POS for Kebab Shops
A kebab shop takes most of its money in the four hours after other kitchens have closed, and almost every order is customised. Meat, bread, salad, sauces, extras — asked in that sequence, at speed, usually to a queue. A till that cannot follow that sequence slows down every single order. Here is what actually matters, what to test, and what it should cost.
- Six features that matter at 1am
- What to test before you sign anything
- Kebab shop POS from £499 + VAT
What to Look For in a Kebab Shop POS
Six things that decide whether the queue moves on a Saturday night.
The Build Sequence Has to Match How Staff Ask
Meat, then bread, then salad, then sauces, then extras. That is the order the question gets asked at the counter, and it should be the order the screen presents. A system that asks for sauces before it asks for bread forces staff to hold the order in their head and double back. Watch any demo against your own counter script — this single detail separates a fast kebab till from a slow one more than any feature on the spec sheet.
Exclusions Have to Print as Loudly as Inclusions
No salad. No onion. No tomato. These are the most common kebab instructions and the most commonly missed, because most systems print additions in bold and omissions in small grey text at the end of the line. A negative modifier needs to be as visible on the kitchen ticket or display as a paid extra is. Ask specifically to see how "no onion" prints — do not accept "it supports modifiers" as an answer.
Paid Extras Have to Price by Size
Extra meat on a small doner and extra meat on a large are not the same cost to you and should not be the same price to the customer. Cheese, halloumi, extra sauce pots, chips in the wrap — each needs its own price against each size. A system with one flat modifier price across every size quietly loses margin on every large order you sell, and you will not see it in the reports.
Upsell Prompts Beat Staff Memory
Chips with that? Drink? A prompt that fires on screen at the right moment converts far more reliably than asking staff to remember at one in the morning on a Saturday. Look for prompts you can attach to specific products, and switch off on the ones where they do not fit. Attach rate is one of the few things a POS can genuinely improve on its own.
The Trading Day Crosses Midnight
Peak is roughly eleven until three, which means the busiest hour of Saturday’s trade falls on Sunday’s date. Check how the system handles that. Does the shift report cut at midnight or at close? Can you run a blind cash count at 3am and have it reconcile against the right trading day? Staff logins, cash drops and variance alerts all have to survive the rollover, or your figures will never tie up and you will never know which shift is short.
Three Delivery Tablets in the Rush Is the Failure Point
Just Eat on one tablet, Uber Eats on another, Deliveroo on a third, all going off during the busiest forty minutes, while the phone rings and there are eight people at the counter. Integration that pulls all three into one queue on the POS and one list on the kitchen display is worth more to a kebab shop than almost any other single feature. Ask whether orders auto-accept, or whether someone still has to tap each one as it lands.
“Large chicken doner in naan, lettuce and onion, no tomato, chilli sauce and garlic mayo, with cheesy chips.”
Smart Buying Advice
Late-Night Support Is the Only Support That Counts
Your problems happen at midnight, not at eleven on a Tuesday morning. Ask what hours support actually covers, whether it is phone or email only, and what specifically happens if the till goes down at half past eleven on a Saturday. A supplier offering business-hours email support is offering you nothing at all during the only hours that matter to you.
Hardware Takes a Beating
Grease, heat, and hands coming straight off the grill. Ask about the screen coating and whether it responds to greasy or gloved fingers. Ask how quickly a failed printer or terminal is replaced and what you do in the meantime. A two-year warranty is worth checking for, but response time is worth more than warranty length.
Count the Taps on Your Top Three Orders
Build your three most-ordered kebabs on the demo system and count the taps for each. Most shops find one system takes roughly half the taps of another for identical output. Across two hundred orders on a Saturday, that difference is the queue moving or not moving. It is also the single easiest thing to test and the thing buyers most often skip.
Do the Real Three-Year Sum
Hardware, monthly software, card processing, marketplace commission, your own online ordering costs, printer rolls, support. For most kebab shops, marketplace commission dwarfs every other line by a wide margin — which makes the cost of pushing customers to your own ordering channel the number worth modelling first, before you compare terminal prices at all.
The Posso Approach to Kebab Shop POS
Posso is built for high-volume takeaway service, and the kebab workflow is one it handles natively rather than by workaround.
Modifier groups are sequenced the way the counter actually asks — meat, bread, salad, sauces, extras — so an order is built in the order it is spoken. Exclusions print clearly on the kitchen ticket and show on the kitchen display alongside additions, not buried at the end of the line. Paid extras carry their own price against each size, so a large with extra meat is charged as a large with extra meat. Upsell prompts can be attached per product and switched off where they do not suit.
Shift and cash handling is built for a trading day that runs past midnight: opening float, cash drops, blind count at close, variance alerts, and X and Z reports that reconcile against the shift rather than the calendar date.
Just Eat, Uber Eats and Deliveroo orders arrive in the same queue as counter, phone and website orders, and the kitchen display shows one list with completion tracking. Caller ID brings up a returning customer's details and last order before you pick up. The system is offline-first, so a dropped connection mid-rush does not stop you taking orders, taking cash or printing tickets.
Plenty of kebab menus run out of a chip shop range. If that is you, the fish and chip shop POS guide covers the other half of the counter.
Pricing starts at £499 + VAT. Setup is free — your menu is built and your equipment configured before you go live — and every system carries a two-year warranty. On-site installation is quoted separately if you want it. Orders through your own website or app carry a 60p service fee paid by the customer at checkout, so there is no percentage commission on your own trade; you pay card processing only. Card payments run through Posso Pay.
POS for Kebab Shops — Frequently Asked Questions
What is a kebab shop POS system?
A kebab shop POS system is point-of-sale software built around customised, high-speed takeaway orders — a build sequence that follows meat, bread, salad and sauces, clear printing of exclusions like "no onion", paid extras priced by size, late-night shift and cash handling, kitchen printing, card payments, and online and delivery app orders arriving in one queue.
How should a kebab POS handle "no salad" or "no onion"?
As a negative modifier that prints as prominently as a paid addition. This is the most common source of remakes in a kebab shop. On a kitchen ticket or display, an exclusion in small grey text at the end of the line will be missed during a rush. Ask to see a ticket printed with an exclusion on it before you buy anything.
How much does a kebab shop POS cost in the UK?
A complete system with a touchscreen terminal, kitchen printing and online ordering typically starts around £499 + VAT upfront, with monthly software from roughly £30. Kitchen display screens, extra printers and kiosks add to that. Over three years, marketplace commission is usually the largest cost in the whole setup by a considerable distance — model that before you compare hardware prices.
Can one system handle counter, phone, online and delivery app orders?
Yes, and for a kebab shop it is close to essential. During the peak forty minutes, orders arrive simultaneously from the counter, the phone, your own site and up to three marketplace tablets. A system that consolidates them into one queue and one kitchen list removes the re-typing that causes most late-night mistakes.
Does a kebab shop POS support caller ID?
Posso includes caller ID, which brings up a returning customer’s name, address and order history as the phone rings. For a shop with a high proportion of repeat phone trade, it removes the address-taking step entirely and cuts postcode errors on delivery orders.
Will the reports work if we trade past midnight?
They need to, and it is worth testing. Posso handles shift-based reporting with opening float, cash drops, blind count closing and variance alerts, so a shift that runs from 5pm to 3am reconciles as one trading period rather than being split across two dates.
Can we take online orders without paying commission?
Through your own website or app, yes — orders carry a 60p service fee paid by the customer at checkout rather than a percentage taken from you, so the only cost to the shop is card processing. Marketplace orders from Just Eat, Uber Eats or Deliveroo still carry those platforms’ own commission; the POS integration reduces the handling, not the fee.
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