Fire up efficiency with the right fast-casual restaurant POS
Fast casual dining moves, well, fast. Choose the flexible POS partner that helps your staff take on whatever the day brings – and make your service as quick and fresh as your food.
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Clear and transparent fees. No long-term contract required.
What is a POS for fast-casual restaurants?
It’s a point-of-sale system designed to help you take care of everything from order management and payment processing to personalised loyalty programs and real-time menu updates – all from one place. Get Square Restaurant POS so you can simplify your business and serve up better diner experiences, every time.
Run your fast casual business like a well-oiled machine
Turn up your volume with more ways to order and pay
Put your customers in control with convenient QR code ordering, or let them order ahead on your custom Square Online website. Take contactless and chip + PIN payments in seconds at the counter.
RECOMMENDED PRODUCTS:
Get orders from counter to customer in record time
Customised kitchen display system tickets tell the kitchen exactly what to make, while auto-86ing updates your menu so diners never order sold-out items.
RECOMMENDED PRODUCTS:
Hit your growth goals with the help of data and funding
Spot major opportunities for success with reports on everything from kitchen performance to close-of-day. Help grow your business your way with a customised loan.1
RECOMMENDED PRODUCTS:
Turn the bustle into more business
Reward your regulars with promos based on their order history, and bring in new diners with automated marketing. Offer branded digital and physical gift cards to attract even more business.
RECOMMENDED PRODUCTS:
Why choose Square for your fast-casual restaurant?
Run your business better with tools built for fast casual restaurants. Get inventory management, real-time menu customisation, payment processing and more with Square for Restaurants, the fast and flexible tech that helps you do what you do best: serve fresh food, fast.
Staff training in <15 minutes. It’s easy to get started and even easier to train existing staff and new employees with our intuitive interface that flows like your restaurant.
Quick order entry. Give your staff the tools they need to juggle every task. Use intuitive modifiers to input orders the way your customers speak so they spend less time in line.
Restaurant tools, your way. Keep your business connected with integrations to your favourite third-party services. Add the capabilities you need today, and adjust as you go.
Join millions of other forward-thinking businesses worldwide that have the Square advantage.
How Fishbowl turned fast food healthy – and grew to 40+ locations along the way
FUEL EXPONENTIAL EXPANSION
56+ projected sites across Australia in 2024
HANDLE HIGH VOLUME
600k+ transactions processed annually
OFFER GREATER VARIETY
700+ bowl combos available
How it started
How did one of Australia’s most popular and quickest-growing fast casual restaurants get its start, you ask? Three uni mates and a keen frustration with the lack of affordable healthy food options is your answer. To fill that gap in the market, friends Nathan Dalah, Nic Pestalozzi and Casper Ettelson launched Fishbowl, where they serve up Japanese-inspired salad bowls packed with ethically sourced ingredients – all in the name of health-ifying the fast-food game. Their concept immediately took off, and now you can grab your Fishbowl at more than 40 locations across the country. A big part of that massive growth? Square.
How it’s going
Square fit the bill, expediting Fishbowl’s transition to a cashless business model that’s saved time by eliminating cash floats and bank runs. The customer-facing screens on their registers have improved the checkout process and minimised order inaccuracies, and their kitchen display system has dramatically improved day-to-day flow and the connection between the front and back of house. Detailed reporting helps the team understand what’s selling and what’s not so they can give their customers exactly what they want while staying true to their ‘big three’: sustainability, transparency and food provenance.
Invest in your success. Start serving with Square
Sign up in minutes
After your 30-day free trial, keep your Square for Restaurants Plus plan for $129/month per location + card processing fees.²
Or choose the Square for Restaurants Free plan and only pay for card processing.²
Start your free trial
Compare plans ->
²If your business processes more than $250K in card sales, you may be eligible for custom pricing. Contact our sales team.
Select your hardware
You can buy the devices that best fit the needs of your fast-casual concept by visiting the Square Shop. ->
You may be able to repurpose existing devices, including kitchen and receipt printers, cash drawers and routers.
Connect with our team to see if you’re eligible for hardware offers.
Feel secure about data security
Square hardware is PCI-compliant and end-to-end encrypted. No stressing over validating your compliance every year, and no paying extra for data security.
Chargebacks and payment issues? We’ve got you
We handle chargebacks and payment issues, which means you don’t have to deal with disputes yourself.
Get dedicated support from a restaurant team that understands how you work and what you need
Get started on your own or contact our team if you need help. Access ongoing 24/7 online and phone support with a Square for Restaurants Plus plan (or M–F, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm AEST with the Free plan). Join our online community to connect with other business owners who use Square.
Make it your own
Let your tech stack boost your potential
The Square platform can power all businesses. Get the fast-casual tech that can flex, expand and pivot, just like your ambitions.
Optional tools to keep everything connected, including:
Square Restaurant POS syncs with 100+ popular restaurant apps, including:
FAQs
Square is an excellent choice for fast casual restaurants looking for a reliable and versatile POS system. Specifically tailored for the food and beverage industry, Square for Restaurants is a flexible point-of-sale system designed to streamline the way you run your business and help you grow. The cloud-based POS is a comprehensive solution for single-location and multi-location establishments and offers seamless operations management, including easy payments, customisable floor plans and more.
Square offers a suite of tools to help you manage your food-and-beverage business. You can accept payments and manage orders quickly and easily with Square Register, while Square Online enables you to build a custom website for efficient online ordering. Square KDS improves kitchen operations, and Square Dashboard provides you with rich, detailed business insights.
You may be eligible for an individualised loan offer with Square Loans1, and boost customer engagement and brand awareness with Square Marketing, Square Loyalty and Square Gift Cards.
Quick-service restaurants, often referred to as fast food, prioritise speed and efficiency with a focus on a rapid dining experience. Customers typically order at a counter and receive their food quickly, often in a takeaway format.
Fast-casual restaurants, on the other hand, offer a more elevated experience, combining the speed of quick service with a more relaxed atmosphere. Fast-casual establishments often provide customisable and made-to-order options, allowing customers to enjoy more personalised service in a casual setting.
Fast-casual dining blends elements of quick-service and casual dining. It’s characterised by a more elevated dining experience than traditional fast food. In fast-casual establishments, customers typically order at a counter before finding a seat and having their meals delivered to their table by a staff member. Fast-casual dining strikes a balance between the speed of fast food and the quality and ambience of casual dining, offering a convenient yet premium experience.
The cost of a fast-casual restaurant POS system depends on the software subscription and hardware options you choose to fit your unique needs. The plans are designed with flexibility and transparency in mind and to accommodate a wide range of budgets.
With Square, you get clear and transparent fees and there are no requirements for long-term contracts. You have the freedom to upgrade or downgrade your plan at any time. The pricing plans include a Free option, a Plus plan at $129/month per location and a Premium plan with custom pricing.
Processing rates per transaction are transparent, with options for in-person, online, invoices and manually entered/card-on-file transactions. For added convenience, Square includes benefits like end-to-end encrypted payments, active fraud prevention, account takeover protection, live phone support and fast online signup. Additionally, funds can be transferred as soon as the next day, ensuring a seamless and efficient payment process for your fast-casual establishment.
Hardware is not included in your Square for Restaurants subscription. You can tailor your hardware setup to your specific requirements by exploring and purchasing compatible kits and devices in the Square Shop. Square for Restaurants is compatible with Square Register, which comes with a customer-facing display that’s ideal for fast casual restaurants. It also supports various industry-standard devices such as kitchen printers, receipt printers, cash drawers and routers, so you may be able to use your existing hardware with your Square subscription.
If you’re interested in hardware discount offers (eligibility applies), please reach out to our sales team for more information.
Square for Restaurants requires an internet connection for normal operations. If you’re experiencing connectivity issues, you can enable offline payments³ with Square hardware to keep taking payments for up to 24 hours.
³Offline payments are processed automatically when you reconnect your device to the internet and will be declined if you don’t reconnect to the internet within 24 hours of taking your first offline payment. By enabling offline payments, you’re responsible for any expired, declined or disputed payments accepted while offline. Square is unable to provide customer contact information for payments declined while offline.
Offline payments are not supported on older versions of Square Reader for contactless and chip + PIN cards (1st generation – v1 and v2). Identify your contactless reader. Learn more about how to enable and use offline payments.
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