02 / 07, Restaurant technology
Ikkyu
A complete operating system tailored to a Monterrey restaurant that has been open for over 25 years.
- Role
- Designer and builder
- Stage
- Final stage
- Sector
- Restaurant technology
- Market
- Monterrey
- Started
- 24 October 2026
(01)
What it is
Ikkyu is a family restaurant in Monterrey that has been running for over 25 years. My friend Natsuki, who will one day lead it, couldn't find software that fit how they work.
We started with a discovery interview, and I built every section from scratch around one question: if I owned this restaurant, what numbers would I want to see? It's built like a tailored suit.
(02)
The problem
Off-the-shelf restaurant software makes the restaurant adapt to the tool. Owners end up with reports they don't trust and stock they can't track.
(03)
What it does
Orders and staff roles
Roles for every employee, order slips and printing, built around the restaurant's real service.
Inventory at the recipe level
Every dish draws down its ingredients, with automatic supplier re-orders.
Reports the owner trusts
Operational reports for the owner and staff, with a practice mode so test data never mixes with real sales.
AI where the work is
Snap a supplier receipt and it becomes a purchase. Count stock by photo or by voice. A staff assistant answers questions about the restaurant's own numbers. All built on Claude.
Five apps, one system
iPad and iPhone for the floor, a desktop app for the office, the website, and web pages for ordering, invoicing and tables. Invoices follow CFDI 4.0, and orders from the delivery apps land in the same place.
A website she edits herself
A new site Natsuki can update on her own, with a photo session planned for every dish.
(04)
Timeline
Started: the database, the reports and an iPhone and iPad app ready for testing.
Staff PINs, the restaurant's real floor plan, kitchen and bar tickets, and inventory that orders from suppliers by WhatsApp or email.
Reservations with live table availability, kitchen screens, orders that keep working offline, an assistant for staff and owners, and monthly financial statements.
The public website, built on the Sushi IWA design, and one brand file so the system can be installed for another restaurant.
Inventory counts by voice or by a photo of the count sheet, and app updates over the air.
A desktop app for Mac and Windows from the same code.
One-tap CFDI 4.0 invoicing.
Card-terminal payments matched to each check, a loyalty programme and exports for accounting software.
Several branches, a self-order kiosk and an Express mode.
- Today
Final stage
- Next
Finish the full product, then turn it into the template for the Restaurant Operating System.
The system is ours, the data is theirs. I keep technical access only to build and support it, under a signed confidentiality agreement.