I also look at places like Chili's, Applebees, and the low-midgrade sit downs. Whenever you see a tablet on the table, that's their way of automating staff on

I also look at places like Chili's, Applebees, and the low-midgrade sit downs. Whenever you see a tablet on the table, that's their way of automating staff on various levels at a restaurant's level. They sell it as a way to play games tableside and to request server assistance... In reality, its so they can hire even less servers, have push-demand by customers when they wanted waited on, and sell more stuff quicker. It's also a way for management to ascertain actual engagement levels along with sales data. It's another case of short-sighted automation segmenting out under management in low end sit down restaurants. You certainly don't see high end restaurants engaging in these shenanigans... yet. Our (wife and I) decision is we place them face-down off the table. We prefer to engage with humans, not a idiot-box upper management dictates.