iPad in the restaurant

[ritmomundo]

NO NO dont do it. They have touchscreen menus set up in my building's cafeteria, and while its a convenience (think fast food), letting people order by themselves will turn a high class restaurant into a cheapo establishment. People go to fancy places for the experience, interactions and good food. keep the tech gizmos out of customers' reach. Sure, people might come once to check it out, as it would be sorta unique, but once the novelty wears off, you'll probably see fewer regulars. its fine if the waitstaff have it, but even better is if they don't have anything to write on (just memory).

also, I prefer menus that don't show pictures. Just a description of the ingredients is much more elegant and effective. menus with pictures remind me of those crappy chinese take outs. I dont know about anyone else, but seeing the pictures of the food (aside from desserts) is typically not appetizing or mouth watering. plus, the flash from cameras make food pictures look cheap.

 

[rdowns]

My 5 year old kid, since she can read now, is all grown up according to her, and she will look at the menu and place her order all by herself. But, if my 5 year old drops your iPad Menu, I won't be resposible and no you can't give her a paper menu, that would be discriminating

A 5 year old doesn't belong in a restaurant that would use an iPad as a menu. Do your fellow human beings a favor and stick to Appleby's or Friday's when you go out with the kids. It had to be said.

 

[Surely]

A 5 year old doesn't belong in a restaurant that would use an iPad as a menu. Do your fellow human beings a favor and stick to Appleby's or Friday's when you go out with the kids. It had to be said.

Agreed. I would never take my kid to a nice restaurant until he learns how to sit and eat quietly.

My mother used to tell us to treat a restaurant like we were guests in someone else's house. It worked quite well.....we behaved properly at restaurants.

 

[hi res]

A good server doesn't need to write anything down...

Just saying.

WRONG. If one of my servers, even my head server didn't write down a guest's order it would be their a$$! Not writing down orders doesn't make you a good server, it leaves the door open to mess up an entire order--possibly more. Great servers write EVERYTHING down!

...now, my .02....Just use them for drink/wine menu's and have them secured to the table in some fashion. Having guests order their own food brings your appeal down, and just invites an onslaught of problems.

**GM of a full-service restaurant for 6+ years**

 

[DuckSoup]

Report on CNN.com today on this very subject

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2011/08/06/pkg.ipad.restaurant.cnn?

 

[tstarks33]

WRONG. If one of my servers, even my head server didn't write down a guest's order it would be their a$$! Not writing down orders doesn't make you a good server, it leaves the door open to mess up an entire order--possibly more. Great servers write EVERYTHING down!

...now, my .02....Just use them for drink/wine menu's and have them secured to the table in some fashion. Having guests order their own food brings your appeal down, and just invites an onslaught of problems.

**GM of a full-service restaurant for 6+ years**

It depends on the restaurant. Higher end places usually don't write things down, at least in my experience. If you are going to a diner or something, then that's different.

 

[cardinalryan]

I think the most important question here is... what kind of food do you serve?

I echo this. The food is everything...personally, I would think it's cool to use an iPad to order, but I think most people would find it frustrating and would rather just have a regular menu to order off of.

Bottom line, serve great food, provide stellar service and you will be fine.

 

[ct2k7]

Hi OP,

I've recently written a custom app for a local restaurant to use.

Basically, this app is used by restaurant staff to receive orders.

The app then sends the order to a kitchen to preparation.

Meanwhile, the app requests payment and acts as a virtual terminal for payment processing.

The app connects to a server in the restaurant which lists the orders and performs the metrics for accounting.

 

[Apple OC]

My 5 year old kid, since she can read now, is all grown up according to her, and she will look at the menu and place her order all by herself. But, if my 5 year old drops your iPad Menu, I won't be resposible and no you can't give her a paper menu, that would be discriminating

Sorry but the Children's menus are laminated washable paper menus ... no disrespect or discrimination to your kid ... all the kids here use the children's menu

 

[palpatine]

dead thread walking...

why do people resurrect these things instead of starting a new one?

 

[DuckSoup]

dead thread walking...

why do people resurrect these things instead of starting a new one?

Guess you are d*mned if you do, d*mned if you don't.

Had I started a new one last night (which I DID consider) I guarantee you there would have been replies in it that I should have searched first as "this was covered recently". It had started July 6th and stopped July 8th, exactly one month old. It's not like it stopped last November.

Seriously, why does it matter to you if I started a new thread or not?

 

[Bokes]

It grosses me out when i get handed a food stained menu.
My advice- print your menus fresh on decent stock paper. (and no pleather cover please)

Being handed a well designed, high class menu layout on clean paper is a far better presentation than a smudgy ipad.

 

[beamer8912]

How about a couple of trial runs? When you seat a customer(s) ask them if they'd like to try out the iPad menu. You'll only need a couple iPads and the customer gets their choice. If they want a classic paper menu then so be it.

See how the trial goes and decide from there. If one gets stolen, or damaged from a spill etc, then it may not be a great choice to push forward. Otherwise if your trial customers appreciate the experience then slowly incorporate more iPads. Until then still maintain a good amount of printed menus.