Square menu hours: breakfast until 11, lunch from 11:30

What customers see, and the gaps

• 01Visible, not orderable. On Square Online and the ordering profile, a time-based menu stays visible so customers can browse or order ahead, and can only be ordered during its hours (Square). Since May 2026, menu groups can carry their own hours online, and shoppers see what they can order now by default with an All Items option (Square).
• 02No hiding yet. In October 2026 a seller asked Square to hide groups outside their hours online and to enforce group hours at the register; both were open feature requests (Square Community).
• 03The register is softer. The menu picker shows menus that match the current time, and staff with the right permission can still open one outside its hours (Square).
• 04Delivery apps are separate. Hours for third-party delivery integrations are set in each integration, not taken from your Square menu (Square).

The same hours in your own app

Square gives you a website and an ordering page, not an app in the App Store. If you add a branded app, the worst outcome is a second set of hours to keep in step, or none at all, so a customer books a 2:30 PM pickup of food your kitchen stopped making at 2. With Crate your app follows the Square menu you choose, and the hours come with it.

• 01One place to set hours. Change a menu or menu group's hours in Square and Crate follows them. Sections and their order come from the same menu.
• 02Judged at the pickup time. Crate checks the pickup time, in your location's time zone, not the moment someone taps Order. A 1:45 PM order cannot book a 2:15 PM pickup of food that stops at 2 PM.
• 03Clear for the customer. An order outside the hours is turned away with the item and its hours, for example "available 7 AM to 2 PM", and a suggestion to pick another time or remove it. On a Crate ordering website the item shows its hours and cannot be added for a pickup outside them.
• 04Close early in one step. A group's hours are capped by its menu's, so shortening the menu's hours for a day closes every group in it.
• 05Real schedules. Several windows per day and windows past midnight work. Ship-to-me orders, which have no pickup time, are not limited.
• 06Orders land in Square. Each app order is a real Square order with its pickup time, at $80/month for up to five locations and no Crate per-order fee.

Where it may still fit: If Square Online or your ordering profile is all you need, menu hours already work there on every Square plan, so you do not need Crate for this. Crate also reads hours from Square Menus only, not from time-based categories.

To stop selling something because it ran out rather than because of the time, see Square sold out items. If your website and ordering profile show different hours, see Square ordering profile vs Square Online. For costs and options beyond hours, see a branded ordering app for your Square business and Crate cafe ordering.

Pause orders during a rush

Menu hours handle the plan. The rush is different: a line out the door, a printer down, or the kitchen out of food at 1 PM. Sellers asked about this three times on Square Community between July and November 2026, and each thread is about the same thing: stopping online orders quickly, from the counter, and not forgetting to turn them back on.

• 01Two hours, then again. A restaurant owner asked in November 2026 for a pause until resumed, because the register pause tops out at two hours; a reply pointed to the Dashboard switch, and the owner answered that staff need it at the register, not in the Dashboard (Square Community, Square).
• 02QR orders are separate. A seller found the register pause covers pickup and delivery but not QR code orders, which means a browser, and on a phone the desktop version of the page; another lost QR control during an internet outage (Square Community).
• 03Check what customers see. In August 2026 pausing hid the whole online menu for some sellers; Square called it a bug and fixed it, and a seller asked for a clearer paused notice on the menu page (Square Community).
• 04Slowing down is Uber Eats only. Busy mode stretches prep times without going dark, but Square's release notes tie it to Uber Eats (Square).

With Crate, there is no second pause switch to hunt for. The app takes its pickup times from your Square Online site's live pickup schedule and checks it again about every five minutes, so a longer prep time or earlier closing set in your Square Online pickup settings reaches the app within minutes. If the app cannot read that schedule for over an hour, it stops taking pickup orders rather than guessing a time.

Where it may still fit: Crate does not add its own pause button, and we have not confirmed that a pause made from the register's clock icon reaches the app, so after pausing, check the app once before relying on it. If the register pause already covers every channel you use, you may not need anything more.

Set it up

1. 01In Square, open Items, Menus and create the menu your online ordering should use, with a group for each daypart (breakfast, lunch, drinks).
2. 02Set Hours on the menu, then on each group that needs its own window. Add a second time period for a day if you serve something twice.
3. 03Check Square Online or your ordering profile: items outside their hours show but cannot be ordered.
4. 04Set hours again in each delivery app you use, since those are separate.
5. 05Using Crate? Tell us which Square menu your app should follow. Its hours apply in the app and on your Crate ordering website.

Questions

How do I make breakfast orderable only until 11 on Square Online?

Put breakfast in its own menu group in Square Menus (Items, Menus), open the group's details and set Hours, for example 7 AM to 11 AM on the days you serve it. Square Online and your ordering profile then take breakfast orders only inside those hours. You can also set hours on a whole menu, and a group's hours must sit inside its menu's hours.

Do I need Square Plus or Premium for menu hours?

Not for time-based menus: Square's menu help page applies to Free, Plus and Premium. The older time-based categories (Items, Categories, Availability) need Square Online Plus or Premium, or Square Plus or Premium, and only work on the Order Online website template and Kiosk.

Can Square hide items outside their hours?

Not fully. Square says a time-based menu stays visible on Square Online and the ordering profile so customers can browse or order ahead; it just cannot be ordered outside its hours. Since May 2026 shoppers see what they can order now by default, with an All Items option. Hiding a group outside its hours was still a seller feature request in October 2026.

Do Square menu hours apply to DoorDash and other delivery apps?

No. Square says hours for third-party delivery integrations are set separately in each integration.

Can I have two time windows in one day, like lunch and dinner?

Yes. Square lets you add more than one time period per day on a menu, which is how dayparts and happy hours are set up. Crate follows every window, including one that runs past midnight.

How do I pause Square online orders when the kitchen is slammed?

On the register, open the Orders tab and tap the clock icon to pause online ordering. To stop orders until you turn them back on, go to Square Dashboard, Online, Ordering profile and switch Ordering off. Sellers report the register pause lasts at most two hours, and that QR code ordering can only be switched off in a browser under Online settings, so a busy shift may need someone with Dashboard access.

Can I slow online orders down instead of stopping them?

Partly. Square's Busy mode on Point of Sale lengthens prep times for a while without pausing, but as of September 2026 it covers Uber Eats orders and needs the Uber Eats integration. For your own website or app, a longer prep time in your Square Online pickup settings pushes the earliest pickup later, and shorter pickup hours stop orders sooner. Crate's app reads that schedule, so it follows the same change.

Will my Square menu hours work in my own branded app?

With Crate, yes. Tell us which Square menu your app should follow and the hours on that menu and its groups apply in the app and on your Crate ordering website. A pickup outside them is turned away with the hours shown. Crate is $80/month for up to five locations, with no Crate per-order fee.