thread Re: menus vs regular format in Orders, Menu Items, Catalog & Fulfilment

menus vs regular format

cofcof — Sat, 20 Sep 2025 13:58:17 GMT

I own a coffee shop/cafe. We sell food and drinks, but also have retail items. I was wondering if the "menus" format would be better for us, or if i should stick to the classic square format? Any feedback from other cafes? We are fast casual, so wouldn't need table layout.

Re: menus vs regular format

_Violet — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 20:16:44 GMT

Hi @cofcof - Thanks for reaching out to us here on the Square Seller Community👋

You may find this resource on using Square for Restaurants for quick-service restaurants (such as a café) to be helpful.

I'll also tag in a few of the Square Champions who have similar business types so they can chime in and say what they like about using either the standard version or Restaurants 🙂 ☕

@bearandbeak @cupzcoffeeaz @Lovewell @MamiesToffee @artizansty @Donnie-M

Please let us know if you have any questions!

Re: menus vs regular format

bearandbeak — Tue, 03 Sep 2024 20:21:24 GMT

I definitely prefer using the classic square format. We didn't find the capabilities of the menus format match as well for our ordering style, especially for ordering ahead. But, it's been a while and I honestly don't remember what exactly didn't mesh for us.

Re: menus vs regular format

cupzcoffeeaz — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 16:38:22 GMT

Plus one on the above. I am using the classic square format, and I am not using square restaurants. It doesn't really add any value to us, plus it is more restrictive for our staff when they are customizing drinks. It is more conversational and in quick service like a coffee shop people drop a million modifiers all out once and conversational menus make it very challenging

Re: menus vs regular format

Donnie-M — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 09:59:26 GMT

@cofcof I have used both and actually have used both in a single store. The restaurants app is very much tailored to dining. It works really well for counter service and has some really slick features for multiple store management. The square app for a single shop is also very good. Either one will sell whatever you want. I personally prefer the square app to the retail app if you do any type of food service (I have used retail for a couple of events that were no modifiers and required fast cashiering). The KDS will work with both versions, but you might want to look at the restaurants version for upcoming features that are going to help with how you bundle and sell items.

I recommend that you try them both out. Where I have found that if you have multiple locations and the menus aren't the same, then the point of sale app has a few nuanced advantages that the restaurants app just wasn't built for. Both will work, but on generating your item grid and managing items it can get tricky.