I was just a soft-launch for a pop-up restaurant. I had been eating from them at the farmer's market every week for the past four months or so. The farmer's market served as a kind of an MVP, and now they are shutting that down and trying the pop-up. They were trying it out with friends and family to figure out how to operate the kitchen and the restaurant in general. I was also curious about how they were going to handle payment: the wife walked around with the same Square system they had when they were at the farmer's market. And sure enough, she came back to hand me the phone so I can sign and tip.
It did get me thinking about the use of tablets in a restaurant. I was thinking of the exact things you brought up here, about the experience of being waited on. (On the other hand, the last Applebee's I was at was packed, we had a large group, waited for maybe 30 minute before we were seated, and some of the orders got mixed up and took a while ... but I hardly go to Applebees so I can't say that was a typical or exceptional experience).
I think you are right, that, having the wait staff be able to walk around taking orders with the tablet would be good. I'm ambivalent about having something at the table. For example, I keep thinking about my OCD friend, who'd insist on sanitizing the tablet :-D I don't think we have all the pieces of the technology yet, but something that can project images into space and allow you to interact with it without touching anything physical (like you see in sci-fi animes) would be better. Particularly if the projection is discreet. That is, if can be blended in well with the overall experience.
It did get me thinking about the use of tablets in a restaurant. I was thinking of the exact things you brought up here, about the experience of being waited on. (On the other hand, the last Applebee's I was at was packed, we had a large group, waited for maybe 30 minute before we were seated, and some of the orders got mixed up and took a while ... but I hardly go to Applebees so I can't say that was a typical or exceptional experience).
I think you are right, that, having the wait staff be able to walk around taking orders with the tablet would be good. I'm ambivalent about having something at the table. For example, I keep thinking about my OCD friend, who'd insist on sanitizing the tablet :-D I don't think we have all the pieces of the technology yet, but something that can project images into space and allow you to interact with it without touching anything physical (like you see in sci-fi animes) would be better. Particularly if the projection is discreet. That is, if can be blended in well with the overall experience.