Crunchtime Kitchen

Crunchtime Kitchen is a kitchen display system that routes orders to stations, paces tickets, forecasts what to cook, and shows order-ready boards, with rugged display hardware. It was ConnectSmart Kitchen from QSR Automations, renamed in January 2026 after that company merged with Crunchtime, and it now sits inside Crunchtime's wider back-of-house suite. It is sold to restaurant chains.

Last reviewed

Visit website
Home page of Crunchtime Kitchen's website
Crunchtime Kitchen's website on 30 September 2026
Best for
Large casual-dining and quick-service chains, Chains that want one vendor for kitchen, inventory and labour
Pricing
Quote only
Runs on
Web, Windows, Android

Who it is for

  • Large casual-dining and quick-service chains

    The vendor says it is used in 21 of the 25 largest US casual-dining chains and has been used by large restaurant brands for over 30 years.

  • Chains that want one vendor for kitchen, inventory and labour

    Sits alongside Crunchtime's inventory, scheduling and operations-execution products, which share data.

What it does

  • Kitchen display and order routing

    Customisable routing, pacing and prep stations; the vendor says orders are load-balanced by station capacity.

  • Bin management and forecasting

    Projection tool that reminds staff what to cook, when and how much, while tracking usage.

  • Order-ready boards

    Expo screens showing customer name, status or order number, with an SMS to the guest when food is ready.

  • POS integrations

    The vendor says it connects to over 80 point-of-sale systems.

  • Guest journey integrations

    Connects with Olo, Flybuy, Smart Bar USA and Curbit for online orders, bar and curbside pickup.

  • Kitchen display hardware

    Rugged all-in-one displays, controllers, touchscreens and bump bars from Elo, HP and Kitchen Armor.

  • Crunchtime Host (sold alongside)

    Host-stand and waitlist tool that uses kitchen status to quote waits and sends two-way SMS to guests.

Pricing

Pricing model
Quote only

No prices are published; the site offers a personalised demo. Crunchtime's support policy refers to SaaS fees but gives no amounts.

How it compares

Compared with the 9 products in Kitchen Display System that have a profile on this site. These figures describe the category. They are not a recommendation.

  • Names 22 integrations. The median in this category is 10.
  • One of 3 products in this category with an Android app. 7 products in this category state their platforms.
  • The category's 10 most-named integration partners are Uber Eats, DoorDash, Focus, Lightspeed K-Series, Aloha, Olo, Qu, SevenRooms, Micros Simphony, SpotOn. Of these, this product's listing names Focus, Lightspeed K-Series, Aloha, Olo, Qu, Micros Simphony, SpotOn.

Works with

Other
OloFlybuyCurbitSmart Bar USA

Certified POS list on the vendor page has many more entries than are shown here; the vendor says it exceeds 80 POS partners.

Where and how it runs

Platforms
Web, Windows, Android
Hardware
Runs on kitchen display hardware sold by Crunchtime: Elo Android and Windows all-in-ones, Kitchen Armor all-in-ones, HP controllers and touchscreens, plus bump bars.

Crunchtime says its whole customer base spans over 100 countries after the merger; no country list is published for Kitchen alone. It lists offices in the US, Mexico, the UK and Australia.

The company

Company
Crunchtime Information Systems, Inc.
Headquarters
Boston, United States
Other offices
Atlanta, Louisville, Nashua, Guadalajara, Watford, London, Port Melbourne
Founders
Bill Bellissimo
Customers named by the vendor
Chili's Bar and Grill, The Cheesecake Factory, Dave's Hot Chicken, Darden, Freddy's Frozen Custard and Steakburgers, Caribou Coffee, Cotton Patch Cafe

Security and support

Security and compliance
SOC 2 Type II audits for all products; SOC 1 Type II for Inventory and Labor, HTTPS, multifactor authentication and encryption in transit and at rest
Support
Support 24 hours a day, 5 days a week in US time zones, with 24/7 monitoring for urgent cases; a knowledge base is available.

Listing details

Vendor
Crunchtime
Built for
Restaurants
Focus
Food-specific
Status
Active
Website
crunchtime.com

Alternatives to Crunchtime Kitchen

See all 13 in Kitchen Display System
  • Fresh KDS

    Fresh KDS is a kitchen display system that runs on iOS and Android tablets and shows POS orders on screens in the kitchen.

    Runs on iOS and Android, against Web, Android and Windows for Crunchtime Kitchen.

  • Epson TrueOrder KDS

    TrueOrder KDS is Epson's kitchen display software for restaurants.

    Runs on Web, against Web, Android and Windows for Crunchtime Kitchen.

  • Annoncer

    Annoncer is kitchen management software and kitchen display hardware from Index Hospitality Systems in the Netherlands.

    Runs on Windows, against Web, Android and Windows for Crunchtime Kitchen.

  • LINGA KDS

    LINGA KDS is the kitchen display module of the LINGA cloud POS for restaurants.

    Runs on iOS, against Web, Android and Windows for Crunchtime Kitchen.

What we could not confirm

These points were not confirmed when this page was written.

  • Any price
  • Contract term
  • Founding year of Crunchtime or of QSR Automations, headcount, funding amounts
  • Full POS list beyond the entries shown; which are two-way
  • Mobile app availability
  • Whether SOC 2 covers Kitchen (the security page says all products)
  • Countries where Kitchen itself is sold