We use Lightspeed at Fork. Which, admittedly, is unlikely to be the reason you choose somewhere for lunch.
You want your order taken correctly, your food to arrive and paying to be straightforward. The technology earns its place by helping those things happen.
For anyone opening a café, choosing a point-of-sale system deserves a bit more thought than finding something that accepts a card. It sits in the middle of service, connecting what the customer asks for with what the business records.
Lightspeed's restaurant offering includes tools for managing menus and understanding sales. Those are useful areas to look at. The important question is how any proposed system fits the way your café actually works.
Give the demonstration a real order
Ask the person showing you the software to put through a typical order from your menu. Then change it. Remove an item, add a request and try the sort of combination customers are likely to buy.
Let the people who will use it have a go. Something that makes perfect sense to a salesperson who knows every screen may be rather less obvious to somebody on their first busy shift.
Then look at what you can learn afterwards. You should be able to understand your sales without spending the evening trying to remember which sandwiches disappeared first. Useful information can help with preparation and ordering, provided somebody actually looks at it.
Read beyond the feature list
Check which functions come with the package you're considering, what costs extra and how support works. Ask what happens when the internet connection fails, including what happens to payments. Get a clear answer for the actual setup you're buying.
The café still needs sensible processes and people who know how to use them. Software can support a clear way of working; it can also preserve a muddle with remarkable efficiency.
For Fork, the customer-facing promise is simple: fresh food and a good welcome. Everything behind the counter, including the till, should help us deliver it.