How to Set Up Online Ordering for Your Restaurant: A Step-by-Step Guide

Most restaurant and takeaway owners already know they want to take orders directly. What stops them is the setup. Which system do you use? How do the payments actually reach you? What happens with delivery, and will the whole thing hold up on a busy Friday night? This guide answers all of that, in the order you would actually do it, from choosing a platform to taking your first live order.

The good news is that direct ordering is far simpler to set up than it was a few years ago. You do not need a developer. You do not need to build a website from scratch. Most owners can get the core of it working in an afternoon and refine the rest over the following week.

Here is the full process.

What you need before you start

You can save yourself some stop-start by having these ready:

• Your menu, with current prices
• A UK business bank account
• A phone, tablet, or computer to receive orders during service
• Around one to two hours of quiet time, ideally outside service

You do not need to set up a payment account in advance. Most ordering systems walk you through connecting Stripe or Square as part of the process, and you can create the account then if you do not have one.

Step 1: Choose your ordering system

This is the decision that matters most, so it is worth slowing down for.

The thing to look for is a flat monthly fee rather than commission. That is the entire point of running your own channel. Marketplaces like Just Eat take a percentage of every order, which keeps climbing as your volume grows. A direct system charges the same fixed amount whether you do ten orders a week or a thousand.

A few other things worth checking before you commit:

• Payments should go to your own account. With the better systems, the money lands directly in your Stripe or Square account, and the platform never holds it or takes a slice.
• The storefront should carry your branding, not the platform's.
• There should be no long lock-in contract. Month to month is fine, and it keeps the provider honest.
• It should handle both collection and delivery, even if you only need one of them today.

Tools in this space include MenuDock, Flipdish and Slerp. They differ on price and features, but most charge a flat monthly fee. One word of caution: the lowest sticker price is not always the cheapest once you are running. Watch for setup fees, per-order add-ons, and hardware you are required to buy.

Step 2: Build your menu

Once you have picked a system, building the menu is mostly data entry, and it goes quicker than people expect.

Set up your categories first (Starters, Mains, Sides, Drinks), then add items underneath with a short description and a price. Most systems let you add options and extras, so a pizza can have sizes, a burger can have "add bacon", and a curry can have a heat level. If you sell out of something mid-service, you mark it unavailable rather than deleting it.

Photos help. A menu with decent pictures converts better than a wall of text, and you do not need a photographer. Clear phone shots in good light are enough to start.

One tip: do not let a perfect menu hold up your launch. Put your best sellers in first, get the thing live, and add the long tail later.

Step 3: Connect your payments

This is the step owners worry about most, and it tends to be the easiest. You connect a Stripe or Square account, and from then on card payments for your orders settle into that account on the normal payout schedule.

The fees are small and fixed, nothing like marketplace commission. As of 2026, Stripe charges around 1.5% plus 20p per UK card payment, and Square charges around 1.4% plus 25p. On a £20 order, that is roughly 45 to 50p. You keep about £19.50.

Compare that to Just Eat, where the same £20 order costs you 14% on your own drivers, or closer to 30 to 35% if Just Eat supplies the driver. The processing fee is just the cost of accepting a card, the same as it would be anywhere. It is not a cut taken by the ordering platform.

Apple Pay and Google Pay usually come switched on by default, which is worth keeping. A faster checkout means fewer half-finished orders.

Step 4: Set up collection and delivery

Now you tell the system how orders actually reach the customer.

For collection, set a realistic preparation time. If you tell people their food is ready in 20 minutes and it takes 40, you will hear about it. For delivery, you set your delivery area (by postcode or a radius around your kitchen), a delivery fee, and usually a minimum order value. You also decide who delivers: your own driver, or a partner if your system supports one.

It is worth setting order cut-off times too, so you stop taking new orders before your kitchen closes rather than at the moment it does.

Step 5: Set your hours and order alerts

Add your opening hours for each day, including separate lunch and dinner windows if you close in the afternoon. The system will only take orders when you are actually open, which saves a lot of awkward phone calls.

Then sort out how you will hear about a new order during a rush. The usual options are a tablet app that pings, a connected receipt printer, or email. MenuDock has an admin app for iPhone and Android, so an order can buzz a phone in your pocket. Whatever you choose, decide who is responsible for watching it during service. An order that nobody sees for half an hour is worse than no order at all.

Step 6: Test it, then go live

Before you tell a single customer, place a real order yourself and pay for it. You can refund it afterwards.

Check the obvious things. Did the order come through to your device? Is the total right, including any delivery fee? Does the receipt read correctly? Did the confirmation email or text reach the customer? Once that all works, switch the storefront to live and you are taking orders.

Step 7: Get your first orders

A live ordering page that nobody knows about will sit quiet. The fastest ways to send customers to it:

• Put a clear "Order Online" button on your website and make it the most obvious thing on the page.
• Add your ordering link to your Google Business Profile, which is exactly what people see when they search your name.
• Print QR codes on menus, receipts, packaging and the shop window.
• Tell people at the counter. Most customers have no idea you take direct orders until someone says so.
• Give a small reason to order direct the first time, like a free side. It does not need to be a big discount.

If you are also on Just Eat and wondering how hard to push direct ordering without losing the discovery the marketplace gives you, we cover that trade-off in Just Eat vs your own online ordering system.

How long does all this take?

The setup itself is an afternoon for most independents. Getting the menu polished, the photos in, and the promotion working takes another week or two of small tweaks. Do not wait for everything to be perfect before you go live. A working ordering page out in the world beats a flawless one you are still fiddling with.

Where MenuDock fits

MenuDock is built for UK restaurants and takeaways that want their own ordering channel without building a website or signing a long contract.

Plans start at £25 a month with no commission on any order. Payments go straight to your own Stripe or Square account, so MenuDock never holds your money. You get a branded storefront on your own subdomain or custom domain, and an admin app for iPhone and Android so orders reach you wherever you are.

If you have read this far and want to set the whole thing up today, that is exactly what it is for.

Get started with MenuDock →

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to set up online ordering?

Most independent restaurants get the core setup done in an afternoon. Adding photos, fine-tuning the menu and promoting the link takes another week or two, but you can be taking orders the same day you start.

Do I need a website to take online orders?

No. A system like MenuDock hosts your branded ordering page on its own subdomain, or you can connect a custom domain. There is no separate website build.

How much does it cost to take online orders?

You pay a flat monthly fee for the ordering system, plus the standard card processing fee from Stripe or Square (around 1.5% plus 20p per UK card). There is no per-order commission like a marketplace charges.

Can I offer both collection and delivery?

Yes. You can switch on either or both, set your own delivery area and fees, and choose whether you deliver yourself.

Do I need a card machine or special hardware?

No. You can receive orders on a phone, tablet or computer you already own. A receipt printer is optional, not required.

Will the money come straight to me?

With MenuDock, yes. Payments settle into your own Stripe or Square account on the normal payout schedule, and MenuDock takes nothing per order.