Guide Back to blog

One Menu, Two Kitchens: Routing Orders to the Right WhatsApp Number

A rooftop bar and a ground-floor kitchen rarely want each other's orders. Zone routing sends each area's orders to its own WhatsApp number, from a single menu.

Q

Zone routing lets one menu feed several kitchens. You set a zone on each table — Terrace, Ground Floor, Garden — and map each zone to its own WhatsApp number. A rooftop order reaches the rooftop, a ground-floor order reaches the kitchen, and neither team wades through the other's tickets.

Why does a single number stop working?

Because it makes every order everyone's problem. On one phone, a bar team scrolls past food orders and a kitchen scrolls past drink orders, and both are doing it during the busiest hour. Missed tickets in a multi-area venue are usually a routing failure, not an attention failure.

How do I set it up?

  1. Give each table a zone on the Tables page — the zone is just a name you choose.
  2. On the WhatsApp Numbers page, pick a zone and add the number that should receive it.
  3. Add a Default number for everything you have not mapped.
  4. Print table QR codes so orders carry their table, and therefore their zone.

Zones come from your tables rather than a free-text box, which is deliberate: a typo in a zone name would silently route orders to the wrong kitchen with nothing to warn you.

What decides which number an order goes to?

Order Goes to
Table has a zone, and that zone has a number The zone number
Table has a zone with no number set Your Default row
No table, or no zone Your Default row
No Default row configured The number in Settings
Every step falls through to the next, so an incomplete setup degrades to "goes to the main number" rather than "goes nowhere".

How do I check the routing is right?

Each order in your dashboard shows which number it actually went to, and whether a zone chose it or it fell through to the default. Place one test order from a table in each zone before a busy service — it takes two minutes and it is the only way to be certain the mapping matches the floor.

Does the guest see any of this?

No. There is one menu and one QR code per table. Zones are entirely a back-of-house concern, which is why they can be reorganised whenever your floor plan changes without touching anything a guest interacts with.

Frequently asked questions

Can one restaurant menu send orders to more than one WhatsApp number?

Yes. Set a zone on each table, then map each zone to its own number. An order from a Terrace table goes to the terrace phone, and a Ground Floor order goes to the kitchen phone.

What happens if a zone has no number set?

The order falls through to your default number, and then to the number saved in Settings. Nothing is ever lost because a zone was left unconfigured.

How do I know which number an order went to?

Each order in your dashboard shows the number it was sent to and whether a zone chose it, so you can confirm the routing is doing what you expect.

Do zones affect what guests see?

No. Guests see one menu. Zones only decide which of your phones receives the order.

Found this helpful? Share it
X Facebook LinkedIn WhatsApp

Ready to build your own digital menu?

Create a beautiful QR code menu for your restaurant in minutes — 30-day free trial, no credit card.

Start Free Trial →
Link copied to clipboard