Welcome to Part 4 of our ‘How Syrve Works’ monthly series. So far, we’ve covered a variety of operational areas in which our next-gen platform can have a transformative impact, including staff scheduling and delivery management.
This month our gaze falls upon Syrve’s kitchen display screen. We’ll be looking at how it works in operation, as well as the ways in which it streamlines and simplifies workflows. As ever, we start with the basics.
A kitchen display screen or system, is a digital display which shows incoming orders in real time for professional kitchen staff. Connected to a restaurant's POS terminal, a well-functioning KDS reduces the clutter and confusion that often arise with traditional ticket-based systems. Typically, order processing tends to be faster, better organised and more accurate.
Kitchen display systems (or screens) receive orders from a point of sale system which are instantly displayed to kitchen staff. In practice, the customer places an order at a fixed terminal, or with a server using a remote POS. If a KDS is part of a more advanced tech stack, it can also display orders placed online and via additional POS hardware such as self-service kiosks.
Once fed into the Kitchen Display System, orders are automatically routed to the appropriate station based on type. More user-friendly KDS setups also colour-code orders by urgency, making it easier for staff to prioritise at a glance.
Touch technology is a common feature with many of the latest models so that staff merely tap the screen to designate process statuses for each order. As we'll see, keyboard support is usually available too.
Syrve’s kitchen display system is a typical example of a modern KDS. It can display orders from all channels including fixed POS systems, handheld terminals and self-service kiosks. And because of our order injection feature, orders placed via third-party apps and websites are instantly visible on-screen.
Each order that appears on Syrve’s kitchen display screen includes critical information to help with order prioritisation and accuracy. At a glance, a chef will know:
So how does this translate on-screen?
Syrve’s KDS features a clutter-free interface that displays items, orders, and courses in a way that makes it easy for kitchen staff to interpret and act quickly.
At the base of the screen, quick-access buttons enable staff to switch between views like Courses, Orders, Items, and Recipes. Serving time indicators and countdown timers further support speed and coordination during busy service periods. Let’s take a closer look at these features in more detail.
1. Orders and Courses Tiles
The basic orders tile includes all of the key information necessary for an accurate and efficient service. The coloured header includes details of the server responsible for the order, the table number, the number of guests for the order and the cooking time.
The cooking time, at the top right, is expressed in minutes and indicates the amount of time left before an items should be passed to servers. This is shown as a negative number should a dish become overdue.
Underneath the coloured headers are the order specifics, together with portion numbers – these are located to the left of each entry. If no number is present, only one portion needs to be prepared.
Deliver order tiles are essentially the same, albeit with ‘delivery’ labels which you can see in the top right corner. Customer comments are also included above the items and may relate to cooking instructions or service expectations.
Orders placed through third-party delivery apps such as Uber Eats or Deliveroo are labelled in the comments section. This ensures your chefs and packers are ready to dispatch orders to the drivers in time (third-party services often require specific packaging).
Syrve’s kitchen display screen uses colour-coding which provides instant visual cues to staff about order progress and timing:
Waiting - The white/grey box indicates a ‘waiting’ status, meaning that an order or item has been queued and is not yet ready for preparation or cooking.
Time to Cook - The blue ‘time to cook’ box displays the estimated amount of time it takes to prepare a specific dish from start to finish. This is configured in your system settings.
Ready - As indicated by the name, a green box means that a dish or course is fully prepared and is now ready to be served or passed to the front-of-house team.
Served - Grey means that the dish has left the kitchen which marks the final step in the kitchen workflow.
Red - Red indicates that orders are overdue in the kitchen and will display the number of minutes that exceed the cooking time in a negative value.
This displays the average serving time for the last 15 minutes - an important real-time performance benchmark that allows staff to actively monitor kitchen performance. If it displays as a positive value, dishes are being served on time. If negative, the kitchen is behind schedule.
The Courses Mode view is designed for standard dine-in orders where dishes are served together, rather than in a phased, multi-course sequence like a banquet. Items in this view are clearly grouped by serving order, with each tile displaying order number, order type, number of guests, table number, and the assigned waiter. Quantity, guest name and time are also included.
As well as ensuring a smooth, consistent service, this view really helps to streamline communications between front and back-of-house.
In our recent update we introduced a new feature that allows you to label items according to guest numbers or names. This is particularly useful for fine dining restaurants where course pacing, dish prioritisation and communication are of paramount importance.
The order mode is intended for banquet style services comprising multiple courses and large orders. Similar to the Courses View, albeit with dishes organised under course headings, Orders Mode is invaluable for QAs and table setters who need to sync their table settings and prep for each course. This is the kind of precise choreography that defines a smooth banquet service.
Items mode is designed with chefs in mind with each items organised into individual rows. Each row indicates time to cook, the portion number an dish name. More simplified than the order and courses modes, this screen shows a consolidated queue of what needs to be cooked.
For high-speed, high-volume operations in which chefs are responsible for specific items as opposed to whole courses, it can prove extremely helpful.
Recall Mode allows chefs to change the quantity and status of dishes. For example, a specific item may have been marked as ready, or the quantity of a finished item might be incorrect. By accessing Recall Mode, the chef can change the status back to ‘in progress’ or adjust the portion number.
For this screen, only those items marked as complete are included. Like the courses and orders mode, the most recent items are included in ascending order.
The Recipe view can be accessed from any view mode and is activated by clicking an individual dish and then tapping Recipe. To make life easier for kitchen staff, recipes can be accessed by pressing 0 on a virtual keyboard.
The recipe screen itself includes recipe particulars including specific ingredients, weight, estimated cooking time and, if configured, the preparation process. In practice, the Recipe View helps ensure dish consistency and new or cross-trained staff who may not be familiar with a particular dish.
The Filters and Settings screen allows staff to filter out items according to kitchen station, service modes and order details – a useful feature, particularly in a busy kitchen because it can allow staff to see items only relevant to their role. Food packers for instance, only need to see items requiring delivery.
Servers need to see only those dishes that haven’t been served. And for kitchen staff, delivery sources or comments might not be necessary. The easiest way to activate filters is via the Service Mode box which includes orders organised by delivery, collection and dine-in. Further filters can be found in the Order Details panel.
Total number of Items to Be Cooked is another key metric for staff, providing at-a-glance information about kitchen load that can alert staff when surges occur. This is critical for shift managers and expeditors.
So how does Syrve's kitchen display screen work in action? In a typical scenario, a servers adds items to an order and then prints it to the kitchen. The items is then displayed on the screen together with a time to cook status.
If the courses view is being used, the first course dishes are displayed with a time to cook status and the subsequent courses are assigned 'waiting' status.
When the chef is ready to prepare a dish, he marks it as started by tapping the In Progress button. The cooking countdown then begins.
Once cooking is complete, the chef taps 'Ready' and a prompt is sent through to the POS together with a list of items to be taken from the kitchen. The server then marks the item as served by tapping the specific item rows.
Our KDS can be operated by touch, or with the use of a keyboard. The latter features a collection of helpful and logically arranged shortcut keys to simplify dish, course and dashboard navigation. In some situations, a keyboard can actually be a more practical option for chefs, especially when they're wearing gloves or their hands are damp from cooking or cleaning.
And that wraps up this month’s product walkthrough. As you’ve seen, Syrve’s Kitchen Display Screen is a smart, intuitive system built to reduce errors, enhance communication, and keep service running smoothly. With real-time order updates, colour-coding and flexible input options, it delivers a level of control and clarity that can make all the difference in your kitchen