Delivery and takeaway: setting them up properly in a restaurant

A dine-in restaurant usually launches delivery on the assumption of "same dish, just in a box". A couple of months later the picture is clear: more orders, the same money. The reason is simple — delivery and takeaway are a different process with different economics, and forcing them into the dining-room routine eats the margin.

Here is the order of decisions to make before you launch.

1. Separate the three channels

Dine-in, takeaway and delivery are three distinct service types. They must be tagged from day one, because you cannot separate them in reports afterwards.

• Dine-in — a table is occupied, service is provided, the bill closes at the end
• Takeaway — the guest collects it, usually pays up front, no table involved
• Delivery — there is an address and a phone number, there is a courier, and no table at all

This split later answers the question that matters: which channel is actually profitable?

2. Cost the packaging

The most common oversight. Containers, lids, bags, disposable cutlery, napkins — all repeated on every order, and none of it existed in the dining room.

Delivery food cost = ingredients + packaging + (if you run your own couriers) delivery cost

If ingredients cost 18,000 UZS and packaging 3,500 UZS, a dish selling at 55,000 UZS moves from 32.7% to 39% food cost. Invisible on one item; substantial across a thousand orders a month.

3. Decide on price versus service fee

There are two valid routes — the point is to choose deliberately:

1. Separate pricing. The delivery menu carries higher prices than the dining room. Simple and transparent, but visible to the guest.
2. Service fee. Prices stay the same and a separate line is added to the check: packaging or delivery. Guests accept this more readily because they can see what they are paying for.

For takeaway many venues charge nothing extra (the guest travels, there is no floor service) — also a fine decision, provided packaging is already in the price.

4. Rework the kitchen routing

If dine-in and delivery tickets print identically on the same printer, the cook cannot tell them apart. Delivery sits in the queue — or the seated guest waits instead.

What works in practice:

• Put the service type large and on the first line of the ticket: DELIVERY / TAKEAWAY
• Delivery tickets should carry a ready-by or dispatch time
• Delivery has no table — so the target printer must be defined in advance, otherwise the order simply hangs

5. Manage prep time

In delivery the guest judges the time, not the dish. Cold food is a planning failure, not a cooking failure.

Configure two things:

• Prep time per dish. Salad 5 minutes, tandoor 40. The order's promise is set by its slowest item.
• A busy mode. At peak the kitchen physically cannot keep up. Pausing new delivery orders or extending the quoted time beats sending out a late one.

6. Take payment up front

In the dining room the bill closes at the end. In delivery the most expensive scenario is an order cooked, dispatched and then refused at the door. That is why many venues introduce prepayment, or at minimum a phone confirmation.

If couriers carry cash, the path of that cash back to the till must be written down: courier hands over, till accepts, check closes. Break that chain and it resurfaces as a cash variance at the end of the day.

7. Measure every channel separately

Once you are live, review these separately:

1. Revenue and check count per channel
2. Average check per channel — delivery should normally sit above dine-in thanks to the minimum order
3. Food cost per channel, packaging included
4. Share of cancelled or refused orders

If your delivery average check is below dine-in and packaging is not costed, you are most likely losing money on every order. Only a channel-split report will show it.

Short checklist

• Three channels tagged separately
• Packaging built into cost
• A conscious decision on pricing versus service fee
• Kitchen tickets that clearly show the service type
• Prep time and a busy mode configured
• A documented path for courier cash into the till
• Reporting split by channel

Most of that list is organisational, but the last four items depend directly on the POS. In VKassa, delivery and takeaway run as distinct order types: they open without a table, the service fee is added automatically, tickets route to a designated printer, and reports break down by channel.