TableTaps

01 · Overview

About the project

TableTaps is a Restaurant Operating System with real-time table availability, reservations, secure payments and customer notifications. The platform is built to serve restaurant operators and customers with a mobile-first experience across the entire booking journey.

The system connects restaurant staff with diners through a unified reservation pipeline, ensuring table state is synchronized across devices and that booking confirmations, reminders and payment receipts are delivered reliably.

02 · Problem

What we set out to solve

Restaurants rely on manual reservation systems that lead to double-bookings, missed walk-ins and poor communication between floor staff and the front desk. Customers lack real-time visibility into table availability, making last-minute bookings unreliable.

Additionally, managing deposits, prepayments and cancellation policies across phone calls and spreadsheets introduces friction for both the restaurant and its patrons.

03 · My Role

What I worked on

Full stack engineering across architecture, backend API design and mobile application delivery. I built the reservation engine, payment integration layer, real-time notification pipelines and the React Native consumer app alongside the Laravel admin backend.

04 · Technologies

Stack and how each piece is used

PHP Server-side language powering the backend business logic, reservation state machine and administrative endpoints.

Laravel Application framework handling routing, middleware, Eloquent ORM, authentication, queue jobs and REST API scaffolding.

MySQL Relational persistence for restaurants, tables, reservations, users and transactional payment records with indexed lookups.

React Native Cross-platform mobile app for iOS and Android, delivering the customer booking experience and in-app chat.

Cloud Firestore NoSQL document store for real-time table availability state sync and live customer service chat messages.

Payments Secure payment gateway integration for reservation deposits, prepayments and refund handling with webhook reconciliation.

05 · Architecture & Technical Approach

How the system is structured

TableTaps follows a layered REST-native architecture with the Laravel backend serving as the system of record. Authentication gates access to restaurant and customer resources, while MySQL holds transactional reservations and relational data.

Real-time table state and in-app chat are handled through Cloud Firestore subscriptions on the mobile client, with writes mediated by backend endpoints to enforce reservation rules and concurrency checks. Payment callbacks reconcile through signed webhooks, updating booking status and triggering email/SMS notification jobs queued on the backend.

06 · Key Features

What the product delivers

Real-time table availability and reservation booking
Secure payments for deposits and prepayment of bookings
Customer service chat integrated within the mobile app
Customer notifications for booking confirmations and reminders
Restaurant operating system dashboard for staff and management
Mobile-optimized booking experience for iOS and Android

07 · Engineering Challenges

Hard problems we had to solve

Realtime concurrency on table availability to prevent double-bookings under simultaneous requests
Mobile UX optimization for quick booking flows with low-friction form completion
Secure payment handling with idempotent webhook processing and edge cases around refunds and partial payments
Offline resilience in the mobile app so partial bookings can resume after network drops
Synchronization of Firestore live state with MySQL transactional records without drift

08 · Solutions

How we addressed them

Layered architecture with clear boundaries between booking command handlers and realtime sync subscribers
Database transaction wrapping with row-level locking for reservation writes and optimistic concurrency checks
Standardized authentication patterns with token refresh, role-based access and signed request validation
Firestore SDK integration with offline persistence and resumable writes from the mobile client
Queued background notifications with retries, ensuring confirmations and reminders are delivered despite transient failures

09 · Outcome

What was delivered

Built and shipped the TableTaps Restaurant Operating System with end-to-end reservation, payment and notification flows. The platform applies clean separation between transactional backend state and realtime mobile sync, delivering a working product that restaurant operators and their customers use for daily bookings.

10 · Lessons Learned

What I'd do differently next time

Booking flows demand careful edge case handling — no-shows, walk-in overrides, group splits and same-day edits account for most real-world complexity.
Payment state and reservation state must be treated as coupled but distinct records; optimistic reservation holds should expire cleanly if payment fails.
Customer notifications require observability at every step — visibility into delivery, opens and failures makes support dramatically easier.

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