Fill your tables. Keep your margin.

Allergen information for Irish restaurants: the 14 allergens in writing

One wrong answer about an allergen can put a guest in hospital. Here are the 14 allergens, what to have in writing, and how to make the right answer the easy one for every shift.

How to open a restaurant or cafe in Ireland: the order to do it in

Most delays in opening a food business come from doing the right things in the wrong order. Here is the order, who to ask at each step, and a checklist to download.

Make your restaurant or cafe accessible: practical steps for Irish venues

Accessibility is partly a building and mostly a habit. Most of what makes a place welcome costs little: a clear path, a readable menu, a quiet table and staff who know what to say.

Music licences for Irish venues: PPI, IMRO and what you actually need

Switching on a playlist in a public place is a public performance. In Ireland that usually means two licences from two bodies. Here is who they are and how to sort it out before the first letter arrives.

Register a food business in Ireland and write a HACCP plan

Registration is a form. The plan behind it is the part inspectors read. This is what goes in a HACCP-based plan for a cafe or restaurant, and the records that prove you follow it.

Restaurant payroll basics in Ireland: PAYE, USC, PRSI and payslips

Payroll is where a good kitchen gets quietly into trouble. Here is the setup, the monthly rhythm and the records, in plain words, for an owner who is not an accountant.

Restaurant rotas and working time rules in Ireland

A rota is a legal document as well as a plan. These are the rest-break and rest-period rules every Irish restaurant rota has to respect, with a rota template that totals your labour cost.

Tips and tip pools in Irish restaurants: the law and a fair split

Since 2022 an Irish employer has to share tips fairly and say how in writing. Here is what that asks of you, the three common ways to split a pool, and how to keep the maths honest.

VAT for Irish restaurants and cafes: rates, returns and the traps

Food and drink carry different VAT rates depending on what you sell and how, and the rates have moved. Here is how to think about it, where to check the number and what Mosey can and cannot do.

Cut food waste in a restaurant kitchen: measure it, then cut it

You cannot cut what you have not measured. Two weeks of logging what goes in the bin shows where the money goes, and most of it comes from three or four causes you can fix.

Run stations, courses and the pass on a kitchen display

A kitchen display is only as good as its routing. Send each dish to the right station, hold the main until the starter is cleared, and let the pass see everything. Here is how to set it up.

Win company orders with Mosey for Teams: what offices ask and how to answer

An office that finds you once can order every week. Teams brings those orders into the catering queue you already use. Here is what changes for your kitchen and how to get ready.

The best online ordering system for a small restaurant

The best ordering system for a small restaurant is not the one with the most features. It is the one whose cost you can say out loud, that leaves the customer yours, and that the kitchen can keep up with on a Friday.

Low-commission online ordering for Irish restaurants

Commission is the line on an ordering platform that decides whether an online order makes you money. Here is how to compare it honestly, in euro, and what a genuinely low-commission set-up looks like for an Irish venue.

Group ordering and splitting the bill

One person starts the order, everybody adds their own items, and everybody pays their own share. You receive one order and one payment position, without a table of eight working out who had the chips.

Delivery for Irish restaurants at 6% commission

Offer delivery on your own terms at 6% commission, with your own zones, fees and minimums, using your drivers or a shared driver pool.

The kitchen display: one screen for every order

App orders, phone orders and the counter on one screen, bumped item by item, with the customer told the moment their food is ready.

Order Ahead and delivery for Irish food businesses

Take collection and delivery orders on your own terms, at 1.5% on Order Ahead and 6% on delivery, with the kitchen display, curbside pickup and group ordering built in.

Order Ahead: collection ordering at 1.5% commission

Let customers order and pay ahead and collect without queueing, at 1.5% commission, with pickup slots, curbside and scheduled orders.

Driver pools: deliver without hiring a single driver

Borrow the drivers a neighbouring venue already employs, at a flat fee they set between €1.00 and €10.00 a drop. No fleet, no rota, no idle wages on a quiet Tuesday.

Voice ordering: let customers say their order

Customers say their order into the Mosey app instead of tapping through a menu. It is matched to your live menu and lands as a normal Order Ahead order once they confirm.

An Irish alternative to delivery apps: keep more of every order

Delivery apps commonly charge around 30%. How to take collection and delivery orders directly, choose how food reaches the door, and keep the customer relationship.

Direct sales for food businesses: cut out the middlemen

Every intermediary takes a cut and keeps the customer. How to move orders, vouchers and bookings onto direct channels without losing trade on the way.

Why your restaurant, café or food truck should offer collection

Collection adds sales without tables, servers or couriers. How to set up pickup slots, protect the kitchen, price it properly and get regulars ordering ahead.

A free restaurant booking system, and what free covers

Plenty of booking systems are "free" until the first busy weekend. Here is what a genuinely free plan should include, where the catches usually hide, and how to tell when it is time to pay for more.

How to reduce no-shows at your restaurant

No-shows are not one problem, so there is no single fix. Most are forgetting, some are carelessness, and a few are habit. Here is how to deal with each, starting with the cheapest.

How to set up a walk-in queue for your restaurant

A walk-in queue replaces a clipboard and a crowd in the doorway with a list on people’s own phones. Here is how to set one up, what to decide before the first busy night, and the mistakes to avoid.

How to set up online reservations for your restaurant

Online reservations are mostly decisions, not software: when you take bookings, how long a table is held, and what you ask for up front. Here is how to make those decisions and put bookings where diners already are.

The floor, and the people who do not turn up

A view of the room rather than a list of names, and a record of who actually turns up, so the decision about which bookings need a deposit is an informed one rather than a guess about a stranger.

A waitlist: sell the table a cancellation frees up

When a date is full, a waitlist takes the name instead of losing the customer. When somebody cancels, the table goes to the list automatically rather than sitting empty on your busiest night.

Take bookings on your own website and Instagram

A booking form that sits on your own website, and a link that works from an Instagram bio or a story. Same diary as every other booking, and no commission on a reservation.

Early bird offers: fill the first sitting

A perk attached to a quiet booking slot and badged on it, honoured at the table. No deposit, no ticket, no code, and the wording is frozen onto the booking so staff always see what was promised.

Gatherings: private hire and large group bookings

Take enquiries for the bookings too big to just book: quote back, hold a deposit at 4.5%, split it across the group, and collect everyone's dietary requirements with one link.

Restaurant reservations, deposits and no-show protection

Take bookings from wherever a diner finds you, protect the covers you have taken with deposits and card holds, and pay 0% on every deposit. Free up to 75 bookings a month.

Mosey Queue: manage walk-ins without a booking system

A free digital waitlist for the door. Guests join from their phone with no app and no account, get a message when the table is ready, and stop crowding your entrance.

How to get more Christmas, Valentine's and occasion bookings

Start earlier than feels natural, sell occasions as set sittings with deposits on big tables, and use December to fill January.

Grow your Irish restaurant: marketing, bookings and loyalty

Growth for an independent comes from four places: being found, keeping the covers you book, filling quiet hours and bringing people back. Here is how to work each one.

Restaurant technology in Ireland: what is worth paying for

Buy technology that earns or saves money you can name, read your market from your own trade, and skip anything you cannot measure.

Work out if a ticketed food event pays before you sell a ticket

A full room is not a profitable night. Cost the evening line by line, find how many tickets you need to break even, and set a price and a cap you can run well.

How to run restaurant promotions that actually work

Most restaurant promotions discount a meal somebody was going to buy anyway. The ones that work move demand into a quiet hour, sell a limited number, and bring people back at full price. Here is how to run those.

Run promotions: sell the quiet table before it goes cold

A promotion is an offer customers buy in advance rather than one they turn up hoping for. Cap how many you sell, choose which days they are valid, and take the money before anybody sits down.

Sell event tickets: fill the night before it happens

Supper clubs, tastings, quiz nights and launches. Sell tickets at 4%, take the money before the night rather than after it, run a waitlist when you sell out, and check people in at the door in a second.

Sell gift vouchers: money now, custom later

Customers buy a voucher on their phone and redeem it in person, or send it to somebody else as a gift. You are paid when they buy, not when they redeem, and you can add bonus credit to push the amount up.

Deal Hours: put a price on your quiet period

A discount that only exists between three and five on a Tuesday, on the items you choose, on the channels you choose. It switches itself on and off.

Mosey Food Stays: food-led breaks for hotels

Reach food lovers planning a trip, with a flat subscription from €19.99 a month. No commission, no per-booking fee, and guests book on your own site at your own rates.

Grow revenue: vouchers, promotions, events and memberships

Bring money in before the meal and reasons to come back after it: gift vouchers, promotions, Deal Hours, ticketed events, gatherings and recurring memberships, from 4.5% commission.

Food trails: bring a street of venues its own footfall

Several venues, one ticket, one afternoon. A trail sends customers to each stop in turn and settles the money automatically, at 8% commission.

Early bird, student and weekend specials that make you money

Specials earn money when they move people into hours you would otherwise lose. Here is how to price and run early bird, student and weekend offers.

How to sell tickets for restaurant events in Ireland

A ticketed night is paid for before you shop for it. How to choose, price, sell and run a restaurant event, and what it costs on Mosey.

An alternative to Eventbrite for Irish food events

General ticketing platforms sell everything from concerts to conferences. For a supper club, tasting or cookery class, the fees and the audience both matter. Here is how to compare them, and what selling on a food-first platform looks like.

Launch a founding membership with a waiting list and a countdown

A founding run turns a new membership into an event: limited seats, a launch price and a countdown. Here is how to plan it, what the waiting list does and the mistakes to avoid.

Price a venue membership so it pays: templates, caps and the margin check

A membership that is too generous loses money on your best customers. Here is how to choose a shape, cap the perks and test the worst case before you sell a single plan.

How to start a loyalty scheme for your café

A good café loyalty scheme is simple, reachable and invisible at the counter. Here is how to design one: what to reward, how quickly, and why the paper stamp card is the weakest version.

Coalitions: one membership, several independent venues

Several independent venues sharing one membership, with the money settled based on where it was actually used. A card for one café is a card nobody carries; a card for eight is one somebody uses weekly.

Run a membership: turn regulars into subscribers

Charge monthly or annually for perks, credit and member-only nights. It turns your best customers into predictable revenue and gives them a reason to choose you when they are deciding between three places.

Run a loyalty programme, free

Reward spend or visits, keep your own customer data, and pay nothing to run it. Loyalty is free on every tier, with no commission on the spend it rewards.

Mosey Tap: everything a customer is owed, on one screen

A customer taps a tag on your counter, or reads out a six-digit code, and everything they are owed from you opens on one screen. Works alongside whatever till you already have, and there is no separate charge for it.

Take card payments without a card terminal

A card terminal is one more device to rent, charge and pay fees on. For customers who use Mosey, the phone in their pocket can do the same job, and record their loyalty at the same time. Here is how it works, and where you still need a terminal.

Your data: who can see it, and who it belongs to

Your customer relationships are yours, card details never touch Mosey, there are no third-party analytics trackers anywhere in the product, and each member of your team sees only what their role allows.

Refunds: what you decide, and what the law decides

Mosey does not decide refunds: that contract is between you and your customer. What follows is the line between the refunds you decide and the small set the law decides, and why dated bookings sit outside it.

Getting paid: your money goes to your account

Mosey never holds your money. Every payment goes to your own Stripe account and pays out to your bank on your own schedule, with commission taken at the point of sale rather than invoiced later.

Mosey pricing: what everything costs

Every rate in one place. Free to list, commission only when you earn, and paid plans only for reservations and Food Stays. All figures exclude VAT.

Take payments in store with Mosey Pay at 0.5%

Let customers pay their bill from their phone for a 0.5% fee, capped at €149 a month, with no booking fee, tips kept in full, and loyalty and membership benefits applied automatically at the counter.

The Mosey till: take the order, take the money, close the day

A till that runs in a browser tab on hardware you already own. Lines and modifiers, tables and split bills, shifts with a cash count and a Z report at the end of the night, and it keeps selling when the broadband goes.

Lower fees and money up front: keep more of every sale

Most fees a restaurant pays are commission, per-cover charges and money held by platforms. Here is where they go and how to keep more.

Restaurant costs and profit margins: how to work out your own

National averages will not run your restaurant. Four numbers from your own books will. Here is how to work each one out, with examples.

What is pay now, redeem later? Cash up front for food businesses

Vouchers, event tickets and paid promotions bring money in before you cook. It is not a loan: it is customers' money, and the meal is still owed. How to use it well.

How to make a quiet Monday or Tuesday pay

First decide whether the quiet day should open at all. If it should, shrink it to the hours that trade and give it a reason to come that only exists on that day.

Reply to restaurant reviews and ratings: good, bad and unfair

A reply is written for the next hundred people who read it. Thank, fix, move on. Here are the scripts that work, the mistakes that cost you customers and how replying works on Mosey.

Restaurant marketing ideas that cost little or nothing

The best restaurant marketing is rarely an advert. It is being easy to find, easy to choose and easy to come back to. Here are ideas that cost little or nothing, in roughly the order they pay off.

Ways to increase footfall at a café or restaurant

Footfall is not one problem. People have to find you, have a reason to come in now, and have a reason to come back. Here are practical ways to work on each, most of which cost little or nothing.

Sponsored posts and push campaigns: reaching people directly

Two ways to reach people directly: a sponsored post that appears in the feed near you, and a push campaign to customers who agreed to hear from you. Both show the audience before you pay.

Replying to ratings: the reply is for everybody else

You are not writing to the person who complained. You are writing to the next hundred people deciding whether to eat with you, and they are reading how you handle being criticised.

Boost: put your venue in front of people nearby

Paid reach inside Mosey. Put your venue, a dish, an event, an offer or a food trail in front of people nearby, with the estimated reach shown before you pay and a budget you set yourself.

Your customer list: find who stopped coming, and ask them back

Every venue loses regulars quietly. Mosey builds the list from your own counter, orders and bookings, shows you who has gone missing, and lets you send them a reason to come back, to the people who agreed to hear from you.

Automations: the messages you never get round to sending

Eight ready-made customer messages that send themselves: win a lapsed regular back, thank someone after an order, nudge a loyalty card one visit short. You set the rule once and approve the ones you want to see first.

One inbox for every customer conversation

Booking messages, order questions, private hire enquiries and job applicants in one place, with saved replies and a needs-reply filter so nothing sits unanswered.

Get discovered: how customers find your business on Mosey

Ratings, the Gold mark, place hubs, dish discovery, food trails and paid outreach: the ways a customer who has never heard of you ends up at your table.

How your venue earns Mosey Gold

The one mark on Mosey that cannot be bought at any price. Here is exactly how it is calculated, what is excluded, and why we will not sell it to you.

Work with food creators and influencers

Book food creators for your venue with clear deliverables and escrow-protected payment, at 2.5% commission. No negotiation by DM and no paying up front and hoping.

Using app notifications to fill slow seats: what to send and when

A notification reaches people who already like you, on the day you need them. How to time it, word it, attach the right offer and automate the messages you never get round to.

How to fill empty tables fast, and what each fix costs

Empty tables have different causes, and each has a different fix. Start with the gaps you already have, then the quiet slots, then strangers.

How do I get more customers for my restaurant in Ireland?

Get found where people decide, give them a reason to come, make saying yes easy, and bring first-timers back. Here is how, in order.

How do I increase revenue at my café in Ireland?

Café revenue is customers, times visits, times spend. Practical ways to lift each one, from honest add-ons and bundles to loyalty, order-ahead coffee and quiet-hour pricing.

Why customer ratings beat ads for restaurants, cafés and food trucks

People trust other diners more than they trust your ads. How to collect more ratings honestly, reply in a way that wins the next customer, and let your best dishes be found.

Why social media stopped working for food businesses, and what to do

Organic reach fell because the platforms chose advertising. What still works on social media for a food business, and the channels you can rely on instead.

Onboard and train new restaurant staff in 30 days

The first month decides whether a new starter stays. A short, written plan with a buddy, a food safety briefing on day one and a sign-off at the end keeps people and protects guests.

Rota, timesheets and leave: the admin nobody wants

Build the rota once, have every member of staff see their own shifts, track the hours actually worked, and handle leave requests without a group chat. It is the admin nobody enjoys, in the place you already are.

Sell courses: teach what you already know

Sell cookery classes, coffee training, wine tastings or hospitality qualifications, online, in person or both. Bookings, payment and certificates are handled, and you can train your own staff on the same thing.

Hiring, staff and training for hospitality businesses

Post roles for free, hire specialists by the shift from 33 contractor categories, onboard staff with contracts and documents, and train them with courses, all from the same dashboard.

How to run a supper club or tasting night that sells out

A supper club is a fixed menu, a fixed number of seats and a fixed night, sold as tickets paid in advance. Here is how to cost it, sell it and make it a habit.

How to add catering to your restaurant or café

Office lunches, platters and parties, quoted properly, with a deposit up front, the balance before the day and a prep sheet for the kitchen.

How to get more ratings and reviews for your restaurant, honestly

Ask, at the right moment, every customer, and make it easy. Never offer anything in return. A steady stream of honest ratings is worth more than any burst you could buy.

How to price a set menu or early-bird menu

Cost the dearest choice in each course, divide by your food cost target, add VAT and round up. Then check what each cover leaves you, not only the percentage.

How to price catering: per head, platters and the costs you forget

Food cost is the easy part. Packaging, prep hours, the drive and the staff are where catering quotes lose money. Here is how to price all of it.

How to write a menu that sells

A menu that sells is short, in the order people eat, and easy to picture: what the dish is, one detail that makes it yours, allergens declared and prices with VAT.

Cash flow for Irish restaurants: the 13-week view that stops surprises

Profit is an opinion and cash is a fact. A 13-week forecast shows the week the VAT bill and the quarter's rent land together, and what you can do about it before it arrives.

Food cost and gross profit explained: cost a dish properly

Food cost percentage is one division, but most restaurants get the inputs wrong. Here is how to cost a dish from your invoices, allow for trim and cooking loss, and price from the result.

Let members join and cancel online with your own membership link

Not everyone has the app. Your membership join link lets a guest sign in by email, pay and start, and gives them a page to cancel in one step. Here is how it works and why cancelling is easy.

Market a new restaurant or cafe in its first 90 days

The first 90 days decide whether a new place becomes a habit. This is a plan you can run with a small team and no ad budget: be findable, be rated, be remembered.

Member letters and the weekly digest: keep paying members close, for free

A paying member should hear from you without being spammed. Letters are free with a membership, they respect consent, and replies come to your inbox. Here is what to write.

Menu engineering for cafes and restaurants: find your stars and your dogs

Your best seller is not always your best earner. A four-box method sorts every dish by how often it sells and how much it makes, and tells you what to do with each.

Plan the restaurant year around the Irish calendar: busy weeks and quiet ones

Irish trade is lumpy: bank holiday weekends, Communion Saturdays, a summer of visitors, a loud December and a flat January. Plan each stretch in advance and the lumps work for you.

Which members are worth it? Notes, tags and the profitability card

You know your regulars by name. A private card for each member, and one honest sentence about whether a plan pays, turns that memory into something your whole team can use.

Write a cancellation and deposit policy guests will accept

A good cancellation policy is short, fair and stated before the guest pays. Here is how to choose the deposit, the window and the refund, with the wording that keeps regulars on side.

Restaurant software for a small independent business

A small independent does not need an enterprise stack. It needs a handful of things that work together, cost little in a quiet month, and do not need a manager to run. Here is how to choose them.

Running several venues: one account, separate rooms

One account, several venues. Each site has its own menu, hours and team, staff see only where they work, and you get the comparison between them that a single-venue view cannot give you.

Pop-ups, trucks and markets: be findable where you actually are

A food truck is a schedule, not an address. Tell people where you will be and when, appear on the map while you are actually there, and take orders and payments without a permanent site.

Claim your business: make your Mosey page yours

There are over twelve thousand venues on Mosey and most of them have not been claimed by anybody. If yours is one of them, claiming it is free, takes a few minutes, and puts you in control of what people see.

Analytics and owning your customer data

Who your regulars are, what they order, when your quiet hours actually are, and what every fee cost you, with the customer relationship staying yours.

Menus: scan yours in minutes and make every dish findable

Photograph your existing menu and let Mosey read it, then let every dish be rated, photographed and found on its own. Specials that expire themselves, and voice ordering when you want it.

Refer a venue to Mosey and earn €100

Recommend Mosey to another food business: they get €75.00 of credit, you get €100.00 once they are properly up and running, or €119.99 off your own reservations plan instead.

Starting a food business in Ireland: a practical guide

The registrations, food safety basics, VAT, pricing and first-customer steps for opening a restaurant, café, food truck or catering business in Ireland.

An alternative to Groupon for Irish restaurants

Deal sites can fill a room, but the discount and the platform’s share together often leave a restaurant serving meals at a loss. Here is how to compare them honestly, and what a promotion looks like when the maths works.

An alternative to OpenTable for Irish restaurants

International booking systems often charge by the cover, so the bill grows as you get busier. Here is how to compare them fairly with a flat-priced, Irish-built alternative that also puts your tables in front of diners.