Apple Pay, Google Pay and card payments are facilitated by the industry-leader, Stripe. OrderDistant will guide you through opening a free account with Stripe, who will in turn pay all card payment receipts to your business bank account on an agreed schedule (daily, weekly or monthly). From your Stripe dashboard you can also manage refunds, chargebacks and other administrative functions. OrderDistant collects a small commission (depending on the subscription tier you select) but the contractual relationship for payment services is between your business and Stripe Inc.
Businesses serving alcohol should contact Stripe directly for approval (they may require more information from you to ensure that the robust legal requirements for alchol transactions are being met.)
You are free to disable online payment functionality and require "payment in person" through your usual payment channels, or let the customer decide which option to use.
No, customers do not need to download a specific app. They simply send a text to a non-premium number, and then click on a link that we send back (which opens in a normal browser). This link is personalised to them and captures both the table they are sitting at, and their mobile phone number (this reduces abuse such as false orders made to random tables, etc)