AI phone ordering for UK takeaways
Your takeaway's phone answered, and the order sent to your till
Zogu answers your takeaway's phone, takes the order from the menu in your POS, reads it back once and sends it straight into your POS when the caller says yes. It can book tables in the same call. It's for the calls nobody can get to in the rush.
No real shop uses it yet. As of 5 November 2026 it has only taken test orders, on our integration platform's test system.
Example call
From “hello” to your POS in one call
Lantern Lane Kebab & Pizza
- Caller:Can I get a large lamb doner kebab, please?
- Zogu:Sure. For the Lamb Doner Kebab, which bread would you like? We have Pitta or Naan.
- Caller:Naan, please.
- Zogu:Got it. Anything else?
- Caller:And a can of Coke, please.
- Zogu:So that's one Large Lamb Doner Kebab with Naan and one Coke Can, for pickup, under the name Sam. The total is ten pounds fifty, paid on pickup. Shall I place the order?
- Caller:Yes.
- Zogu:Thank you, Sam. I've placed your order for pickup, the total is ten pounds fifty, paid on pickup. It'll be ready in about twenty minutes.
New orderZogu phone order
Pickup · Sam
- 1 × Lamb Doner Kebab, Large · Naan£9.00
- 1 × Coke, Can£1.50
Total£10.50
Pay on pickup
Owner app
Every call, on your phone
- Today’s calls and orders at a glance
- Each call’s transcript, line by line
- In testing, shown here with sample data
Live web demo
Now you try
Order from Lantern Lane Kebab & Pizza, a made-up restaurant. Type or talk. Nothing is cooked or charged.
- Press Start call. Zogu answers first, then it's your turn. Type, or press the microphone and talk.
Nothing ordered yet. Lines appear here as Zogu adds them.
Each demo call is limited to 25 turns, 15 minutes and 300 characters a turn, and there's a daily cap, so the demo can be busy. Please don't type real names, addresses, phone numbers or card details. Speech-to-text is done by your browser, not by Zogu: Chrome sends the audio to Google and Safari to Apple to turn it into text. How the demo handles what you type or say.
What happened on a real test call
One of our team rang a test takeaway at 1:35am on 5 November 2026 and ordered two burgers, a baklava and three colas. The call took just over 2 minutes and ended in one read-back, one "Yeah. Go ahead." and a placed order. No audio is kept, because Zogu doesn't record calls.
What went well:
- Once the caller said that was everything, Zogu offered a dessert, then a drink, then read the whole order back once: items, pickup, name, total and how it's paid.
- Replies started 0.8 to 2.5 seconds after the caller stopped talking.
- The test system already had the order when Zogu started its thank-you, 1.3 seconds after "Go ahead".
What went wrong, and what we changed:
- "The burger" got the quarter-pound one, because that's what the caller had last time. Now Zogu asks which burger.
- It heard "half pounder" as "hot ponder" and read out the hot starters. Now it checks a reply against the items it just offered, including words that only sound like one, so "the hot" finds the half-pound burger.
- That regular wasn't told it's automated. Every greeting now says "the automated ordering assistant".
Those changes are on our test system, with only a few test calls on them so far. The call is now one of our tests, replayed whenever we change Zogu. To try it yourself, use the demo page.
Where the order goes
When the caller says yes, the order lands in your POS like any other channel's, labelled Zogu and marked pay on pickup or pay on delivery.
- Each line is an item from your POS menu with the caller's choices, so nobody types anything in.
- On our seven test orders, the test system had each one 0.64 to 0.94 seconds after Zogu started placing it. We haven't timed a live POS yet.
- Zogu doesn't wait for the kitchen. It gives the total and, if you've set a prep time, the ready time, then says goodbye. Your accept or reject comes through afterwards.
- Prices and totals come from your menu and Zogu's own code, not the AI model. An order whose total doesn't add up never reaches your POS.
More on how Zogu uses your live POS menu and how the read-back and the yes work.
How it copes with the way people order
Callers don't read the menu out, and Zogu doesn't need them to.
- "Three piece of baklava" finds 3pcs BAKLAVA, "cheesecake" finds CHEESE CAKE and "hummus" finds HOUMOUS.
- Ask for something you don't sell and it offers up to three things of the same kind, so a cheeseburger gets other burgers, not cheesecake.
- "Yeah" and "mhm" don't stop it. "Actually, just a coke" does, straight away.
- After 12 seconds of silence: "Take your time. Let me know when you're ready."
- Regulars are greeted by first name, and "same as last time" puts their last Zogu order back on.
More on how Zogu understands callers and how it greets regulars and repeats their last order.
What it won't do
- No transfers and no promised call-backs. There's no staff number behind it, and the rule is enforced in code.
- No card payments over the phone. Pay by texted link is built but switched off.
- No dine-in orders, orders for later or complaints.
- English only, and only on the POS systems we work with.
Everything Zogu doesn't do is on one page, and the FAQ has more questions on calls, payments and data.
Setting up a shop
Three steps, so far done only on our integration platform's test system. We don't have UK numbers yet.
- Connect Zogu to your POS. Zogu reads your menus and hours from there.
- We give your shop its own number. The plan is for you to forward your existing number to it, but we haven't done that for a real shop yet.
- Ring it yourself, order something and check it in your POS.
How Zogu takes a phone order, step by step walks through a whole call.
Where Zogu is up to
On 14 test calls on 4 and 5 November 2026 (123 replies), Zogu started replying a median of 1.3 seconds after the caller stopped, measured at our end. Our own team made the calls. All seven orders were pickup, and the test shop accepted every one.
We've tested it on a 427-item takeaway menu and a 2,612-item catalogue, not yet on an Indian, Chinese or fish and chip menu. Each kind of takeaway has a page: burger and fried chicken shops, kebab shops and Turkish takeaways, pizza takeaways, Indian takeaways and curry houses, Chinese takeaways and fish and chip shops, all under UK takeaways. If calls ring out in the rush, see what Zogu does about missed calls.
Who's behind Zogu
Zogu is built by [TEAM NAMES AND ROLES]. The About page says who we are and how we test. Restaurants in the US have their own US site.
Questions and answers
Does Zogu work with my till?
Only if it's one we work with: Toast, Square, Clover, Oracle MICROS RES 3700 or Foodhub. If it isn't, Zogu can't get orders to your till.
Do callers know they're talking to an automated system?
Yes. Every greeting says it's the automated ordering assistant, and anyone who asks for a person is told it can't put them through.
Do I have to change the number on my menus and leaflets?
The plan is that you forward your existing number to Zogu, so it stays the same. We haven't set that up for a real shop yet.
Are calls recorded?
No audio is recorded. Each call is kept as text: what was said, reply times and the order as it went to your POS.
How much does it cost?
We haven't published prices. No shop is paying for it yet.