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Many restaurants in China do in fact have such a set of buttons at every table. As an added optimization, wait staff there typically use some kind of mobile dev

by d_r 15y ago

Many restaurants in China do in fact have such a set of buttons at every table. As an added optimization, wait staff there typically use some kind of mobile devices to order food instead of using paper. I haven't seen many other countries, but I'm surprised both of these innovations aren't more prevalent here in the States.

yardie 15y ago
Most restaurants in the US aren't as big as some of the chinese restaurants I've been to. The cost/benefit of having a mobile device for each waiter rather than a waiter station with a terminal would be minuscule. One thing some of the busier restaurants are doing is use pagers when there is a waiting list.
ugh 15y ago
I have seen several restaurants in Germany try those mobile gizmos but they tend to disappear after a short time: Too slow, too unflexible. Their UI is just horrible as soon as customized orders come up. Well, their UI is probably horrible in general but extra horrible when you leave the path. As for buttons, why not follow Larry David's lead and put a bell on every table?
- furyg3 15y ago
  Slowness of the interface isn't really a huge problem, because it can still speed up service and improve efficiency. Just last week I was sitting at a terrace located a little ways away from the restaurant itself. The waitress punched in our drink orders, but we stopped her from turning around and asked her about the specials. Our beers arrived before she finished describing them. This place had one order-taker and one or two 'runners' who delivered and bussed. Increasing latency while taking orders isn't nice... but in this case it completely obliterated message delivery time (and a whole lot of legwork).
  - ugh 15y ago
    I guess that's the problem. The restaurants I like are rather small. They have only two or so people. I guess there is apoint when the restaurant is large enough when those mobile devices pay off.

by d_r 15y ago

yardie 15y ago

Most restaurants in the US aren't as big as some of the chinese restaurants I've been to. The cost/benefit of having a mobile device for each waiter rather than a waiter station with a terminal would be minuscule. One thing some of the busier restaurants are doing is use pagers when there is a waiting list.

ugh 15y ago

I have seen several restaurants in Germany try those mobile gizmos but they tend to disappear after a short time: Too slow, too unflexible. Their UI is just horrible as soon as customized orders come up. Well, their UI is probably horrible in general but extra horrible when you leave the path. As for buttons, why not follow Larry David's lead and put a bell on every table?

furyg3 15y ago
Slowness of the interface isn't really a huge problem, because it can still speed up service and improve efficiency. Just last week I was sitting at a terrace located a little ways away from the restaurant itself. The waitress punched in our drink orders, but we stopped her from turning around and asked her about the specials. Our beers arrived before she finished describing them. This place had one order-taker and one or two 'runners' who delivered and bussed. Increasing latency while taking orders isn't nice... but in this case it completely obliterated message delivery time (and a whole lot of legwork).
- ugh 15y ago
  I guess that's the problem. The restaurants I like are rather small. They have only two or so people. I guess there is apoint when the restaurant is large enough when those mobile devices pay off.