchen, hands it over, and sometimes the paper gets lost or the handwriting is misread, so the order comes out wrong and the customer waits longer than they should.

The problem: a gap between the floor and the kitchen

During rush hours, that gap grows. The waiter is busy taking orders, and the kitchen doesn't really know what's been ordered right now versus what's still pending, which unnecessarily extends prep time.

The kitchen display connected everything

With Ttakka, any order placed at the cashier or from a table reaches the kitchen display (KDS) instantly, in the same moment. Orders appear in clear stages: new, in progress, ready — and the kitchen team moves an order between stages as they work, with no paper and no confusion.

Tables started ordering themselves via QR

Chef Haytham turned on QR table ordering: a customer scans the table's code with their phone, browses the menu, and orders directly without waiting for a free waiter. The order reaches the kitchen just like any other order, which visibly cut wait times during rush hours.

Table management got clearer

The tables screen in the cashier shows the status of every table — occupied, free, or waiting for the bill — so the team can seat new guests quickly without searching around.

Menu and add-ons

Every menu item is linked to extra options — like "add cheese" or "no onions" — the customer picks them at order time, whether from the cashier or via QR, and the kitchen sees them clearly on the prep screen with no ambiguity.

The numbers, honestly

Instead of an order losing time between paper and kitchen, it now reaches the screen instantly. Instead of a customer waiting for a free waiter to order, they can order from their own phone right at the table.

Want to see how this flows from cashier to kitchen to customer screen? Read a full day in a store running Ttakka.