How to accept orders at your restaurant in Canada

Taking orders in person means guests order from your staff at the table or the counter. The order then has to reach the kitchen quickly and correctly. There are three common ways to do it:

• Paper tickets. Staff write the order on a notepad and give it to the kitchen. It costs almost nothing. But on busy nights, handwriting that is hard to read causes mistakes, and you have no record of your sales.
• A POS system. A point-of-sale (POS) system is a cash register that runs on a tablet or a payment terminal. Examples are Square, Toast, Clover and Lightspeed. Staff enter the order, it prints in the kitchen or shows on a kitchen screen, and the guest pays by card. You pay for the equipment or a monthly plan, plus card fees.
• QR codes on the tables. Guests scan a code with their phone, see your menu and order. It helps when you are short on staff, but some guests will still want to order from a person.

Phone orders cost nothing to set up, and some regulars prefer to call. The problems show up on busy nights. Someone has to answer the phone, write the order down and read it back. If they hear an item or an address wrong, it is hard to fix later. Phone orders are usually paid at pickup, so a customer who doesn’t come costs you the food.

To make phone orders easier:

• Read every order back, including the customer’s name and phone number.
• Give a realistic pickup time. Add a few minutes when the kitchen is busy.
• Tell regulars about your online ordering link. Next time, they can order and pay without waiting on the phone.

Your own online ordering page is a web page with your menu. Customers choose their food, pay by card and pick a time for pickup or delivery. The order comes straight to your restaurant, and you get the customer’s name and contact details.

Four ways to get one

• An add-on to your POS. POS companies such as Square and Toast sell online ordering that connects to their system. This is a good choice if you already use their POS.
• Ordering software with a monthly fee. You pay the same amount every month, plus card processing, no matter how many orders you get. This suits busy restaurants with steady online orders.
• A per-order fee with no monthly fee. You pay a small percentage only when you get an order, so a slow month costs little. Platesready works this way: a 5% platform fee on completed orders, plus Stripe card processing (2.9% + 30¢), with no monthly fee and no setup fee.
• A website product from a delivery app. Some delivery apps also sell a separate ordering website for your restaurant. Ask them what it costs.

Delivery without a delivery app

You don’t need a delivery app to deliver. You can use your own drivers, or book a courier service for each order. Platesready supports delivery through Uber Direct and Trexity in supported cities. The customer orders from your page, and a courier brings the food. The customer usually pays a delivery fee, and there is no delivery-app commission on the order.

Setting up online ordering for the first time? Our step-by-step guide to starting online ordering covers the menu, payments, tax, kitchen and launch in detail.

Delivery apps list your restaurant next to many others. When someone orders, the order shows up on a tablet or in your POS. You make the food, and the app’s courier picks it up.

The main reason to join is new customers: people who have never heard of you can find you in the app. The cost is a commission on every order. The customer’s contact details also usually stay with the app, which makes it harder for you to reach that customer again yourself.

What the apps charge restaurants in Canada

• Uber Eats: 20%, 25% or 30% of each order its couriers deliver, depending on the plan, or 15% if you deliver yourself. Pickup orders: 10% if your prices in the app match your in-store prices, or 15% if they don’t.
• DoorDash: 20%, 25% or 29% of each delivery order, depending on the plan (27% for DashPass orders on the Plus plan). Pickup orders: 8% to 10% if your prices match your in-store prices.
• SkipTheDishes: doesn’t publish a rate card. Ask for its current rates before you sign a contract.

These rates come from each company’s Canadian pricing page, checked September 2026. Rates change, and extra fees, ads and promotions can add to them.

In British Columbia, the law limits what large delivery apps can charge for basic ordering and delivery to 20% of the order, before tax and tip. They can charge more only for extra services you choose.

You don’t have to choose one or the other. You can keep one app so new customers can find you, and invite your regulars to order from your own page next time.

When people search for your restaurant on Google or open it in Google Maps, they may see an Order online button or Place an order links, depending on the region. These can send customers to a delivery app or to your own ordering page. You decide which, for free, in your Google Business Profile:

1. Open your Business Profile and select Food ordering.
2. Select Add a link and paste the address of your own ordering page.
3. Select your link, choose Set as preferred, and turn on pickup, delivery or both. Then select Save.
4. To remove a delivery app you don’t use, select it and choose Remove link. Google says the app must remove it within 5 business days.

Our guide, How to add your own order link to Google Business Profile, shows every screen and explains the settings that are easy to confuse.

Here is what a restaurant pays the company that takes the order, for one $30 order. It doesn’t include your food, staff or packaging costs.

Monthly fee or per-order fee? A monthly fee costs the same whether you get 20 orders or 2,000, so it is cheaper per order when you are busy. A per-order fee costs little in a slow month, so it suits restaurants that are new or whose orders go up and down.

If you have decided to take orders online yourself, these six steps get you from nothing to your first order.