Ukraine-based Settle plans to lauch its mobile payments service for restuarants in the San Francisco area sometime in January, according to a press release. 

Settle has tweaked its service since it first launched earlier this year in Kiev. Consumers can use the app to place their order ahead of their arrival, simialr to what Panera does at the moment. Starbucks is testing an order-ahead feature in Portland, Ore. and plans to launch it nationwide in 2015. Users can link a bank card to the app, which is available in the Apple App Store and Google Play, and then use it to place an order and pay the bill.

Merchants who accept the app for payment receive a free proprietary Settle tablet that enables them to resolve a patron's bill while collecting some information for future opportunities such as a loyalty program. Settle charges merchants a fee for each preorder, according to a company spokesperson.

Settle launched the service earlier this year in Ukraine and now has 20 partners in Kiev, a spokesperson wrote in an email to Mobile Payments Today.

The company said it is currently negotiating with some resturants in the San Francisco area, the spokesperson added. Settle wants to expand to other U.S. cities in the future.