Voice kiosk for Toast restaurants: setup, how orders land and what to ask

If you run Toast and want guests to order at the counter without a cashier, you have two different kiosks to compare. Toast Kiosk is a touch screen on Toast hardware. Maple's voice kiosk is a separate unit: guests say the order, see each item and the total on screen, and the ticket goes into your Toast POS. Maple supplies the kiosk, helps you set it up and pairs it to your store with one code. It is in early access with a small number of restaurants and is priced per unit, with no public price.

The part that matters most to a Toast restaurant is the menu. Maple's kiosk knows your full menu and every modifier, and it reads that menu from Toast, so there is no second menu to keep up. Menu changes are made in Toast, never in Maple. This guide covers how the two kiosks differ, what you need before you start, how the connection is set up, where a kiosk ticket should land in Toast, the payment question to settle first, and a test to run before guests use it.

Is Maple's kiosk the same thing as Toast Kiosk?

No. Toast Kiosk is a self-ordering mode on a Toast terminal: guests tap through the menu and pay on the screen. Maple's kiosk is its own product that works with the POS systems Maple takes orders into, and Toast is one of them. It takes the order by voice, and your Toast POS stays the place orders land and the place you manage the menu.

Question	Toast Kiosk	Maple's voice kiosk	Start here if
How guests order	Browse and tap on a touch screen	Say the order, with each item and the total shown on screen	Toast: guests like to browse. Maple: you want guests to talk and skip the typing.
Hardware	A Toast Flex or Elo terminal in Kiosk Mode, wall-mounted or freestanding	Maple supplies the kiosk and helps you set it up; Maple's page lists no hardware specs	Toast: you want Toast to supply every device. Maple: you want a unit set up for you.
Price	None printed. Toast sends you to a quote.	Priced per unit; no public price	Either way, get a written quote with every device on it.
Menu	Set per menu in Toast Web	Comes across from Toast; changes are made in Toast	You want one menu to maintain.
Where orders go	Toast POS and kitchen displays in real time, per Toast	Straight to your POS, per Maple's kiosk page	Same destination: your Toast check.
Guest payment	Credit, debit or gift cards on the kiosk; cash through a cashier	Not stated on Maple's kiosk page; ask	Payment is the first question for Maple's kiosk. See below.
Staff help	Leaving Kiosk Mode takes a manager passcode	A staff-help button on every screen; Maple can be turned off on any kiosk with one tap	Maple: you want the crew to step in with one tap.

Sources: Toast's restaurant kiosk page, Toast's support articles as summarised in our Toast Kiosk guide (read it for the quote worksheet and Toast's limits), and Maple's kiosk page. Toast's page also describes built-in cellular backup through Toast Router, dine-in, takeout and curbside options, and text notifications when an order is ready. Maple's kiosk page does not describe any of those, so treat them as questions rather than assumptions.

Does a voice kiosk work with Toast?

Yes. Maple's kiosk page says it works with every POS Maple takes orders into, and Toast is on that list. Maple connects straight to Toast through Toast's Orders API. Maple's public pages describe the Toast connection for phone ordering and say nothing kiosk-specific, so this guide separates what Maple documents (setup, menu sync, how orders reach Toast) from what to confirm for a kiosk (payment, order label, kitchen routing). The same unit also works with other POS systems; if you also run a lane, read AI drive-thru ordering for Toast.

What do you need before you start?

From Maple's Toast integration page and Toast setup docs:

• Admin access to Toast Web, and the Toast restaurant GUID for each location.
• A Maple Pro plan, which includes phone ordering and POS integrations. Check with Maple how the kiosk is quoted next to it, because the public pages do not say.
• A Toast menu you are happy for guests to read on a screen. Item names, prices and modifier groups all come from Toast.
• Whoever holds the Toast 8.4 Manage integrations permission, because Toast requires it to add a partner integration.

Maple's page also tells you to check any Toast-side charges before you authorize the connection. If you already use Toast Kiosk, ask how Maple's unit sits next to it, since the two are separate products.

How is the kiosk connected to Toast?

There are two parts: the connection to Toast and the kiosk itself.

The Toast connection takes five steps in Maple's docs:

1. Install the Maple integration from your Toast Web integrations page (Toast Partner Connect).
2. Enter your Toast restaurant GUID in Maple to connect the location. Keep the GUID from the Toast email; if it is missing, or the accounts use different contacts, ask Maple to help match the location.
3. Create the dining options and service charges described in the docs in Toast Web.
4. Pick those dining options and charges in Maple. Maple checks them against Toast and flags anything set up wrong.
5. Place test orders and check them in Toast.

The kiosk: Maple's kiosk page says Maple supplies it and helps you set it up, that it pairs to your store with one code, and that it takes orders once paired. Maple's pages give no timeline for either part, so ask sales how the install and the Toast connection are scheduled for your site, and whether one connection serves phone and kiosk at your location.

How does the Toast menu get to the kiosk?

Maple's Toast docs say menu items, prices, modifiers, options and categories import as you set them up in Toast, that changes you publish in Toast reach Maple automatically, and that you can resync from the Maple dashboard. Price changes, availability schedules and menu hours stay in step. Maple's kiosk page adds that the kiosk knows the full menu and every modifier and skips items that are out of stock.

For phone orders, Maple's docs say items you 86 in Toast stop being offered on calls in real time, and items you hide in Toast stay off the phone menu. Ask Maple to confirm the kiosk follows the same rules. This matters for Toast restaurants in particular, because Toast Kiosk uses its own visibility setting: in Toast, you set each menu's Visible To option to In-store orders: Kiosk for Toast's kiosk. Ask which Toast setting controls what Maple's kiosk shows, so you do not end up with an item on one kiosk and not the other.

Clean up the Toast menu first. Guests read the item names and look at each required modifier group. Shorten any name only your crew understands, and fix prices that differ between channels. Kiosk menu design has a worksheet for this.

Which Toast settings matter for a kiosk order?

Maple's docs describe the Toast setup for phone and online orders. Only some of it is certain to apply to a kiosk, so check each row.

Toast setting	What the docs say	What to ask about a kiosk
A Take Out dining option	Required. Used for pickup, and for Maple-managed delivery orders.	Which dining option will a kiosk order use, since a kiosk guest is at the counter?
A second Take Out option named "Maple Courier"	Recommended, so the kitchen can tell a Maple courier order from a regular pickup. Optional.	Can a separate option mark kiosk orders so the counter can tell them from phone and Toast Kiosk orders?
A Delivery dining option and a "Maple Delivery" service charge	Required only for your own delivery or Maple-managed delivery.	Not part of a counter kiosk.
Revenue center	Orders can report under a Toast revenue center you pick.	Decide whether kiosk sales should report apart from register sales.

The dining option names are for your own reporting; guests never see them. You can change the mapping later in Maple under Location, Integrations, Toast.

Where should a kiosk ticket land in Toast?

Maple's kiosk page says the ticket goes straight to your POS, and the Toast docs say Maple prices each order through Toast so the charged total matches the Toast check. Test with real tickets and read each one in Toast:

Order	What it shows	Where to look
One plain item	Whether the ticket and total match the kiosk screen	The Toast check
An item with required modifiers and an extra	Whether each modifier arrives as your crew would ring it	The kitchen printer or Toast KDS
A guest who changes their mind midway	Whether the removed item is gone from the ticket and the total	The kiosk screen, then the Toast check
An item you marked 86 in Toast	Whether the kiosk stops offering it	The kiosk screen
An item you hid in Toast	Whether it stays off the kiosk	The kiosk screen
A price change published in Toast	How long before the kiosk shows it, and whether the resync button helps	The kiosk screen and a new check

Then ask what label a kiosk order carries in Toast, so the counter can tell it from a phone order. Maple's Toast docs document the dining option for phone orders only. If your kitchen runs on Toast's display system, see Toast KDS: cost, screens, routing, fire timing and offline limits, and confirm that kiosk tickets reach it.

How does a guest pay at a Maple kiosk on Toast?

Maple's public pages do not say, so make this the first question of the demo. Maple's Toast docs describe card payment for phone and online orders: the guest pays through Toast Hosted Checkout, funds settle into your Toast deposit account, and with Toast Direct cards go through your own Toast account, so there is no separate business verification. They say nothing about a guest standing at a kiosk.

Toast Kiosk takes credit, debit or gift cards at the screen and sends cash to a cashier with a printed receipt, which needs a printer at the kiosk. Decide what you want for Maple's unit, then ask Maple whether it fits:

• The guest pays at the kiosk with a card, and the payment lands in your Toast account.
• The guest orders at the kiosk and pays at the register on your Toast hardware.
• The guest pays cash. This needs its own answer; kiosk payments and cash explains the questions.

Run each path through a test check and look at the deposit side as well as the ticket.

What happens when a guest needs a person?

From Maple's kiosk page: every screen has a staff-help button and a crew member takes over when a guest taps it. You can turn Maple off on any kiosk with one tap, and guests can ask for a person at any time. Guests can order in many languages, and the kiosk's microphone points at the guest in front of it, so it picks up that voice over nearby talk and kitchen noise.

Decide before launch who answers the staff-help button. That person may be on the register or at the pass. Kiosk staff help has a four-zone staffing table.

What if you already connect to Toast through Stream?

Maple's Toast docs say locations that connected Toast through StreamOrders before Toast Direct should follow the Toast-through-StreamOrders steps, and Maple's integration page says to ask Maple to confirm the changeover steps before you change an existing connection. Review the current connection, menu, payment flow and order destination together, test the direct connection before switching live calls, and do not assume an existing connection or subscription ends on its own.

What should you ask before a Toast kiosk trial?

• How does a guest pay at a Maple kiosk, and does the payment land in Toast the same way a Toast Kiosk payment does?
• Does one Toast connection serve phone and kiosk at your location?
• If you run more than one Toast location, how is each kiosk paired to the right one, and which GUID does it use?
• Which Toast dining option and revenue center will a kiosk order use, and can kiosk orders be labeled apart from register and phone orders?
• Does the kiosk read the same menu as phone orders, and which Toast visibility setting controls it?
• Where do kiosk tickets print or display, and can the crew tell them apart?
• What happens on the kiosk if Toast or your internet is unavailable? Toast's own kiosk page describes cellular backup through Toast Router; ask what applies to Maple's unit.
• Which accessibility features does the kiosk have? Kiosk accessibility lists the public guidance to check against.
• What does early access include, and where would your store be in line?

How do you run a first-week test on a Toast kiosk?

1. Before the unit arrives, clean up the Toast menu: names a guest would say, current prices, required modifier groups and anything you want hidden.
2. Place the six test orders in the table above yourself, and follow each check to the kitchen. Use "Test" as the name and tell the crew first.
3. Press the one-tap off switch in a quiet hour and time how long the crew takes to run the counter by hand.
4. Put the kiosk where guests already queue, and go live for a slow daypart. Keep three counts apart: orders completed without help, orders that needed a person, and tickets the kitchen had to correct.
5. Compare similar dayparts before you widen the trial. The kiosk pilot checklist gives a four-week plan.

A worked example of the counts, with made-up numbers to show the arithmetic: if a slow daypart sees 50 kiosk orders, and 42 finish without help, 5 need a person and 3 tickets are corrected by the kitchen, then 42 ÷ 50 = 84% finished without help, 5 ÷ 50 = 10% needed a person, and 3 ÷ 50 = 6% needed a kitchen fix. Those are not results from any restaurant. Use your own counts.

What goes wrong with the Toast side, and how do you fix it?

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
An item the guest wants is not offered	The item may be 86'd or hidden in Toast. Maple's docs describe that behavior for phone orders; confirm the kiosk follows it.	Un-86 or un-hide it in Toast and publish. Menu changes are made in Toast, not in Maple. If the item is live in Toast and still missing, ask Maple.
A menu change is not showing	The change has not reached Maple yet.	Publish in Toast, then resync the menu from the Maple dashboard.
Orders land under the wrong dining option	The dining option mapping in Maple is not what you meant.	Open Location, Integrations, Toast, edit the dining and delivery setup and save.
Maple flags a Toast setting during setup	A dining option or service charge in Toast does not meet Maple's checks.	Fix the setting named in the flag in Toast Web, then save again in Maple so it re-checks.
The install does not find your location	The Toast email is missing, or the Toast and Maple accounts use different contacts.	Ask Maple to help match the location to your GUID.
You need to turn Toast off	Switching POS or ending the trial.	Remove Maple in Toast Partner Connect. Toast sends a partner removal notice, and Maple turns off the Toast integration for that location.

Should you buy Toast Kiosk, Maple's kiosk, or neither?

If the problem at your counter is a queue, either kiosk can shorten it, and the difference is how guests order and who supplies the hardware. If the problem is a ringing phone, a kiosk will not fix it: look at phone ordering, which Maple prints a price for on its pricing page (Pro is $350 a month, or $220 billed yearly, with no per-minute fees). For the wider kiosk cost picture, read what a restaurant kiosk costs; for lease and buy terms, lease versus buy. Voice ordering kiosks covers noise, modifiers and languages for any POS, and the Clover version of this guide shows how the same questions play out on a different POS.

What does it cost and when can you get it?

The kiosk is in early access with a small number of restaurants and priced per unit. There is no public price; talk to sales through the kiosk page to learn where you are in line. Toast prints no kiosk price either, so ask each vendor for a written quote that lists every device, mount, reader, printer and monthly charge.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a separate Toast account or card verification for the kiosk? Maple's docs say Toast Direct runs cards through your own Toast account, so there is no separate business verification. Ask Maple how that applies to a kiosk.

Do I have to buy kiosk hardware? No. Maple supplies the kiosk and helps you set it up. You pair it to your store with one code.

Can I change the menu in Maple? No. Menu changes are made in Toast and reach Maple automatically. You can resync from the Maple dashboard.

Will it work in a loud restaurant? Maple says its microphone points at the guest in front of it, so it picks up that voice over nearby talk and kitchen noise. Test it at your loudest hour.

What if a guest wants a person? They tap the staff-help button and a crew member takes over. You can also turn Maple off on any kiosk with one tap.

Which Maple plan includes Toast ordering? Pro. Voice covers answering, FAQs and call transfer.

Published by Maple, which sells the product described here. This AI-assisted guide uses Maple's published kiosk page, Toast integration page and Toast setup docs, plus Toast's restaurant kiosk page and Toast's support articles as summarised in Maple's Toast Kiosk guide, with an original comparison, test and question list. It does not report a Maple test of the kiosk at a Toast restaurant, a customer result or a price for the kiosk.