KOT printing
KOT software: kitchen tickets that never go missing.
A kitchen order ticket prints the moment a round is sent, routed by station, readable at a glance, reprintable without reopening the order.
The basics
What a KOT is, and why paper chits fail
A kitchen order ticket is the slip the kitchen cooks from. Written by hand it gets lost, misread, or never reaches the station that needs it.
A handwritten chit
- Hard to read at the pass in a rush.
- Walks to one place, even when two stations need it.
- Gone once it leaves the waiter’s hand.
A printed KOT
- Printed clearly, with the quantities in bold.
- Sent to every station the round touches.
- Recorded, so it can be printed again.
Anatomy of a KOT
Every line on the ticket has a job.
Table and time
Table 4 at 8:42 pm: the kitchen knows where it goes and how long it has waited.
Captain name
Who sent the round, so a question goes straight to the right waiter.
Quantities in bold
Big, bold counts that read at arm’s length over a hot pass.
Kitchen notes
"less spicy" prints under its dish, typed once at the table and never retold at the pass.
Routing
One order, many stations: tandoor, cold kitchen, bar
By station
Each item is set to a station once, and a round prints one ticket at every station it touches.
By order type
Dine-in, takeaway and delivery tickets say what they are, with the table or the token on top.
Reprint and retry
A ticket that did not print can be printed again from the counter or the phone, without reopening the order.
The print queue
A print queue that survives a restart
Every ticket is written to a queue on the counter PC before it prints. Out of paper, switched off, or a restarted PC: the ticket waits and prints when it can.
- Nothing prints straight from a tap; the queue owns every ticket.
- A paper-out or a pulled cable holds the ticket; it does not lose it.
- The counter shows what is waiting, so nobody has to guess.
From the phone
From the phone to the printer in one tap
A captain sends the round from the table. The counter turns it into tickets and the kitchen printers print them, over the outlet’s own Wi-Fi.
- No internet in the path, from the phone to the paper.
- The counter assigns the KOT number, never the phone.
- Notes typed at the table print on the ticket.
Questions
KOT questions
What is a KOT?
A kitchen order ticket: the slip the kitchen cooks from, printed per round.
Can one order print two KOTs?
Yes, one per station it touches.
Does KOT need the internet?
No, it travels on the outlet’s own network.
What if the kitchen printer is off?
The ticket waits in the queue and prints when the printer is back, or you reprint it from the phone.
Keep reading
Put the kitchen on tickets that never go missing.
Book a demo and watch a round print by station, or download ZaikaLab POS and connect your printer.