Beta opens October 12
At a busy restaurant, the clock moves fast.
One system for the whole restaurant, with AI built in. Every morning at 7 it tells you how last night went.
An animation of the AI-R Today screen on an iPad at Lantern & Lotus, a sample restaurant, from 6 AM Saturday to 5 AM Sunday: the phone host answering overnight calls, the morning brief, the drawer counted at open, lunch and dinner service, the nightly close approved, tips settled, and Sunday's morning brief at 7.
Baked in beats bolted on.
Six bills for six things, all claiming to talk to each other, and not really doing it.
AI-R fixes that. It all runs as one system, so it works together from day one.
Pick what you use today. Imagine what you could use tomorrow, when it's already built into the system you run.
Your stack today
Inside the four walls
Outside the four walls
Something else
Pick what you use today.
Each range runs from the vendor's lowest published plan to its top standard plan, from their own pricing pages, checked August 24 to October 5, 2026. Hover a range for its terms. A $0 plan usually costs more per card swipe. What you type stays on this page. Compare AI-R with Toast and Square · Price your whole stack
Card processing
Square and Stripe connect natively, on their own hardware. Or use ours, or keep the processor you have.
One restaurant, four beats.
Morning, open, service, close: each one gives the owner time back. The payroll report in one click. Food and labor cost as the night happens. Every number tracked against your plan, and a cash forecast for the weeks ahead. The tools other industries take for granted, built for a restaurant's day.
7 AM
Morning
The brief arrives, on the iPad and in your inbox. One number first, then the reports last night's close proved.
- Tips and tip-outs to the penny
- Timesheets, punches against the schedule
- Voids and comps, by who rang them
- The drawer, over or short
The brief shown is a sample, at a sample restaurant.
Before the doors
Open
Count the cash, check the board, and the floor is yours.
- Counted bill by bill
- The drawer's target, from last night's pull
- Any difference gets a reason, from whoever counted
- The 86 list and the board
First table to last
Service
Every order on one floor, and every check split the way the table wants.
- Orders by seat, fired from the table
- Tickets route to the right printer on their own
- Kitchen screens show what's fired, and for how long
- Website, phone and delivery orders on the same floor
After the last table
Close
The manager submits, the GM or the owner approves, and the night becomes a record that never changes.
- Timesheets reconciled
- Cash counted
- Tips settled to the cent
- Payroll locked once it's approved
One software suite, three surfaces.
One restaurant and one set of numbers, on whichever screen is in front of you. The iPads and iPhones are the ones you already own.
The hub
iPad
The Today screen runs the room: orders by seat, kitchen screens, the phone host, pickup times, the time clock, the Daily Open and the Nightly Close.
The back office
Computer
Set up your team, your menu and your settings, and keep the books: bank and card accounts, payroll, costs. In the browser, on a PC or a Mac.
In every pocket
iPhone
Staff take orders at the table and fire them straight to the kitchen. You check last night's close, payroll and costs from wherever you are.
- Pay at the table. Tip on the reader or on paper, your choice, check by check.
- No handhelds to buy. AI-R runs on the iPads and iPhones you already own.
The tedious parts
You did the work once. AI-R moves it in.
Your menu is already written, your dish photos are on your phone, your statements are in your inbox. AI-R does the copying across, and you check what it did.
- Photograph your printed menu, and AI matches each description to its dish. Nothing is saved until you accept.
- A dish with no description gets an AI draft, marked as a draft until you approve or edit it.
- Dish photos straight from your phone: scan the dish's code, take the picture, and it lands on that dish.
- Connect your own Claude or ChatGPT and it can bring in your bank statements too. Anything it changes waits for you.
The iPad, iPhone and AI screens are samples, at a sample restaurant. The computer is AI-R’s real Menu page, from our own restaurant.
The books, kept as you go.
A plan, a budget and a cash forecast, kept current while the restaurant runs, and clean records that go straight to your accountant.
- 1
Plan
Set the sales you expect and what food, labor and everything else should cost. That's your budget, beside the public chains.
- 2
Track
Every morning the brief puts last night against the budget, and the cash forecast shows payroll, rent and the bills coming due.
- 3
Record
Connect your bank, or drop in or forward its statements, and every line is coded. Photograph receipts as they arrive; about 30 days in, every dish sold has a plate cost.
- 4
Hand off
At month end your accountant gets records to work from, with nothing to re-enter in between.
Check your prime cost
A typical month, roughly. Food and drink plus labor, against the big chains.
Dollars, or “60k”. Food and labor can also be a share of sales, like “31%”.
Example numbers. Type yours over them.
61.7%Your prime cost: $37,000 of $60,000 in sales.
Between Chili's (Brinker) at 57.4% and Darden (Olive Garden) at 62.3%.
- Chipotle54.7%
- Cheesecake Factory56.7%
- Chili's (Brinker)57.4%
- You61.7%
- Darden (Olive Garden)62.3%
- Texas Roadhouse68.3%
In AI-R this is your plan's first step, and the brief tracks it every morning. Chains' figures are from their latest 10-K filings, as a share of revenue. Nothing you type leaves this page.
The small screens are illustrations, not a restaurant's numbers.
Chan Nara, Middleburg, Virginia.
Chan Nara is our restaurant. We built AI-R by running it here, on a Thai kitchen and sushi bar with 14 staff, since April.
Chan Nara · since April
- Orders
- 5,315
- Orders on its own website
- 1,363
- Phone orders the AI took
- 332
- Nights closed and signed
- 64
- Tips settled to the cent
- $21,649
- Invoices captured from photos
- 56
- Dishes with a description
- 232 of 267
Read from Chan Nara's own records · Oct 6, 2026
Join the beta.
Ten restaurants at a time, from October 12. See the plans.
What happens next
- 1
A person replies
With your wave and what to have ready.
- 2
Day one
Texting and the AI phone line need a number registered with the carriers, which can take a few weeks, so we get the number and file it for you. You start photographing receipts as deliveries arrive; plate costs build from them, about 30 days in.
- 3
Setup, with us
Free, for as long as it takes.
- 4
Thirty nights free
On whichever plan you try. Then month to month.
Not ready? No email needed.