Approval gate
An approval gate is the step where a staff member taps to accept a first QR order before it reaches the kitchen. It is the place in the order flow where human judgment sits between the guest tap and the cook hearing the bell.
What it means in operation
The order arrives on the staff app as a pending card. The waiter sees the table number, the items, the modifiers, and the order time. A tap on approve moves the order to the KDS and starts the cook timer. A tap on reject sends it back to the guest with a reason such as “out of stock” or “let’s confirm at the table”. On MobiTaste the gate is configurable per restaurant: always on, on for the first order of a table session only, or off. A typical full-service venue runs first-only, a quick-service venue runs off, a hotel restaurant runs always.
Why it matters
The gate is the difference between QR ordering you can defend in a manager meeting and QR ordering you cannot. Without it, a mis-tap, a prank, or an over-eager kid sends straight to fire. With it, the kitchen never gets garbage. The cost is one staff tap per accepted order, which is roughly two seconds. For a venue doing 80 covers a night, that adds about three minutes of staff work in exchange for zero comp tickets from QR errors. Most operators take the trade.
Related terms
- Table session: defines which orders re-enter the gate.
- KDS: where approved orders land next.
- Idle session expiry: the timer that closes a session and resets the gate.