Showcase: 6 essential products and services for running a successful restaurant in 2026

Running a restaurant in 2026 means staying ahead of guest expectations and operational pressures. These standout products and services are helping operators sharpen efficiency, elevate experiences and protect the bottom line.

1. The tech solution: Streamlining QSR systems from order to kitchen

Running a restaurant, especially a QSR, is a balance of speed, quality service and rising customer expectations – often all at once. When demand surges, even a well-oiled operation can feel stretched as it juggles customer orders, payments and getting the right food out, fast.

A reliable ordering and payment system is an essential piece of kit to keep service flowing smoothly and maintain control at busy times, eliminating bottlenecks, customer frustration and reduced throughput.

Yet operators frequently manage separate systems for POS, payments, kitchen display, menu boards and back-office tools, creating complex setups that don’t work as efficiently as they could.

Genius offers operators a multi-channel, high-speed ordering system that guarantees secure, fast payment processing with handheld and mobile POS options to speed up queues and table turns. Its fully unified platform brings together POS, payments, kitchen management, menu boards, kiosks, drive-thru tech and back-office tools, removing the friction of fragmented systems.

For kitchens, platform delivers real-time order routing and synchronised POS to ensure accuracy, reduce miscommunication and help teams maintain consistency during peak periods.

For Stascia Bantouvakis, Co-Owner of Yianni’s, a Greek street food restaurant in Glasgow that serves hundreds of gyros a day, working with Genius has helped streamline the ordering process from start to finish.

“The software is so user-friendly – any staff member can pick it up really quickly,” she says. “And when customers are chopping and changing their orders, it’s so flexible to update – adding a dietary requirement or extra sauces or ingredient, for example. Every gyro is different and our set up makes it easy to create bespoke orders.”

Bantouvakis plans to install a self-service kiosk to complement their counter service. “Customers are always drawn to self-service kiosks and it’s proven you can upsell more easily because everything is visible without it feeling overwhelming – customers don’t feel pressured that they’re stealing someone else’s time while they’re deciding what to order.”

For card payments, having a good signal is key to prevent customer frustration. “Genius has been super-fast and that’s what we’ve needed,” she says. “We need customers to be able to order and tap quickly and the system has always kept up.”

Yianni’s will soon be integrating all delivery aggregators through Genius to streamline workflows further. “I’m not tech savvy but the menu is easy to update and you’re guided through every step,” says Bantouvakis.

The Genius team remains hands-on with support. “I’ve never felt on my own with the tech – they even came to our opening night to make sure there were no glitches.”

As for scaling the business, it’s the ideal foundation. “Our goal is to open more sites and it’s going to be really easy to scale up because all the software is interlinked,” says Bantouvakis.

Keeping service flowing smoothly with full visibility and unified systems means operators can focus on what matters most: delivering consistently great customer experiences.

To find out more visit Genius

2. The PR company: Helping restaurants get noticed

In today’s crowded hospitality market, standing out isn’t just about serving great food – it’s about telling your brand story in a way that resonates with diners, operators, and partners.

From emerging brands to established outlets, everyone faces the challenge of cutting through the noise, building trust and capturing attention in an ever-evolving industry. That’s where a good PR company comes in.

Many restaurant brands focus heavily on their consumer-facing messaging but before those diners ever walk through your door, there’s a critical audience to reach first: your investors, suppliers and the wider community. Strategic trade PR creates the awareness and credibility that makes these gatekeepers take your call. When these decision-makers and stakeholders see your brand in respected trade publications you arrive with trusted validation, not just a pitch. That early trust is what turns potential partnerships into real deals.

“Hospitality is such a diverse and colourful industry, full of amazing people from all different backgrounds. The human element is super important and we want to help celebrate that and showcase the people who are driving the industry forward,” says Lauren Peters, Head of Retail & Hospitality at Press Box PR.

“PR is the channel to build trust, recognition and credibility. We work as a trusted partner but it’s a collaborative approach – for our clients who also invest in the relationship the results can be really powerful.”

Comprehensive services, tailored for hospitality

Combining over 45 years of collective experience, the Press Box Hospitality team brings together a love of food and drink, an eye for the latest cultural trends and deep industry knowledge. They work alongside hospitality businesses and partners to build brand awareness, drive conversation and support long-term growth. Their approach blends creativity with strategy, ensuring your story reaches the right audience, in the right way, at the right time.

Why trade PR matters for restaurants

Press Box PR gets the industry talking about their clients through creative campaigns that cut through. What sets them apart is their understanding of the restaurant and hospitality landscape. They know what matters to operators, foodservice professionals and diners, and use that insight to deliver impactful press coverage and measurable results.

“We’ll develop a pipeline of news stories and work closely with clients to get under the skin of their business and identify those interesting stories that they might not think is exciting,” says Peters.

Their goal is always the same: to make your restaurant not just visible, but trusted, talked about and sought-after. “Social media is important and a great starting place – it’s been revolutionary for hospitality and there’s a place for it in the B2B space as well. But it’s just one channel and should be part of a broader marketing mix,” adds Peters.

Whether you’re launching a new concept, aiming to grow your presence or seeking to enhance your reputation, Press Box PR can help you cut through the noise.

To find out more email hello@pressboxpr.co.uk or visit Press Box PR

3. The food charity: Turning £1 into thousands of meals

For the last four years, London’s best restaurants have quietly been doing something extraordinary: turning a voluntary £1 donation into hundreds of thousands of meals for local communities.

How does something so simple create such a huge impact – who’s behind it and how can restaurants get involved?

The Felix Project is one of the UK’s largest food redistribution charities. It rescues high quality, edible food that can’t be sold from across the food industry and redistributes it as meals and food parcels to over 8,000 charities who support people experiencing food insecurity.

Its Restaurants Feed London project is an annual campaign that partners with incredible restaurants every summer. By adding a voluntary £1 donation to diners’ bills, the funds are used to cover The Felix Project’s costs of rescuing and redistributing the food.

“In the UK, only about 1% of surplus food is rescued – there’s tonnes more out there that’s available,” says Emma Burns, Senior Corporate Partnerships Manager at The Felix Project.

“We’ve now got bigger warehouses to fill but having the infrastructure in place costs money – what we raise through Restaurants Feed London is so important.”

In 2025, 67 restaurants took part including Gymkhana, Kitty Fisher’s, Spring and all five London Local & Wild sites. The campaign raised enough to provide 189,000 meals.

“Our partnership with The Felix Project through Restaurants Feed London reflects what we believe in as a group,” says Richard Gladwin, Managing Director at Local & Wild. “Reducing food waste has long been part of how we operate, and we’re committed to continuing that work across all our restaurants.

“It’s not just about what happens in our kitchens, but about supporting and educating our staff, guests and community around food waste and food hunger. By working together and constantly looking for better solutions, we can play our part in creating lasting change.”

So how can restaurants get involved in this year’s campaign?

“Signing up is super simple,” says Burns. “We provide restaurants with everything they need to get started. We’ve tried to do everything to make it as easy as possible for them to get involved and up and running and we hope as many as possible will stand alongside us in supporting Londoners facing food insecurity.”

By supporting the campaign, restaurants are also playing an important part in reducing food waste and positively impacting the planet. Last year alone The Felix Project rescued over 18,000 tonnes of food and prevented over 25,000 tonnes of embedded CO2.

If you’re passionate about reducing food waste and supporting the communities, signing up to Restaurants Feed London and supporting The Felix Project is a powerful way to contribute.

Restaurants Feeds London launches on World Hunger Day, 28 May, and runs until 31 July 2026.

Find out more or sign up to Restaurants Feed London

4. Recruitment and legal: Futureproofing kitchens and compliance

Major legislative and policy shifts affecting hospitality recruitment – from increased salary thresholds to the removal of many hospitality roles from Skilled Workers visa eligibility – have reshaped the hospitality recruitment landscape, disrupting hiring and intensifying labour shortages across the sector.

As a result, restaurant operators are navigating a labour market where skilled talent is harder to secure and retain than ever before. This has pushed restaurant operators to explore more sustainable ways of running their kitchens in order to remain operational and resilient.

And professional support is at hand to help turn pressures into opportunities for smarter, more sustainable operations.

“Consider a doctor-patient scenario – it’s the best sales dynamic,” says Hans Raj Ram, CEO of Goldstar Chefs. “If the doctor can understand the patient, he gives the cure. That’s how we work with restaurants. Our finger is on the pulse of their heartbeat”

“We get results most people can’t, from restoring licences and reversing revocations to fixing problems operators don’t even know they have. We come in, understand the problem and solve it.”

Alongside recruitment, Goldstar Chefs, through their legal department, Goldstar Plus Hospitality Legal, helps operators protect their licences and livelihoods while tackling an increasingly complex commercial immigration landscape, thus doing away with the need for solicitor engagement.

The company delivers comprehensive immigration and sponsorship support, including securing new licences, managing visa processes from start to finish, and guiding operators through the complexities of onboarding. Its compliance work spans detailed diagnostics to uncover hidden risks, the correction of unlawful sponsorship activity and intervention when businesses face licence revocations or visa issues.

“Many restaurants don’t even realise they’re unknowingly sponsoring visas that are technically unlawful. There’s so much ambiguity and complexity that most operators don’t know what they’re supposed to be doing,” he says. “We understand how the Home Office operates – we anticipate their thinking before they think it”.

Beyond staffing and sponsorship management, Goldstar Chefs operates as a practical problem‑solving partner, helping restaurants address operational challenges that threaten continuity. The business has introduced an alternative kitchen model through its ‘Made by Chefs’ offering, supplying fully prepared dishes and semi-prepared bases that reduce dependency on hard‑to‑find skilled labour, thereby streamlining costs and maintaining consistent quality through partnerships. It can “strip away 30 to 40% of operating costs”, says Hans. “If we can’t supply you Chefs, we’ll supply you a Chef‑ready product.”

For operators looking to transition, restructure or exit altogether, Goldstar Chefs’ associated organisation/consultancy Blackgold International, supports business sales, succession planning and connections with international buyers seeking opportunities in the UK hospitality sector,

As futureproof kitchen models continue to emerge, these shifts highlight how many operators are now finding new ways to improve efficiency and stay resilient while navigating today’s regulatory landscape.

To find out more WhatsApp 07774 689708 or visit Goldstar Chefs

5. Premium dairy supplier: Exceptional ingredients for culinary excellence

What separates a good kitchen from a truly great one? For many operators, it starts long before service – with the ingredients and the people who supply them.

Founded by brother and sister team Bobby and Ruby Bawa, Foodspeed is a family owned business supplying London’s finest hotels, restaurants and bakeries with milk, dairy products and ingredients. Their customers include many Michelin-starred restaurants and 5-star hotels, as well as the Royal Palaces.

“London is one of the world’s great culinary capitals, home to every cuisine imaginable,” says Foodspeed’s Managing Director Bobby Bawa. “Thanks to our extensive network of producers and suppliers across the UK and in Europe, our customers trust us to source the highest quality products with great provenance.”

Foodspeed is committed to delivering exceptional levels of service. The company has served the Royal Household since 2007 and now holds a Royal Warrant to HM The King, as a supplier of Fresh Milk, Dairy Products and Provisions. Foodspeed is also a Certified B Corp.

Bawa adds: “We take pride in regularly meeting our customers to understand how else we can support them, as well as the types of products they are looking for. Sometimes our job is to help them find something unique and a bit different!”

Foodspeed has recently partnered with The Widcombe Estate in Somerset, marking a significant expansion of its premium dairy range. This exciting collaboration strengthens Foodspeed’s already extensive product portfolio, which includes high-quality eggs and egg products, alongside a wider range of yogurt, cheese and freshly squeezed juices.

The company also distributes more than 20 tonnes of butter each week – everything from small batch speciality butter and rolls to salted and unsalted and patisserie butter. With an over 1,000-strong product range, Foodspeed has also recently expanded into fine foods and specialist ingredients – from nuts and seeds to dried fruit and patisserie products.

Operating out of West London, it’s a 24-hour operation with goods arriving from all over the country and continent every day.

Foodspeed is proud to partner with some incredible charities and non-profits including Action Against Hunger, The Felix Project, Quintessentially Foundation and Turquoise Mountain, among others, giving back to communities.

In a sector defined by collaboration and trust, Foodspeed’s focus on relationships, quality and responsiveness shows how the right partnerships can help kitchens operate at their best.

To find out more visit Foodspeed

6. Property solutions: Centrally located for convenience and sustainability

As a restaurant business grows, so does the need for reliable, scalable space for food prep, production, cold storage and team development. But traditional warehouses rarely meet the spec – and a new approach is starting to change that.

Warehouse investor and developer Bloom Urban enables sustainable food production in spaces that are fit for purpose and close to where they’re needed.

Its portfolio includes 10 high-spec warehouse sites, with 95 units ranging from 1300 to 40,000 square feet, offering flexible leases in London’s ‘ultra-urban’ market, within TFL Zones 1-3 as well as larger units throughout Greater London.

“Consumer behaviour around delivery, convenience and speed has evolved and we have seen a higher interest from F&B and restaurant occupiers,” says Sam McGirr, Managing Partner & Co-founder.

“The need for centrally located infrastructure that’s fit for purpose for food production that comes with a high level of power and sustainable credentials is growing across both casual dining restaurant groups and large restaurant chains.”

Bloom’s warehouses serve three main use cases for F&B. Firstly, for food wholesalers who supply restaurants. Secondly, for restaurants who need additional space for food prep and production – pre-cooking and vacuum-packing chips, for example. Thirdly to cater to the ever-growing demand for on-demand food delivery. Because the spaces are more centrally located, compared with traditional out-of-town warehouse facilities, they offer the potential to amalgamate different business uses into a single facility.

Built to a high specification, the warehouses help operators meet their internal ESG commitments. All Bloom Urban sites’ new-build schemes are rated EPC A+, meaning significantly more efficient energy use and reduced waste. Choosing a space that’s environmentally friendly, carbon‑neutral and designed to lower power consumption makes it far easier to hit sustainability targets – and is increasingly appealing from both an operational and compliance standpoint.

Enhanced power is something Bloom has invested in across all sites. “It gives occupiers the ability to build out large cold stores, and other functions that require high levels of power, without the occupier having to go through the challenging process of trying to secure additional power from the grid if there is any available which there often is not” says McGirr.

When it comes to fit out, Bloom works in collaboration with its occupiers depending on their business needs and can provide a contribution towards fit-out and infrastructure costs, where required. “We usually design our warehouses in ‘terraces’ so it’s easy to partition between two spaces or connect two units together. We can offer that flexibility,” McGirr says.

The warehouses’ central locations also support the use of smaller green electric vehicles – e-cargo bikes or pedal bikes, for example – that wouldn’t be feasible for operators located further out in London.

Bloom’s model reflects a broader shift towards strategically located, future‑ready urban warehousing. For many operators, having access to the right kind of space in the right part of the city is becoming an increasingly important part of running a resilient, future-ready business.

To find out more visit Bloom Urban