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No longer developedRestaurants
The Addubby logo, white on a red background.

The problem

People sitting down at a table want to know what they're about to eat: ingredients, allergens, nutritional values, where a dish comes from. A paper menu has little room, often speaks a single language and has to be reprinted every time it changes. Meanwhile, taking orders costs the waiters time and leaves room for mistakes.

Who it's for

Restaurants with table service

Menu, orders, bookings and the bill all ran through one system.

Pubs, bars and delis

Customers ordered from their phone and the app told them when to pick up at the counter.

Takeaway and delivery

Orders from outside went into the same flow as orders in the dining room.

People eating out

Before ordering, they could see what was in the dish, in their own language.

What it does

The dish comes first

Every dish had its own card: ingredients, allergens, nutritional values, origin and history, in several languages. If the recipe wasn't a house secret, the restaurant could publish it.

Orders from the phone

At the table, for takeaway or for delivery, depending on how the restaurant worked. Several people at the same table could build one order together.

Bookings

Guests booked from a dedicated page, even if they didn't have an account, and could change the booking later.

Pay in the app or at the till

In the app the amount stayed on hold until the restaurant closed the order, so a refund didn't get complicated. At the till, the bill was already waiting.

Verified orders

Each restaurant chose how to check that an order really came from someone in the room: a QR code handed out at the door, manual approval, a Bluetooth Low Energy device in the room, or no check at all. The Bluetooth check later became a project of its own, Troveme.

No new hardware

A thermal printer and a Linux or Windows computer the restaurant already had were enough. If they didn't have one, we supplied a preconfigured device that draws only a few watts.

How it works

The restaurant added its dishes and menu. The customer sat down, scanned the menu QR code, read the dish cards and ordered. The restaurant accepted the order, in full or in part depending on availability, and asked for payment. The customer paid in the app or at the till. When the dish was ready a notification went out, then came delivery: to the table or to the door.

Images

How an order moved, from the restaurant signing up to the dish being delivered. Diagram from the technical documentation.

Technical details

Technologies
  • CMS proprietario su database a grafo, che collega piatti, ricette e nutrienti
  • Applicazioni modulari (microservizi)
  • Notifiche verso i clienti e tra le applicazioni interne
  • Bluetooth Low Energy per verificare chi è in sala
Integrations
  • Stripe Connect per i pagamenti in app
  • Stampanti termiche USB o Ethernet
Where it runs
App and web for customers, orders in the cloud; for the restaurant, a small program for Linux or Windows.

Where it took us

Related

Other products related to this one, and the open source libraries that came out of it or that it uses.

TrovemeProving that a smartphone is really inside an indoor space, where GPS can't reach.

Frequently asked questions

Can Addubby still be used?

No, we don't develop it any more. It's a finished project of ours, and this page shows how it worked.

Was Addubby just a menu?

The menu was the first piece. The project documents also described Diet, for choosing dishes that fit a diet, Chef, for finding recipes from the ingredients at hand, and ShareEat, for getting restaurants' surplus food to NGOs.

Questions about this project? Let's talk.

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