Taking Orders
Place dine-in, room service, and takeaway orders with courses and seat assignments
Taking orders is the core activity of restaurant service. Every interaction between a guest and your menu flows through the order entry screen, and the accuracy of what gets entered here determines whether the kitchen produces the right dishes, the bill totals correctly, and the guest leaves satisfied.
Veridien supports three order types —dine-in, room service, and takeaway —each with its own workflow. This guide covers all three, with a focus on the features that make orders precise: course assignment, seat numbers, and modifier selection.
Prerequisites
Before you can take orders, make sure the following are in place: your outlet has an active menu with available items (see Menu Management), your floor plan has tables configured (see Table Setup), and your user account has the Take Orders permission enabled by your administrator.
Dine-in orders
Dine-in orders are tied to a table. They stay open as long as the guests are seated and can be modified until the bill is settled.
Placing a new dine-in order
On the Floor Plan, tap an Occupied table (one that has been seated). This opens the order entry screen for that table.
Browse or search the menu. Categories appear on the left sidebar, and items appear in the main area. Tap an item to add it to the order. If the item has modifiers (cooking temperature, size, add-ons), a modifier selection panel appears —make the appropriate selections before confirming.
Assign a course to each item. Veridien uses course numbers (1, 2, 3...) to tell the kitchen the order in which dishes should be prepared. Course 1 items fire immediately. Course 2 items wait until the server fires them from the order screen or the KDS. If your restaurant does not use coursing, leave all items on the default course.
Assign seat numbers if your restaurant tracks which guest ordered which dish. Seat numbers help food runners deliver plates to the right person without auctioning dishes at the table. Tap the seat number field next to each item and select the seat.
Review the order summary at the bottom of the screen. Verify items, quantities, modifiers, courses, and seat numbers.
Tap the send button (which displays the item count and subtotal, for example Send 4 item(s) - $52.00). The order is transmitted to the Kitchen Display System, tickets print at the appropriate stations, and the items appear on the table's running bill.
Adding items to an existing order
Guests often order in rounds —drinks first, then food, then dessert. You do not need to create a new order each time.
Tap the table on the floor plan to reopen its order screen. The existing items appear in the order summary.
Add new items from the menu. Assign courses and seat numbers as needed. New items appear in the order summary below the previously sent items, clearly marked as unsent.
Tap the send button. Only the new, unsent items are transmitted. Previously sent items are not affected.
This additive flow means a table's order grows over the course of the meal. At any point, you can view the full order to see everything that has been sent, what course each item belongs to, and the running total.
Room service orders
Room service orders connect the restaurant directly to the hotel's front desk and billing systems. When a guest calls from their room, the order is placed in Veridien and the charge posts to their room folio automatically.
On the Floor Plan, select Room Service as the order type.
Enter the Room Number. Veridien looks up the current guest and displays their name and folio details. If the room is vacant or the guest has restricted room charges, the system warns you.
Add items from the room service menu. Modifiers work the same as dine-in orders. Course assignment is typically not used for room service since all items are delivered together, but you can use it if your operation delivers courses separately.
Add any delivery notes in the notes field —"Leave at the door," "Extra napkins," or "Allergic to nuts, confirmed substitution."
Tap the send button. The order routes to the kitchen, and the total is posted to the guest's room folio. The guest does not need to sign or pay at the time of delivery unless your property's policy requires it.
Folio integration
Room service charges appear on the guest's folio under the restaurant outlet name. If the guest disputes a charge at checkout, the front desk can view the original order details —including items, modifiers, and the time it was placed —directly from the folio line item.
Takeaway orders
Takeaway orders are not tied to a table or a room. They are used when a guest (or an external customer) orders food to go.
On the Floor Plan, select Takeaway as the order type.
Enter the customer's Name and optionally a Phone Number for pickup notification.
Add items from the menu. Modifiers and quantities work the same as other order types. Course assignment is usually not relevant for takeaway.
Tap the send button. The order appears on the KDS with a Takeaway label so kitchen staff know to package the food appropriately.
When the order is ready and the customer arrives, settle the bill using any available payment method. Takeaway orders must be paid before the customer leaves —they cannot be posted to a room folio.
Working with courses
Coursing is what separates a rushed meal from a well-paced dining experience. When used correctly, courses ensure that starters arrive before mains, and desserts do not fire until the table is ready.
How courses work
Each item on an order can be assigned a course number. Course 1 fires to the kitchen as soon as the order is sent. Courses 2 and onward are held until the server explicitly fires them or the KDS operator advances the ticket.
This gives the front-of-house team control over pacing. When the server sees that the table has finished their starters, they send the next course items from the order screen. The kitchen receives the new items immediately.
When to use courses
- Multi-course dinners are the obvious use case. Assign appetizers to course 1, mains to course 2, and desserts to course 3.
- Drinks before food. If a table orders cocktails and dinner at the same time, put the cocktails on course 1 and the food on course 2. The bar prepares the drinks while the kitchen waits for the fire signal.
- Shared starters. If the table wants sharing plates to arrive first, assign them to course 1 and individual mains to course 2, even if the guest ordering the sharing plate also has a main course.
Working with seat numbers
Seat numbers answer the question: "Who gets the salmon?" Instead of a food runner arriving at the table and asking, they check the ticket, see that the salmon is seat 3, and place it in front of the correct guest.
Setting up seat numbers
When you seat a table, Veridien asks for the number of guests. This creates seat positions (Seat 1, Seat 2, Seat 3, Seat 4 for a four-top). Convention places Seat 1 at a consistent position —typically the seat closest to the door or a fixed reference point —and numbers clockwise. Agree on a convention with your team so food runners can rely on seat numbers being consistent.
Assigning seats during order entry
As you add items to the order, tap the Seat field and select the seat number for each item. If a guest orders multiple items (a starter and a main), each item gets the same seat number. The KDS groups items by seat, making it easy for the kitchen to see all dishes for a given guest.
Scenario: table of four with coursing and seat numbers
A party of four is seated at table 10 for dinner. The server greets them, takes drink orders first, then returns for the food order.
Round 1 —Drinks. The server opens table 10's order screen and adds four drinks: two glasses of Pinot Noir (seats 1 and 3), a sparkling water (seat 2), and a craft beer (seat 4). All drinks are assigned to course 1. The server taps the send button. The drinks route to the bar station on the KDS.
Round 2 —Food. The server returns to the order screen and adds the food order. Seat 1 orders the Caesar salad (course 2) and the ribeye steak, medium rare (course 3). Seat 2 orders the soup of the day (course 2) and the grilled salmon (course 3). Seat 3 orders the burrata (course 2) and the lamb chops, medium (course 3). Seat 4 orders the shrimp cocktail (course 2) and the chicken parmesan (course 3). The server reviews the summary —twelve items total, properly distributed across courses and seats —then taps the send button.
In the kitchen. Course 2 (starters) fires immediately on the KDS. The kitchen prepares all four starters. When they are plated and picked up, the KDS operator bumps them.
Firing mains. The server watches the table. When the starters are cleared and the table is ready, the server sends the next course items from the order screen. Course 3 (mains) appears on the KDS. The kitchen sees four mains with seat numbers and modifiers —they know the ribeye at seat 1 is medium rare and the lamb chops at seat 3 are medium.
Delivery. The food runner picks up the mains and checks the ticket. No auctioning needed —seat numbers guide every plate to the right guest. The table is impressed that their food arrives without a single "Who had the salmon?"
The entire meal was paced by courses and personalized by seat numbers, all managed through the same order entry screen.