Kitchen Display System for Restaurants: Screens vs Printed Tickets

A kitchen display system (KDS) is a screen in the kitchen that replaces or sits alongside printed tickets: orders from the till, handhelds, QR ordering and kiosks appear on the right station's screen with a timer, and the cook taps to bump each one when it is done. For most UK restaurants the choice is not screens versus paper but how much of each. A screen earns its place when you have several stations, courses to hold and fire, or tickets that go missing, and a printer stays valuable as a backup. This guide covers how a KDS works, how to route stations, what to buy and how to roll it out without losing a Friday service.

Printed tickets versus a kitchen display

Neither is better in every kitchen. The table compares them on the factors that decide it in practice.

Most kitchens that move to screens keep one printer as the fallback.

How a KDS works in a restaurant kitchen

The flow is the same across systems:

1. A server sends an order from a handheld, a guest orders by QR or kiosk, or the counter rings it in.
2. The system splits the order by item and sends each item to the station that makes it.
3. Each station sees its own tickets, oldest first, with the table or order name, items, choices, kitchen notes, allergens, course and a running timer.
4. The cook bumps the ticket when the item is done, which clears it from that station.
5. The pass (expo) screen shows every station's items for the whole order, so the expeditor knows when a table's food is complete.

In TablePort, the kitchen display is part of the staff app on a supported iPad or Android tablet, with a station view, an expediter view and a performance view. The same station setup drives printed prep tickets and the screens.

Station routing for a typical UK menu

Routing decides whether a KDS helps or becomes noise. Items go to stations by menu category, so the work starts with your menu, not the screen. In TablePort you create a prep station, assign it menu categories and, optionally, a printer. A category with no station assigned will not print, so check every category after you edit the menu.

A worked example for a 60-cover gastropub with a hot kitchen, a larder and a bar:

Two habits keep routing clean:

• Route by who cooks it, not by menu section. A "Sides" category holding chips (fryer) and buttered greens (hot section) needs splitting.

• Test with real items before service. Send a food and a drink item with a note and a choice, and confirm each lands on the right screen and printer.

Coursing, fire and hold

Coursing is where screens usually beat paper. A main course slip printed with the starters either cooks too early or relies on someone calling "fire table six".

TablePort sends orders in rounds. The first round starts when it is sent. Later rounds are held by default, so the main course is on the order but not on the station screens until someone fires it. Staff can choose to fire a later round when sending it, or fire a sent round when the table is ready, which releases it on the stations and sends a fire ticket. A held course carries a HELD label and a lock icon rather than relying on colour alone.

• Agree who fires. Usually the floor lead or the pass, not the server who took the order.
• Fire when the guest is ready, earlier for long cook times.
• Do not resend items to force a ticket out. If a fire ticket does not print, check the order and the print queue first, or the kitchen may cook a course twice.

Bump screens, timers and the pass

A bump is the cook's tap that moves a ticket on. There are three styles, set per station in TablePort:

• One tap clears the ticket straight to ready. Good for a bar or fryer.
• Swipe supports bump and recall by gesture.
• Progression moves through Start when cooking begins, Ready when plated, then Out after handover. Good where the pass needs to know what is cooking.

Every bump can be undone from the on-screen prompt or an activity log, which matters because a mistaken tap with greasy hands will happen.

Ticket timers change colour at thresholds you set per station. The defaults are a warning at 5 minutes and an alert at 10 minutes. Change them to suit the station: a starter that takes 4 minutes is late at 8, while a steak is not. A timer colour is a prompt to look, not a judgement about food safety.

The expediter view shows all orders across all stations, an all-day tally of what the kitchen still owes, and three actions:

• Serve confirms the food was collected and clears the ticket.
• Recall pulls back an order marked ready when food must be remade.
• Rush flags priority, and rushed orders sort to the top.

Do not mark a ticket served just to clear its timer.

Allergens on the ticket: what a screen can and cannot do

Under UK law, food businesses must be able to tell customers which of the 14 major allergens are in the food they serve, and the kitchen has to act on that information every time. The Food Standards Agency sets out the rules in its allergen guidance for food businesses.

A KDS puts the information in front of the cook. In TablePort, allergen badges recorded against a menu item show on the ticket and are never truncated, and kitchen notes appear with the item, so a note like "guest has a nut allergy" travels with the order rather than being said across the pass. Two limits:

• A screen cannot guarantee allergen safety. Badges are only as good as the allergen data entered for each dish and each recipe change. Check allergens against your recipes before you publish a menu, and again when a supplier or recipe changes.
• Displayed allergen notes do not replace speaking to the kitchen. Keep your verified allergy process, such as the server confirming directly with the chef, and treat the screen as support.

Run the FSA's allergen checklist with the team before you go live.

Hardware: screens, mounts, heat and grease

Plan the physical setup before you choose the software.

• Screens. A tablet-sized screen suits stations with a short viewing distance. A larger display suits the pass, where several people read it from further away. Confirm the device is supported before you buy. TablePort lists supported iPads and Android tablets and runs a compatibility check.
• Mounts. Fix the screen at eye level, outside the splash zone, on an arm or wall bracket that does not take counter space. Avoid putting it directly above the fryer or salamander.
• Heat and grease. A wipeable case and a daily wipe stop grease building up. Check the manufacturer's operating temperature range.
• Power and network. Keep cables off the floor and away from water. A wired connection or a good access point in the kitchen is cheaper than a failed service.
• Gloves and wet hands. Test the touch screen with gloves on and damp fingers before you commit.

Offline, Wi-Fi risk and keeping paper as backup

A KDS adds a dependency that a printer slip does not have: the screen has to receive the ticket. Plan for the day the network is slow or down.

TablePort's staff app is built to keep working through an internet outage: the POS keeps taking orders (tickets for an offline printer wait on the tablet and print when it is back), and the KDS queues bumps and syncs them when the connection returns. A queued action may not appear on another screen until then, so two screens can briefly disagree. Do not bump the same ticket repeatedly or recreate an order; restore the connection and check what is already there.

Backup plan:

1. Keep one working printer at the pass, assigned to the stations you cannot do without, such as the hot section.
2. Keep paper and a marker for a manual rail if everything fails.
3. Rehearse it. Switch the router off during a quiet shift and see what the kitchen does.
4. Know who decides to move from screens to paper, and how everyone is told.

What a KDS costs

Cost is mostly hardware and a monthly software fee, and both vary by supplier. Ask each one for a written quote covering the monthly fee (and whether the kitchen display is included or an add-on), the screens, mounts and cases, any per-screen or per-station charge, and the contract term. Against that you save paper, ribbons and printer repairs, and the time lost to missing or misread tickets. Payback depends on your volume, so measure first: for a week, count remade dishes and tickets that arrived late or not at all.

For TablePort, the kitchen display is part of the POS rather than a separate product. As of November 2026, plans are Starter at £49 and Pro at £99 per location per month, excluding VAT; what each includes is on the pricing page, and there is a 30-day trial. Our restaurant EPOS guide covers the other costs to compare, including hardware and card processing. Tickets from QR order and pay, the kiosk and pickup and delivery reach the same kitchen screens.

A rollout plan that does not risk service

1. Week 1: map the menu. List every category, the station that cooks it and any item that needs splitting. Fix the allergen data on each dish.
2. Week 1: set up and test. Create the stations, assign categories, set bump modes and timer thresholds, and send test orders with notes and choices. Tell the kitchen before test tickets arrive.
3. Week 2: shadow. Run screens next to paper on a quiet service so people learn them without pressure.
4. Week 3: swap one station, often cold starters.
5. Week 4: roll out and review. Move the remaining stations, keep the backup printer, and review timings and remade dishes after two weeks.

If a screen cuts remakes, it shows up in your margin. Use the food cost percentage calculator guide and the GP calculator guide to measure it, and see how to open a restaurant if you are fitting out a kitchen from scratch.