La Iancu — restaurant moved from phone reservations to integrated online ordering
La Iancu — chef Iancu's signature concept restaurant — came with a typical modern HoReCa problem: 70% of customers preferred online ordering, but the restaurant still depended on phone reservations and third-party delivery apps with hefty commissions (Glovo, Bolt Food, Tazz took 25-30% per order). They needed their own platform that captured the largest revenue share, with own courier integration and daily reporting for the chef.
Business context
Traditional restaurant model — customer calls, books table, comes in — worked for 30% of revenue. The rest split between third-party delivery apps (with eroding-margin commissions) and lost customers wanting to order without finding direct online options. Chef Iancu calculated: 1,500 monthly orders via Glovo at €40 average, 25% commission = €15,000/month to Glovo. Annually: €180,000 in lost commissions.
Tech stack & key decisions
Pragmatic stack for small team
No internal tech team. We chose Next.js + Supabase — a stack a junior dev could pick up immediately. Stripe Checkout for payments. SMS via Twilio.
Hybrid courier — own + Sameday backup
Central Bucharest (90% of orders) — restaurant bought 2 electric scooters and hired 2 drivers. For orders over 5km — automatic fallback to Sameday via API. Total control where it matters, backup for exceptions.
Kitchen dashboard with auto-print
Bluetooth printer (Star TSP143) auto-prints each new order at the cooking station. Secondary digital dashboard for shift manager.
Measured outcomes
Key takeaways
- HoReCa isn't tech-first. Stack must solve the kitchen problem (auto-print, simplicity), not impress with microservices.
- Cash payments remain majority. 60% cash-on-delivery in first 6 months. Optimize UX for that, not just cards.
- Friday-night throttling saves the business. Can't promise 30 minutes when kitchen has 50 orders queued. Honest UX = good reviews.
- Romanian SMS = UCS-2 mandatory. Naively converted diacritics destroy readability. 70 chars/SMS, write short.
- Hybrid courier (own + 3rd party fallback) is the sweet spot for 1-2 location restaurants.
«In the first year we eliminated €180,000 in Glovo commissions and added 45% new orders through our own platform. Faintech delivered exactly what we asked, with integrations that actually work in peak hours.» — chef Iancu, founder La Iancu