Menu categories
How the menu is divided, when each part is served, and which station cooks it.
Restaurant → Menu → Categories
Three lists on one screen
| List | Answers |
|---|---|
| Categories | How the menu is divided — Starters, Mains, Desserts. |
| Serving times | When a part of the menu is available — Breakfast, Lunch, Happy hour. |
| Kitchen stations | Where a dish is cooked — Grill, Cold, Bar. |
They are on one screen because they answer the same question from three angles: what the menu is, when it is on, and who makes it.
Categories
Add one with a name; drag to reorder, and that order is the order customers scroll. A category can carry a serving time and a kitchen station that its dishes inherit — which is the labour-saving part, since a dish only needs its own when it differs.
Deleting a category is safe: its dishes keep everything except that category. They become uncategorised, which means invisible to customers until refiled — so check the No category filter on Dishes afterwards.
Serving times
A reusable window: a name, the days it applies, and a from and until time. Attach it to a category, or to a single dish.
A window whose until is earlier than its from runs overnight — 22:00 to 02:00 is the late menu, not an error. The screen says so beside the field.
Serving times can be switched inactive, which lifts the restriction everywhere they are used without deleting anything. That is how a seasonal menu is retired for a month.
Kitchen stations
Stations route dishes to the right screen in the kitchen. Each has a name and an in use switch. A category can name a station, and a dish can either follow its section or name its own.
The screen tells you plainly whether every dish reaches a station, or how many do not. That count is worth being zero before you rely on a kitchen display — a dish reaching no station is a dish nobody is told to cook.
A sensible order to build in
- Serving times, if your menu changes through the day.
- Stations, if you run a kitchen display.
- Categories, attaching the above.
- Dishes, which then inherit almost everything.
When it doesn't work
A whole category vanished from the storefront
On Restaurant → Menu → Categories, check the serving time attached to that category: its days and hours must cover now, and it must be Active. Switching a serving time inactive lifts it everywhere it is used at once.
Dishes disappeared after I deleted a category
They are uncategorised, not deleted. Filter by No category and refile them.
An overnight window does not work
Check the days. A window from 22:00 Friday to 02:00 runs into Saturday, so which day it is marked on matters.
Dishes are not reaching the kitchen screen
Read the unassigned count on this screen. A dish whose category has no station and which names none itself reaches nothing.