Turning Your Restaurant in Ireland Into a Takeaway Success

Thinking about adding takeaway to your offering or making it your main focus? This guide takes you step-by-step through the process, with advice designed for Irish restaurant owners who want to do it right.

Step 1: Review Your Current Operations

Before making changes, review your menu, ordering process, and kitchen flow. Your POS data shows which dishes travel well, maintain quality at room temperature, and deliver healthy margins. 

With Toast’s reporting tools you can filter orders by fulfilment type, making it easy to compare dine-in versus takeaway performance. 

Step 2: Craft a Takeaway-Friendly Menu

Your takeaway menu shouldn’t just be your dine-in menu in a cardboard box. Choose dishes that travel well, taste great after a short journey, and don’t need too much last-minute fuss. Slow-cooked stews, fresh bakes, and marinated dishes often shine here. 

Don’t forget the little extras — drinks, sides, and desserts can boost your bottom line. And make sure your packaging is sturdy, easy to carry, and as sustainable as possible.

According to the Toast Consumer Preferences Survey 2025, 42% of Irish diners say “sometimes” and 35% say “often” they order highlighted “house favourites” on a menu. Use these callouts to guide customers towards your most profitable dishes.

Step 3: Streamline Your Ordering Process

Make ordering as simple as possible. Toast Online Ordering integrates with your POS, eliminating the need to re-enter orders and reducing errors. This speeds up service and frees staff to focus on customer experience. 

At Bewley’s in Dublin, switching to Toast handhelds and integrated payments cut table turn time by 5 minutes while improving data accuracy and guest satisfaction. The same efficiencies apply to high-volume takeaway operations.

Step 4: Train and Support Your Team

Doing takeaways may require new workflows, and that's completely normal. This could mean reallocating roles, perhaps having a dedicated takeaway order expediter, or retraining staff in packaging and labelling. The key is involving your team in the process rather than imposing changes on them.

The Toast Consumer Preferences Survey 2025 showed that 59.5% of Irish hospitality staff say ongoing training is "extremely important". Building these skills doesn't just keep service consistent, it keeps morale high too. When your team feels confident with new processes, it shows in the quality of what goes out the door.

Step 5: Market Your Takeaway Offering

Your marketing should meet customers where they're deciding what to eat. Update your Google Business Profile to include "Takeaway available" and make sure your opening hours for takeaways are clearly stated. Social media is brilliant for sharing behind-the-scenes prep videos that build anticipation and show the care that goes into each dish.

Consider partnering with delivery platforms for reach, but remember to offer commission-free direct ordering through your own site too. This gives you more control over the customer relationship and better margins.

Limited-time offers, bundle deals, or free delivery thresholds can help attract first-time orders and convert them into regulars. The key is making the value proposition clear and compelling.

Step 6: Monitor and Optimise

Track sales, ticket times, and feedback weekly. Adjust menu, packaging, or marketing based on performance. 

Our consumer preferences survey revealed that 69.5% of Irish diners “sometimes” notice price changes on menus, so consider adding value — such as bundles or upgraded packaging — to justify increases.

Legal and Compliance in Ireland

Getting compliance right isn’t just about following the rules — it’s about earning customer trust. The Food Safety Authority of Ireland has clear guidelines on how hot and cold foods should be handled, stored, and delivered, so make sure everyone on your team knows them inside out. Allergen labelling is mandatory for both prepacked and non-prepacked takeaway foods, giving customers the confidence to order safely. 

Under the Consumer Rights Act 2022, you’ll also need to be upfront about pricing, portion sizes, and delivery times.

Next Steps

Takeaways can open new revenue streams, attract fresh customers, and strengthen your brand’s resilience, but it works best when you need to keep a keen eye operations and compliance. Lean on Ireland’s strong hospitality network for guidance and support — it could be the difference between simply offering delivery and truly making it thrive.