When restaurants actually order
Restaurants place orders after service, late at night, from a list built during the evening as stock ran low. Suppliers taking orders by phone during office hours force chefs to remember in the morning, which is when errors and forgotten items happen. Substitutions are the other problem: an item out of stock discovered at delivery leaves a kitchen without a menu item on a full night.
What we build for a supplier
First, a full catalogue with live stock and ordering open at any hour, since the order is composed at midnight and must be capturable then. Second, cut-off times and delivery windows shown per customer, so kitchens plan around deliveries rather than call to ask. Third, substitution suggestions when items are unavailable, preventing the gap discovered at delivery. Fourth, standing orders and reorder from history, because restaurants order substantially the same list every week and retyping it produces errors.