Search "best POS system" and you'll get a list written for Dubai, London, or a generic global audience — card-first markets with reliable hardware supply chains and no language-switching requirement. Erbil is a different market. Here's what to actually check.
1. Does it work if the internet drops?
Internet in Erbil is good, not flawless. Ask any vendor directly: what happens to an order placed mid-outage? A system that just freezes or loses the order is a real cost the first time it happens on a busy night.
2. Can it handle cash as the default, not the exception?
A lot of POS software is built cash-last, with card payment as the assumed default and cash handling bolted on. In Erbil, cash is often still the majority of transactions. Check that cash counting, shift close-outs, and variance tracking are first-class features, not an afterthought.
3. Does the menu actually support Kurdish and Arabic, or just English with a translate button?
There's a real difference between a menu that was built multilingual from the start and one where you paste English text into a translation API at checkout. Ask to see the admin screen where you'd actually enter the Kurdish and Arabic names — if there isn't one, it's not really multilingual.
4. What does a waiter actually do when the internet is fine but the table is busy?
Ask for a live demo of the waiter-facing side, not just the pretty customer menu. Taking an order, printing a kitchen ticket, and marking a table paid should take seconds, not several screens.
5. What's the real monthly cost, including fees?
See our separate breakdown on POS pricing in Iraq — the short version is: ask for the number per tier, and ask specifically whether card payments carry a percentage fee on top of the subscription.
TU2's restaurant platform was built for this market specifically — QR ordering, waiter POS, kitchen tickets, and cash management, with the menu in English, Arabic, Kurdish, and Turkish from day one. Setup is free; we come to your venue and do it in person.