CAKE POS Reviews

Pros

I like that I can access it anywhere remotely to make changes, add menu items, and view sales.

Cons

I don't like the new update. I feel the original version is easier to use.

Pros

The customer support staff has always been great. I have been a CAKE user for 6 or 7 years now. I spent 3 Hours on the phone yesterday with [sensitive content hidden]
, who informed me at the end of the call that he was supposed to get off work at 4pm. I called at 3:55pm and he gave me his best efforts, a great attitude, and he genuinely wanted to help me troubleshoot the issues we were experiencing. The only reason I am writing this review is to give [sensitive content hidden]
a shout out!

Cons

There are a few fundamental aspects that most restaurants do, such as happy hour, and CAKE is not designed well for special pricing without creating duplicate items with the discounted prices, and a "happy hour" menu separate from the standard POS menu. It works, but it would be better if an item could have multiple prices based on certain times of day.

Pros

The onboarding process with [sensitive content hidden] and [sensitive content hidden] was easy.

Cons

There is no Happy hour button that will automatically turn on and off.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing CAKE POS

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to CAKE POS

Pros

It is fairly easy to use and gives you a lot of good information in the reporting.

Cons

There is no ability to create a custom report. We cannot get access to the raw data to integrate with other software. There is not a good integration with 7Shifts or Gusto. There needs to be more integrations. The cash management and cash drawers should have more options to work better with our workflow. There is no way to access all of the POS features remotely and the POS cannot be used offsite on another network. The Guest Manager only has 1-way data transfer and is not integrated well enough to make it useful. There is no way to handle customer deposits and do some basic AR features. The support is usually pretty awesome though. I have suggested a ton of features and I have not seen any major changes since we started using it in 2015. Also, the credit card fees are very high. We are charged an extra $25/month for next day deposits when all of the others include that and don't have such an early cutoff time.

Pros

I really like being able to input items on the POS.And not having to use my laptop every time I want to run a special or change a price.I really like that you can actually call customer service when you need help and someone actually answers quickly!

Cons

There is much I don’t like about the POS.

Pros

customer service. Worked with [sensitive content hidden] today and he answered me quickly and accurately

Cons

nothing, really. They do a great job!

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to CAKE POS

Pros

Being able to customize easily to fit our needs.

Cons

The payment cube can be touchy with tap to pay cards and devices.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to CAKE POS

Pros

The service team is excellent and the equipment is very user friendly

Cons

I can’t think of anything I do not like besides not having an app to view my analytics from my phone

Pros

Professional, courtesy and knowledgeable

Cons

So far no complaints with cake, keep up the good work

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to CAKE POS

Pros

I’m Able to see and print all reports .

Cons

I like everything about cake. Would recommend to others!

Pros

Look: Unlike many of the Micros and Aloha-type companies out there, the machine looks modern and even futuristic with the customer touch screen. We demo'd with Revel and their multi-screen set up looks out of place and almost alien-like. What is that?

Ease of Use: It has many features that make training a breeze. Training mode, quick search bar for menu items, global modifiers, etc. The screen is organized, and not cluttered with a bazillion different colors like a fireworks display. i always hated that with other systems.

Price: They give you what you NEED, whether it is included with the system or a 3rd party add on. This helps keep the cost down for folks like me who don't need a robust inventory system or scheduling software....if i did need it, I could add that on. They don't include, and charge you for everything, when you may not use everything.

Sysco: How can you not feel comfortable doing business with a POS company owned by this food distribution giant? This was part of why we went with them.

Cons

i must say, the name sounds a bit silly, but does Apple sell Apples?

The Support was a bit shaky for a minute but i was told they just added an additional Support department in Texas. Since then, it has been great!

I would like to see more from their loyalty program. Support told me this is being upgraded and will be included in an upcoming software update!

Pros

The thing that I like the most is being able to connect to the POS with my computer or phone. It makes life as an owner easier, I can make buttons for items or change prices even if I am not at the tavern. Also being able to pull reports up on my computer is much better than working only with the close cash slip. The support is wonderful, I always get an answer to my question or the help I need. It is just so easy to use that even employees who have never used a POS can learn to use it easily and fairly quickly.

Cons

There are only a few features that we would change such as, if you set hours for happy hour, after it is over, items cannot be cashed out if they are already on an open order so you would have to have everyone pay as you go or cash out before a certain time. The other feature that doesn't really work for our tavern is that if a refund is performed, the whole amount doesn't show as a refund, part does and the other part is refunded on the employee's tips. We would love to see the ability to close cash and assign drawers from the website as well. Other than that, we are totally happy with this system!

Pros

Before CAKE we were a small mom and pop shop handwriting tickets with no POS system. Having everything handwritten caused issues for cooks and if we were looking for specific item sales, we had to go through every single hand-written ticket to track that kind of data. What attracted me to CAKE was that it was a rental program, so there was not a lot of out of pocket upfront cost, which is really important for a small restaurant. Having reporting capabilities to see what we're selling and how much has been an invaluable service. I can see our busy hours, how we did last week, all that information is right at my fingertips. I can also change the menu from wherever, even my phone, so I love the fact that no matter where I personally am, I can change prices, add things to the menu, take things off the menu, and check out our sales. Our payroll company can also log in and generate payroll which eliminates the chance of human error and gives them the convenience to do payroll on their time frame. A huge plus is the ability to make changes, additions and deletions on our own without needing someone from Cake to do it. In addition, they are very receptive to our "wish list" and quick with trouble shooting and response to problems. This system truly saves us a lot of time and stress.

Cons

The updates on the system sometimes catch us by surprise and cause a little bit of confusion for the staff. Most of the updates are very helpful, but a times, they will make a change that does not work for us. Perhaps a little more warning on the changes would help.

Pros

We purchased our Cake system two years ago after looking at many different systems for our diner after making the decision to update our entire process. The Cake system had everything that we wanted. Over the past two years we've had some issues with our system that very easily have been corrected and some that took a little time to fix. We are just too busy for me to spend countless hours trying to work out an issue and receive minimal or no satisfaction. Out of all the customer service companies we have ever done business with over the last 25 years, the best has been Cake. Hands down. No exception. The technicians are beyond wonderful. Every single technician has stayed with me until the issue at hand has been resolved and has worked with me to fully understand. We have just been updated to the newest software version of Cake and while doing my first online audit of employee timecards I found that I didn't understand how to make a certain correction. The guys at Cake walked me through it late on a Sunday evening and I was able to submit my completed, accurate payroll in time. And I LOVE the new remote access update. It's so easy and helps me keep payroll in line. The only thing I can say is thank you so much for realizing the importance of great customer service! Don't change a thing.

Cons

I wish the ipad minis that we use for mobile table service were a little more efficient and didn't drop the Cake network connection so easily. My staff has trouble always understanding how to reconnect or update as needed and I have to jump in and try to fix whatever they've done.

Pros

Easy to use interface.
Order Pads should allow servers to spend more time on the floor
Inexpensive POS System.

Cons

It doesn't work when we need it to. We've been trying to get the issues resolved via Cake Support and Sysco Management for more than 8 months. It isn't getting any better. As soon as the dining room gets busy the Order Pad Apps crashes. All of our servers need to have paper and pencil ready at all times to complete their orders and stand in line at the terminal to enter them every rush. It seldom happens when we are slow. Orders get lost during entry causing double work to recover the in flight order, after printing in the kitchen causing them not to be charged on the customer's bill, and customer credit cards have been double billed as a result of Order Pad disconnects. We are spending hours with Cake Support that we should be spending working our business. We have to keep 1 person available to capture trouble shooting information for Cake Support during our rushes when (not if) the Order Pads go down. Cake Support is always busy, but will eventually call back. When they do, they aren't very knowledgeable with troubleshooting, they don't seem to be trained to go any deeper than the Cake University screens. The cheap price of the Cake system has become a huge expense in manpower and wasted time in our restaurant.

Pros

Our main problem before CAKE was time. It was taking too much time for servers to get something written on paper and get back to the POS to put everything in. If the internet was down everything was down so we wanted something cloud based so we could continue with transactions even if the internet had problems. CAKE meets all the needs we were looking for. We've got a much faster turnover rate on being able to get orders in and back to kitchen and out to the table, and we can continue taking orders even without internet, which have both helped with revenue. We also like using the guest manager system so when we run out of tables we can get numbers and page when tables open up which was an added benefit. I can also do things on the fly like change the menu even when I'm not on the restaurant, someone just gives me a call and I can add it from my personal laptop and it goes directly to the POS system, which has been really helpful as well.

Cons

Touch screen interaction is not instant. There is a half second lag in some of the menu screens. It may not sound like much, but anyone in the restaurant industry knows that every single second counts during the lunch rush. This lag also includes certain unnecessary animations between certain screens.
Certain features such as an on the fly print button from the table layout screen would decrease our table times.
The Split screen is very counter-productive compared to other systems.

Pros

Global modifiers. That's literally the only thing I like about it. If it wasn't for that, we would have gotten rid of this system a long time ago.

Cons

This system is completely not customizable to your specific business. They're constantly updating the software with updates that make the system even worse for my business. There should be an option to not upgrade. Customer service is absolutely useless. I've called them probably 50 times since we've gotten this system. They never have an answer, they're always "working on it". Never a solution. There was a software problem on their end last Wednesday. I still have not had credit card sales deposited into my bank account from Wednesday and Thursday of last week. It's 5:30 on Monday. I have not had a deposit since Tuesday's sales. One entire week ago. They don't provide any solutions except "We're trying to figure out what the problem is. We're working on it.", but you literally never end up with an answer. You just have to wait and wait until you notice it's finally resolved or never get it resolved at all. You're at their mercy because you paid huge for the thing. What am I gonna do? It's disgusting and these people shouldn't be allowed to operate. They do not care. Even on a normal payment schedule, you won't get Thursday's transactions until Monday, Friday until Tuesday and Saturday until Wednesday. If there's a holiday, push that back a day.

Pros

We've had 2 POS systems before we tried CAKE. The very first one we had was already 5 years old so it was running really slow and just couldn't handle what we needed it to do. We upgraded that one to Clover and we had high hopes but it just really didn't work out for us. We had batching issues, the numbers weren't matching, and honestly it ended up making more work for us with bookkeeping. Since we switched, closing and reporting have been so much easier. Everything is a lot easier to keep track of like sales and payroll and it's so much nicer because you can see all that online. It's also easier to add new menu items or move things around and just easier to use in general, especially once we got everything up and running. It's a simple set up and I'd definitely recommend just giving it a try.

Cons

No Big cons really. One minor con, is that we wish we could accept partial payment on our regular customers running tabs. It would make it so much easier.

Pros

we are very behind with the technology equipment and relationship with business and costumers daily base ...kiosk with self selfservise cash out

Cons

yes missing a lot of improved no try to update with the new technology and relationship with costumers daily base

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing CAKE POS

Switched From

Pros

Software is nice easy to navigate, the terminals have a great modern look to them, on the fly adjustments is great.

Cons

We were told this would be a direct replacement for our PosiTouch system, it is not. The system lacks many basic functions our old system could do, even though we were told it would prior to purchasing. Whenever we contact CAKE about an issue we are met with the same response over and over, "Our system is not currently able to do that function at this time, if you would like us to make a service report to our technicians who will determine if this needs to be implemented in a future upgrade."
We were told prior to purchasing some of our existing hardware would work, after implantation of the new hardware with our old it will not work. After many phone calls attempting to correct the issue we get the same response, "Our system is incapable of operating with that hardware."
We purchased two terminals second hand, but before we purchased them we called to make sure they would work before spending the money, we were told yet again that the would in fact work we would just have to pay to have the software upgraded and they would need the phone number of the original owner to get conformation to wipe out all the data on the hard drives, so that is just what we did. After receiving the shipment we informed CAKE they had arrived, and the gentleman's number we purchased them from, so they could make contact with him in regards of getting them set up for our use. A short time later we were contacted by CAKE a were told they could in fact not be used, the system were to old, even though it's the same hardware they are using now, and there was noting they could do.
Please take my advice, if you are UPGRADING FROM A LEGACY SYSTEM (positouch, aloha, digital dining, ect.) DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY LIKE WE DID.
SYSCO SHOULD BE ASHAMED FOR THE BUSINESS PRACTICE OF THIS BRANCH OF THEIR COMPANY.

Pros

Easy to use for the most part. Screens easy to read.

Cons

Check Splitting is very difficult and involves many steps. Daily Management Reports are not user friendly.
Senior Management Customer Support is horrible. They call them "Customer Success Managers" which is clearly the wrong title. They are horrible at communicating among all customer support. Guest checks are very difficult to read along with credit card slips for the customers. Fonts are very small. Cash drawers are cheap. They do not offer any loyalty programs through their system and only punch card type of discounts. Very old technology.

Pros

We used to run our restaurant old school with just tickets. We find that the computer system lets you have more readable tickets for the chefs and descriptive tickets with tabs for putting in how you want things without the servers having to write everything, so it saves them a lot of time and it's faster and neater. We use it also to take inventory, and we can see exactly how much we sold each day, which is easier for us. We can also see most popular items and if something's not selling we can try something different with our changing specials. The workers use it to clock in on our computers and it's really easy to get that to our accountant. Another thing CAKE did for us that no one else really offers is when we initially put our menu up, CAKE did all the work. They set up all the tabs and modifiers and it was super easy for us which was great.

Cons

Customer Support is not too helpful. They could work on that aspect. They are only helpful to a certain extent.

Pros

The system is easy to use and learn. That's it.

Cons

The system will malfunction at any moment.

Pros

We're coming up on our one-year anniversary with CAKE and I can't think of a single bad thing to say about it. Before CAKE, all of our systems were really hard to upgrade or make any changes. With CAKE, I can do it from home, review reports, and it's so easy for the servers and chefs as well as our customers to read and use. The set up was so easy, we've hardly had any problems, and unlike other places where we've had to make tons of calls and emails without even hearing back from anyone, the CAKE team gets us back up and running immediately, they have never missed a phone call, and they walked me through step by step in a way that was easy to understand. We looked at two other products before choosing this one and have absolutely no regrets. I feel really tied into the core of the restaurant, and they have a lot to do with it. Thanks for making my restaurant run better!

Cons

We had some trouble with splitting tickets. After help from CAKE and their customer service department we implemented additional training in house and the problem has been solved.

Pros

The easy of function for my servers and bartenders.

Cons

Some difficulty with our third POS that we move from the outdoor cantina to our inside space for colder months. Hard to keep one monitor as primary and two as client. Often, 2 are listed as the main POS and one client causing the order pads to initialized over and over.