A digital screen in the kitchen that replaces paper tickets and routes incoming orders to the line, expo, and prep stations.
Kitchen Display System (KDS)
A digital screen in the kitchen that replaces paper tickets and routes incoming orders to the line, expo, and prep stations.
A kitchen display system (KDS) is a digital screen in the kitchen that replaces paper tickets, taking orders straight from the point of sale and routing them to the right station — grill, fry, saute, cold line, or expo. It shows each ticket with timers and course information so the line can pace and coordinate.
Because it is fed by the POS, a KDS keeps dine-in, online, and third-party-delivery orders in one queue instead of a pile of printed chits.
- What it adds over paper: per-station routing, bump-and-recall, ticket timers, and all-day item counts.
- Where it fits: orders flow POS → KDS → expo; 86'd items pushed at the POS gray out on the screen.
KDS hardware and software are usually sold as a module of a restaurant POS such as Toast or TouchBistro. See the kitchen display system pillar for how operators choose one.