Johnny, Vince & Sam’s, Melbourne
Italian Restaurant · Lygon Street, Melbourne
700 covers a day. On one of Melbourne’s most iconic dining streets. With a team of waitstaff taking every order by hand. Something had to give.
Michael Shafik-Eid, Restaurant Operations Manager at Johnny, Vince & Sam’s on Lygon Street, runs one of Carlton’s busiest Italian restaurants. The concept is built around a feeling, nostalgic, warm, like eating in Nonna’s dining room. But behind the scenes, the volume was creating a problem that no amount of atmosphere could paper over.
700 covers a day is no place for a paper docket system
Accuracy at Scale
With Tabit Pad handhelds in the hands of every waiter, the dynamic changed immediately. Orders confirmed tableside, fired directly to the kitchen, with no room for misreads or lost tickets.
"Having the tablet on them during service and being able to confirm the order has made the guest experience seamless and food more accurate coming out of the kitchen."
The result is felt on both sides of the pass. Guests receive what they ordered. The kitchen runs cleaner. And the floor staff work with confidence rather than crossing their fingers every time they walk away from a table.
When accuracy improves, everything improves: service, kitchen flow, and the guest experience
Training That Doesn't Slow You Down
At 700 covers a day, onboarding new staff quickly isn't just convenient, it's essential. Michael has managed teams across multiple POS systems throughout his career, and the training burden is a familiar pain point.
"As a manager, training staff can be difficult, so I very much enjoy telling the younger team that they use it like an iPhone and they simply train themselves."
In an industry where staff turnover is among the highest of any sector in Australia, a system that new team members can pick up intuitively is a genuine operational advantage. Less time training means more time on the floor, and more time on the floor means better service.
Support That Doesn’t Stop at Go-Live
For Michael, the relationship with a POS provider has historically ended at implementation. Not with Tabit.
“In my career, I’ve used other POS systems and the relationship stops at the integration process. However, I’ve always received constant support from the Tabit team using their WhatsApp chat and I’ve never felt left in the dark.”
For a restaurant operating at the scale and pace of Johnny, Vince & Sam’s, that ongoing support isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s part of what keeps the whole operation running.