The evening rush at a kottu counter

At half past six the sample kottu counter in this tour hits its rush: forty orders an hour, one hot plate, and a cook who cannot afford to lose a single slip of paper. In a lot of counters, this is the hour when orders get shouted twice, made twice or not made at all. This tour shows the same hour run from two screens: the kitchen display the cook works from, and the ready board customers watch. There are three stops.

Each one is expanded below into what the cook does, what the screen shows and why it matters. After that come tips, common mistakes and where to go next.

What does the kitchen display show at 18:30?

It shows every open order as a ticket, in three columns: New, Cooking and Ready. Each ticket carries its number, how the order was taken (counter, takeaway or delivery), how many minutes it has been waiting, and each dish on its own line with any note beside it.

In the sample, the New column holds #148, a takeaway with a chicken kottu marked extra spicy and a cheese kottu, and #149 from the counter with four egg hoppers and lunu miris. Cooking holds #145, #146 and #147; #147 is a delivery with a vegetable kottu marked "no egg". Ready holds #143 and #144, waiting for their customers.

Step by step

1. Start from the New column. When the counter sends an order, it appears as a new ticket. The cook reads it from the screen rather than from a slip. Order #148 arrived a minute ago, straight from the till.
2. Move a ticket into Cooking when you start it. Once the cook starts on a ticket it moves across. The columns now show at a glance how much is waiting and how much is on the plate.
3. Read the notes on the line. Notes sit next to the dish they belong to. "No egg" on the vegetable kottu in #147 is on the same line as the dish, not at the bottom of a slip where it can be missed.
4. Tick each dish as it is done. At 18:36 the cook marks dishes off as they come off the plate. A ticket with one dish ticked and one not tells anyone looking which part of the order is still to come. In the sample, #146 has its iced Milo ticked and the dolphin kottu still to go.
5. Keep an eye on long waits. A ticket that has waited too long is marked so it stands out. The cook can pick it next, or the owner can check whether something is stuck.
6. Bump the ticket when the whole order is ready. At 18:44 the cook bumps #145. It leaves the cooking line on the kitchen display.
7. Watch the ready board change. On the screen above the counter, the left side lists numbers Being prepared and the right side lists numbers Ready to collect, with a line telling customers to listen for their number. #145 appears at the front of Ready to collect, larger than the rest, because it has just become ready.
8. Hand over and carry on. The counter calls the number and hands the bag over, and the cook goes back to the New column for the next ticket.

How do the two screens work together?

The board never shows prices, names or what was ordered. It only answers the one question every customer in the queue is asking: is mine ready yet?

Why does this matter on a busy night?

Paper slips fail in predictable ways. They get wet, they stick together, they fall behind the plate, and they carry notes in handwriting nobody else can read. With forty orders an hour, losing even two means two customers waiting, coming back to the counter, and a cook making their food again while everyone else waits longer.

The ready board solves the other half: the crowd at the counter. When customers can see their number move from Being prepared to Ready to collect, fewer of them ask, and the person on the counter can keep taking orders instead of answering "is mine done?" Our guide on how to run a restaurant has more on setting up the space so the board is easy to see from the queue.

Tips for the hot station

• Put the kitchen screen at eye height near the plate. If the cook has to step away to read it, they will stop reading it.
• Tick as you go, not at the end. Ticking dishes off one by one keeps the ticket honest when there are two people on the station.
• Bump only when the whole order is packed. A bumped ticket tells the customer to come and collect. If a dish is still on the plate, they will be standing at the counter for nothing.
• Face the ready board at the queue. Above the counter or on the wall by the door, wherever people stand and wait.
• Keep numbers short and loud. Call the number shown on the board. Customers match what they hear with what they see.

Common mistakes

• Running paper and the screen together. Two systems means two sets of orders, and the one that gets lost is always the one on paper.
• Bumping to clear the screen. If the cook bumps tickets just because the screen is full, customers will be called for food that is not ready. Clear the backlog by cooking, not by bumping.
• Ignoring the delivery tickets. Delivery orders wait for a rider, not a person at the counter, so they are easy to leave. They show on the same screen; treat them in turn.
• Hiding the ready board behind the counter. If customers cannot see it from where they stand, they will come and ask, and the board does nothing.

What should you do next?

Order #148 starts its life at the counter in the till tour, where the extra-spicy choice is asked before the order is sent. Later in the night, who is still waiting shows the owner's view of the same orders with minutes waiting and cash and card taken. If you are choosing a system for a counter, our guide on choosing a POS system explains why a kitchen screen connected to the till matters more than a printer in the kitchen.

How EasyTaskr helps

EasyTaskr's kitchen display screen shows every order as a ticket, lets the cook tick off each dish and bump the order when it is ready, and feeds an order-ready screen for customers. Orders from the till arrive on it without anyone re-entering them. The counter and orders in this tour are sample data.