Meet the DineKit Kitchen Display System (KDS)
July 25, 2026 · 3 min read
Paper tickets get lost. Printers jam. A shout across a busy kitchen gets drowned out by the extractor fan. So we built something better into DineKit — a live Kitchen Display System that puts every order on one screen, and it is free, right inside the plugin you already have.
A live board, not another printout
The Kitchen Display System (KDS) is a real-time kitchen board. Orders move through three clear columns — New, Preparing and Ready — so anyone glancing at the screen knows exactly where every dish stands. When a ticket is done, one tap sends it off the board. No stacks of paper, no crossing things out, no wondering which order came in first.
It is part of DineKit itself. Not an add-on, not an upsell, not a monthly fee. If you run DineKit, you can turn the board on today.
Timers so nothing gets forgotten
Every ticket carries its own timer from the moment it lands. As time passes, the colour escalates — it turns amber after around eight minutes and red after about fifteen. That gentle visual nudge means the table waiting the longest is impossible to miss, even during a rush. Your team can see at a glance what needs attention now, without anyone having to keep it all in their head.
Every detail the kitchen actually needs
A good ticket tells the whole story, so each one on the board shows:
- The full list of items in the order
- Chosen and removed modifiers — extra cheese, no onions, swap the fries
- Kitchen notes, so special requests and allergy warnings are right there
- An order-type icon that instantly tells dine-in (table), delivery and collection apart
Because the board reads straight from DineKit’s existing orders, everything lands in one place. Takeaway, delivery and QR order-at-table tickets all appear on the same screen. If you already take orders through DineKit’s online ordering, those tickets flow onto the board automatically — there is nothing extra to wire up.
It keeps itself up to date
The board refreshes on its own, polling for new orders roughly every twelve seconds. New tickets simply appear — no one has to hit reload or babysit a browser tab. In the middle of service, that means your kitchen sees an order almost as soon as the customer places it, hands-free.
Turn any screen into a kitchen display
There is a full-screen mode built for exactly this. Prop up a spare tablet, mount an old monitor by the pass, or cast to a TV on the wall — full-screen mode turns any of them into a dedicated kitchen display. Big, readable tickets, no browser clutter, just the orders. Whatever screen you have spare can become your kitchen TV.
How a ticket moves through service
The flow is deliberately simple, because a kitchen at full tilt has no time for fiddly buttons:
- An order comes in and appears in New.
- One tap moves it to Preparing as the team starts cooking.
- Another tap marks it Ready for the pass, collection or the delivery driver.
- A final tap clears it off the board — done.
One tap per stage. That is the whole interaction. It is fast enough to use with flour on your hands and clear enough that a new starter picks it up in a shift.
Free, and part of the plugin you already have
We think a working kitchen board should not be locked behind a paywall, so the KDS ships inside DineKit at no cost. It sits alongside everything else the plugin does — you can see the full picture on our all features page. Whether you run a small café taking collection orders or a busier spot juggling dine-in, delivery and takeaway at once, the board keeps every ticket in view and moving.
Restaurants and cafés around the world already run their service on DineKit. The Kitchen Display System is our answer to the oldest problem in any kitchen: keeping track of what to cook, and in what order, without the paper chaos. Switch it on and give it a service — we think the pass will feel calmer by the end of the night.