Hacker News Reader

Comment by iso1337 | Hacker News Reader

I feel like restaurant culture could change to be more efficient. Some observations from visiting Asia or eating out in general:

In Korea, there is a button on every table you can press to get the attention of waitstaff. No more inefficient hoping to catch eye contact when they walk by.

A lot of places now make you walk up to a register and pay as you leave. No more having the waitstaff make 2-3 trips to your table just so you can sign.

Having iPads or something for ordering is another step, but may take longer to recoup those initial investments.

Focus only on a few speciality dishes, rather than offering 200 items.

Edit: there’s also the automat, which was in fashion in the early 1900s in America, I believe. There was the Eatsa chain but it folded, apparently due to “expanding too fast.”

View on HN

Used to be a waiter at a slightly more "upscale" Italian restaurant in suburban NY that was constantly packed. It was unjustified, in my opinion, because the food wasn't worth $25 a plate.

I completely agree with your points. The menu was horribly complex, such that orders were always wrong. Getting things remade took forever, and it often wasn't my fault. Either the customer would forget to specify something, or the cook wouldn't read the ticket correctly. In a less busy restaurant, things can be fixed easily, but not in this one.

Payment was also quite slow, as you noted. Constant trips, constant check errors. Constant haggling about wanting things for free because of some slight error.

The place should have offered 10 standard dishes. The amount of food inventory and wine inventory spoiling because of disuse/no space was abominable.

The kitchen was always a frantic mess and the cooks frequently undercooked things or cross contaminated. There was no room for carefulness because the line was always out the door.

I ultimately left because at 7.50 an hour, supporting myself was hard. Tips were frequently better at lunch because the kitchen could prepare meals better. But $400 a week was not cutting it in NY, with no health insurance.

I praise automats as the future!!

> A lot of places now make you walk up to a register and pay as you leave. No more having the waitstaff make 2-3 trips to your table just so you can sign.

I never realized how inefficient this U.S. practice was until we were in a hurry to catch a movie after dinner. It took 15 minutes to pay the bill when it should have taken 2.

In Brazil, when you ask for the check the waiter brings the wireless charge card machine to your table.

In most parts of Asia, if paying by cash, the busboy already has the right change in hand for all common denominations of bills. The transaction takes less than 5 seconds.

I have never been to China, but I imagine with the ubiquity of mobile payments there, it's even more efficient.

Red Robin does this. They still have a human waiter to take your order, refresh what needs refreshing, etc. But there’s a tablet on each table, and at the end you bring up your bill on the tablet, enter your card info, and off you go. The tablet also doubles as a game platform if you’ve got antsy kids, and it’s on a rotating pedestal so you can all play a game together if you want to.

Interesting -- I've never dined at Red Robin before. Come to think of it, Buffalo Wild Wings also has tablets.

Japan is pretty efficient but paying at the table is still not really a thing. Most places have a button on the table to summon staff. Most conveyor sushi places let you order from a screen and I’m sure many restaurants in the city do this as well (I live in the country). However, I have yet to see a payment at the table system- most likely because Japan is still largely a cash nation. Overall the system is efficient, though there is some delay at register - probably depends on how crowded of a place. Still, I prefer this over the hover and try to get the waiters attention in US.

What I remember from Japan are ramen restaurants where you buy tokens from a vending machine before you go into the restaurant. Seemed pretty efficient and those places kept simple ramen at around $6-$8 per bowl in Osaka. You would then go into the restaurant and hand in your token (IIRC it was colored to denote the dish you ordered).

how about ordering directly to the kitchen from the table via ipad. I usually don't have any questions for the waiters.

I have personally seen this in some airports. The problem was they were fixed in place in front of you and constantly blared ads.

At some restaurants near me, the waitstaff now hand you an iPad instead of a menu. Once we got over the clunky UI, it made ordering a lot more efficient.

I imagine you could embed a short 15s video to explain what the dish is (if needed).

The United terminal at EWR — ground zero for the “iPad at every seat” concept — basically feels like you’re trapped in a combination of a high-security video poker casino and the “Minority Report” retinal-scanning advertising scene, with the added insult of a CBGB-branded craft cocktail bar.

Having said that, it’s still the best terminal you’ll find in Newark, so ... eh.

OTG is the company behind the iPad concept [1], and there are large installations at IAH, YYZ, LGA, etc.

I don't know, they're ok. I wouldn't use the iPads to surf but they're a great food ordering tool. The one advantage is that the seats at these iPad stations are usually very comfy. They also free you up from having to look for seating at a busy food court. I was once able to order Popeye's from several gates away where things were quieter, and my food was brought to me.

[1] https://www.macworld.com/article/1167138/ipad_installations_...

LGA has an area that looks like a sit down restaurant with the ipads. I found it to be quite pleasant. However, if I just want to sit and relax I don’t want the ipad in front of me.

Many All-you-can-eat (AYCE) sushi restaurants in Canada have iPad ordering systems. AYCE sushi places tend to have complex menus, so ordering with iPads helps reduce errors as well as table turnover time (an important KPI to optimize for sit-down restaurants).

I bet they recoup their investments pretty quickly. Waitstaff isn't reduced though -- they still need lots of people to bring out the food, but the operation itself is fairly efficient.

I believe the airport in Minneapolis has this setup. I find it very alienating. I like human interaction when I eat out, it's one of the main reasons I do so.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com