Before the rush: tonight's menu

A kottu counter lives on what the market had that morning. In the sample business in this tour, the owner comes back at half past four with chicken, eggs, leeks and cheese, but no cuttlefish. That means no seafood kottu tonight. The counter opens in a little over an hour and the evening queue does not wait while someone explains that a dish is finished. This tour shows how the owner takes the dish off for the night before the first customer arrives, in three stops on the Menu screen.

Each stop is expanded below: what you tap, what you see and why it saves trouble later. After that come tips, mistakes and what to look at next.

What does the Menu screen show before opening?

It shows every dish, grouped by category, the choices customers make on each, and how many dishes are available tonight. The sample counter has eight dishes across five categories: Kottu, Rice, Hoppers, Drinks and Sweets.

Kottu takes most of the space: chicken, cheese, seafood, dolphin and vegetable. Rice has chicken fried rice, Hoppers has egg hoppers, and Drinks has iced Milo. Each kottu carries the same set of choices: how spicy (mild, medium or extra spicy, and the customer must pick one), add-ons such as an extra egg or extra cheese, and leave-outs such as no egg or no leeks.

Step by step

1. Open Menu at 16:30. Before the hot plate is lit, open Menu and read the header. It should say all eight dishes are available. If yesterday's switch-offs are still on, you will see that here.
2. Match the menu against what you bought. Go down the Kottu category with the market bags in front of you. Chicken, cheese, dolphin and vegetable are fine. The seafood kottu, Rs 1,850, needs cuttlefish and there is none.
3. Tap 86 Item on the seafood kottu. The card now shows 86'd. The header changes to seven of eight available and counts one dish off today.
4. Leave everything else about the dish alone. The price, the spice choice and the add-ons stay saved. You are not editing the dish, only saying it cannot be made tonight.
5. Check the till. Open the till and look at the Kottu tiles. Seafood kottu is not there. When the counter gets busy and someone shouts an order across the queue, the till simply will not offer it.
6. Tell the counter in one sentence. The till stops the sale, but customers ask for things by name. "No seafood tonight, offer the dolphin or chicken" lets the counter suggest something else straight away.
7. Bring it back when the market has cuttlefish. Tomorrow afternoon, if the cuttlefish arrives, open Menu, find the card marked 86'd and tap Make Available. It returns to the till at once, at the same Rs 1,850, with the same choices.

What changes, and what stays the same?

The point of the table is the bottom two rows. Nothing about the dish is lost, so there is no reason to delete it and type it all in again when the market is better.

Why switch it off rather than just tell people?

Because at 19:00 nobody remembers what was said at 16:30. A counter with a long queue takes orders fast, often from regulars who order "the usual". If the seafood kottu is still on the till, someone will ring it up, take the money, and the hot station will find out only when the ticket arrives. Then the counter has to find the customer, explain, and either refund or change the order while everyone behind waits.

There is also a quieter cost. Every one of those mix-ups makes the till's record of the night a little less true: a sale, then a refund, then a different sale. Switching the dish off at the start keeps the night's figures clean, which matters when you look at what each dish costs you and which ones are worth keeping.

Tips for a counter that runs on the market

• Do the menu check with the bags open. It takes two minutes and turns the shopping into a checklist.
• One person decides. Usually the owner or whoever did the buying. If the counter and the hot station both switch dishes, nobody is sure what is really off.
• Switch off before you run out, not after. If you only have enough cuttlefish for five portions, consider switching the dish off after the fifth, rather than finding out at the sixth.
• Have a suggestion ready. For every dish you switch off, decide which one the counter should offer instead.
• Look back at the week. If the same dish comes off three nights in a row, the problem is the buying, not the market. Our guide to stock control covers setting a level you should never drop below.

Common mistakes

• Deleting the dish. It loses the price, the spice choice and the dish's sales history. Use 86 Item instead.
• Forgetting to bring it back. A dish left off for a week is lost sales. Add "check 86'd dishes" to the afternoon routine.
• Only writing it on the board. Boards are for customers. The till is for the counter, and it is the till that stops the wrong sale.
• Switching off a dish for a missing add-on. If only extra cheese has run out, the kottu can still be made. Tell the counter and leave the dish on.

What should you do next?

With the menu right for tonight, follow the order itself in the counter till tour, where a takeaway with an extra-spicy choice goes from the counter to the kitchen. Then see the evening rush tour for how the kitchen screen and the ready board keep forty orders an hour in line. Our guide on how to run a restaurant also applies to counters and covers the wider daily routine.

How EasyTaskr helps

EasyTaskr gives food businesses a menu, a till and a kitchen display screen in one system. A dish switched off on the Menu screen is left off the till straight away, and Make Available puts it back with nothing to re-enter. The counter, dishes and prices in this tour are sample data.