POS software for BBQ and karahi restaurants in Pakistan
A BBQ and karahi restaurant sells meat by the piece and by the kilo, mostly after dark, to big families who order in rounds. ArfaPOS shows which tables are free, lets waiters add each round from a tablet, sends it to the kitchen and tracks the meat that comes in each morning.
What makes this trade hard to run.
Skewers counted per piece
Seekh kebab, chicken tikka, malai boti and reshmi kebab are sold per piece or per plate. Waiters lose count when a table orders three rounds.
Karahi by half and full kilo
Mutton karahi at today's mutton price can cost the restaurant most of what it charges. Prices set months ago may be losing money.
The night rush is everything
From 9 pm to 1 am the tandoor, the BBQ grill and the karahi stove all run flat out. Orders shouted across the yard get mixed up, and families wait at the gate while tables sit empty.
Meat goes missing
Mince for seekh and boneless chicken for tikka are expensive. Without a count of pieces sold, there is no way to know if a kilo made 16 seekhs or 13.
Built around the way you work.
Table plan with free and occupied status
Set up every table in the hall, the roof and the yard with its capacity. The counter sees which are free or occupied, and each order is tagged to its table.
Rounds from the waiter's tablet
On Business, waiters add the second and third round at the table on a tablet. Orders reopen and grow, go to the kitchen and counter, and print through the counter PC. Discounts need a manager PIN.
Per-piece items and half or full karahi
Set up seekh, tikka and boti per piece or per plate, and chicken and mutton karahi in half and full kg, each with its own price and recipe.
Kitchen display for grill, tandoor and stove
From Growth, each order reaches the kitchen screen with a timer, so cooks see what is pending and what has waited longest.
Recipes per kilo of meat
If a kilo of mince should make 16 seekhs, the recipe says so. Seekhs sold deduct mince from stock, and the count shows any shortfall.
Butcher's ledger and offline billing
Daily meat purchases go against the butcher's supplier ledger. If the internet drops at midnight, the counter keeps billing offline and syncs later.
From opening to closing.
Morning: meat arrives
Mutton, chicken and mince come in from the butcher. Each purchase is entered so stock and the supplier ledger are updated.
Afternoon: marination and skewering
Tikka is marinated, seekhs are shaped, naan dough rests. Charcoal is bought and paid from the drawer as an expense.
Evening: first families
Tables fill from 8 pm. The table plan shows what is free. Waiters send karahi, BBQ platters and naan to the kitchen from their tablets.
Night rush
From 9 pm to 1 am, second and third rounds of BBQ and naan are added to running table orders. The bill is split across cash and JazzCash when the family pays.
After midnight: close
The manager checks pieces sold against meat used, pays the butcher's balance and closes each till.
How a BBQ and karahi place actually runs
From Peshawar's Namak Mandi style karahi houses to the BBQ spots on Lahore's food streets, the pattern is the same. Meat is bought in the morning, prepared in the afternoon, and sold in a huge rush at night. A family of ten orders a full mutton karahi, two plates of seekh, a plate of tikka and fifteen naan. Thirty minutes later they order another plate of seekh and five more naan. Each round must reach the right cook and land on the right bill.
With ArfaPOS, the waiter opens the table's order on the tablet, adds the round and sends it to the kitchen display. The bill grows as the night goes on, and the cashier prints it once the family asks. The table plan shows the table as occupied until it is paid, so the host at the gate knows which tables are about to free up.
Worked example: mutton versus chicken karahi
| Line | Mutton karahi, full (Rs) | Chicken karahi, full (Rs) |
|---|---|---|
| Meat, 1 kg | 2,600 | 650 |
| Tomatoes | 120 | 120 |
| Ghee or oil | 200 | 150 |
| Green chilli, ginger, spices | 100 | 80 |
| Total cost | 3,020 | 1,000 |
| Menu price | 5,000 | 2,400 |
| Food cost | 60.4% | 41.7% |
Mutton karahi brings in more rupees per order, Rs 1,980 over ingredient cost, against Rs 1,400 for chicken. Its food cost is far higher, and a Rs 200 rise in mutton per kg cuts that margin to Rs 1,780. Recipe-linked costs in ArfaPOS show the change as soon as the new purchase price is entered, so you can decide whether to change the menu price.
Worked example: counting seekh kebabs
One kilo of beef mince at Rs 1,300 plus Rs 100 of fat, onion and spices makes 16 seekhs. That is Rs 1,400 per kilo, or Rs 87.50 per seekh. At Rs 200 a seekh, the food cost is 43.75%. The recipe tells ArfaPOS to deduct 1/16 of a kilo of mince per seekh sold.
If the restaurant used 10 kg of mince today, it should have sold 160 seekhs. If the report shows 140, then 20 seekhs are unaccounted for, worth Rs 4,000 at menu price. They may have been made too large, eaten by staff or sold without a bill. You only find out by counting, and the recipe does the counting for you. See restaurant inventory software for how stock counts work.
Naan from the tandoor
Naan is cheap but sold in huge numbers. Set up roghni, plain and garlic naan as separate items so the tandoor's sales are visible. If flour use per day doesn't match naan sold, the gap shows up in stock.
Paying the butcher, the staff and the tax
The butcher often delivers on credit and is paid weekly. Recording each delivery in his supplier ledger means the balance is never in dispute. Charcoal, ice and naan flour bought in cash are recorded as expenses. Karahi houses with a big staff can run payroll on the Business plan, with allowances, deductions and salary advances for the tikka man who asks for an advance every Thursday. PRA e-invoice receipts with a QR code print from the counter on Growth and Business. To get started, request a quote and the AiroxLab team will set up your menu and tables over WhatsApp and video call.
Questions people ask
Can I bill seekh kebab per piece?
Yes. Set up seekh kebab, tikka and other BBQ items per piece or per plate, each with its own price and recipe.
Can a table keep ordering in rounds on the same bill?
Yes. The dine-in order stays open on its table. New rounds are added from the counter or, on Business, from the waiter's tablet, and go to the kitchen. The cashier prints the final bill when the table asks.
Can I see which tables are free?
Yes. Tables are set up with capacity and location, and the table view shows each one as free or occupied. This is available on all plans.
How do I track meat from the butcher?
Record each meat purchase against the butcher in suppliers. Recipes deduct meat as items sell, so you can compare stock used with stock bought.
Will it keep working during late-night load-shedding?
Yes. ArfaPOS works offline and syncs when the internet returns. Keep the counter PC and receipt printer on a UPS so billing continues through power cuts.
Similar businesses
Restaurants
A family restaurant runs three businesses at once: a dining hall, a takeaway counter and a delivery line. ArfaPOS puts all three on one live system, from the waiter's tablet and the kitchen screen to the rider's phone, and shows the owner what was sold, spent and left in the store by closing time.
Hotel restaurants
The restaurant in a hotel serves house guests at breakfast, outside diners at lunch and dinner, and the odd wedding party in between. ArfaPOS runs the restaurant side: tables, billing, kitchen orders, recipes, store, expenses and staff, so the restaurant's own numbers are clear.
Food chains and multi-branch restaurants
Once a restaurant opens its second and third branch, the owner can no longer stand at every counter. ArfaPOS puts every branch under one login, compares branches side by side, moves stock from the warehouse, and runs payroll and accounts for the whole chain.
Tell us about your business.
We reply with a price, a demo time and the setup that fits your branches, counters and users.