Non-traditional ways to order at a restaurant

[bcla]

Been going out more often, and it seems a bit interesting that a lot of normal sit-down restaurants are changing it up a bit where it's no longer traditional ordering with a server taking an order. Or at the very least an encouragement to order using electronic means. Yesterday we went out to a place in San Francisco where every table had a QR code that was supposed to be scanned into a device, that would bring up a webpage to order for that specific table and pay using a credit/debit card. But we wanted to pay cash so we had to order at the bar and tell them what table we wanted. Only it got a bit awkward because we had just ordered and another group was standing over the table that I'd just ordered for, and we were trying to tell them that it was our table.

I do like how many use tablets for servers. That at the very least speeds up orders such that a server going to multiple tables doesn't have to get back into the kitchen before they start preparing.

Even some casual dining has options to order using a tablet device on the table/counter. I've seen that at Chili's, although I've never used one to order. I've used one to pay when was in a hurry, and their rewards program only works through the tablets unless one does a mobile/online order using their app or website.

Even with fast food there seems to be an encouragement to use electronic kiosks of some kind. McDonald's has those big flat screens, while Taco Bell locations seem to be going with smaller ones. I'd been to one McDonald's that only allowed ordering from the kiosks unless one has a disability that makes it difficult to use. Even if paying cash, one has to order at a kiosk, get a number, and take it to the cashier (usually just one). I suppose it's supposed to reduce the need for cashiers. I've used one of these before where the printer was out of paper, it jammed, or just didn't put out anything except a white piece of paper. That could get interesting because one time I was told there was no means to look up previous orders without the number - that I never got. But more recently I've had that happen and they could look up previous orders on the kiosks, showing that they'd reprogrammed them.

 

[SueInBoston]

I really like the Landwer cafe model, you can order from the QR code at the table and pay when you order. When you finish eating, you can just leave without having to wait for your check. You can order the traditional way if you want and there are wait staff to assist if you need something.

 

[MillauFr]

I haven't seen that in Seattle yet but it does make sense and a good way to deal with labor shortages. I also like when they have a QR code on the check that allows you to pay without having the server take your credit card and has to scan it away from your table. That never seemed very secure to me.

 

[Magical2017]

The QR code is fine for for us for casual dining. We rarely eat out anymore but if I am going somewhere nice, I hope there is a menu and a server. I know you can always request a menu at many venues. We like to put our phones away.

 

[NotUrsula]

Ran into an interesting one the other day at a more upscale Asian restaurant, which serves primarily Vietnamese cuisine, but also has some Chinese and Korean dishes on their VERY large menu. (I mention this because they print the names of the dishes in their home languages, though the descriptions underneath are in English.)

They now do give out the original book menus again, but the prices have all been removed. If you want to know how much a dish costs before ordering it, you either have to ask the waiter, or have to look up the menu online via the QR code. Problem is, the menu the QR code takes you to is a series of images, with the titles in the native language characters. You can't keyword search the online menu just to get the price of the item you saw on the book menu; you have to page through the entire thing to find it, and it's between 15-20 pages.

I found the new ordering process so cumbersome that I don't believe that I will return. It's a shame; I always liked the place, but my eyesight isn't that great anymore, and life is too short to spend a good 45 minutes of a rare free evening squinting at a small screen in the dark.

 

[bcla]

The QR code is fine for for us for casual dining. We rarely eat out anymore but if I am going someone nice, I hope there is a menu and a server. I know you can always request a menu at many venues. We like to put our phones away.

Some places I've been to, the menu is limited and most of what they have is referenced in the QR code. I suppose that helps when prices and menu items change often. However, where I went yesterday had the full menu on a video menu board.

 

[bcla]

They now do give out the original book menus again, but the prices have all been removed. If you want to know how much a dish costs before ordering it, you either have to ask the waiter, or have to look up the menu online via the QR code. Problem is, the menu the QR code takes you to is a series of images, with the titles in the native language characters. You can't keyword search the online menu just to get the price of the item you saw on the book menu; you have to page through the entire thing to find it, and it's between 15-20 pages.

You've never been to a restaurant where they had little stickers with new prices in the menu? Or where a Sharpie was used to cross out the old prices and put in the new ones? Heck - I've seen takeout menus where that was how they handled new prices rather than print out new ones.

There's this place near me that has mostly Vietnamese sandwiches. Their menu board was printed years ago and most of the main menu items haven't changed. Any newer menu items usually have a photo posted to the wall with the item name and price. But on the main menu board they've literally just scraped off the old prices and placed new ones with little numbering stickers.

 

[NotUrsula]

You've never been to a restaurant where they had little stickers with new prices in the menu? Or where a Sharpie was used to cross out the old prices and put in the new ones? Heck - I've seen takeout menus where that was how they handled new prices rather than print out new ones.

There's this place near me that has mostly Vietnamese sandwiches. Their menu board was printed years ago and most of the main menu items haven't changed. Any newer menu items usually have a photo posted to the wall with the item name and price. But on the main menu board they've literally just scraped off the old prices and placed new ones with little numbering stickers.

Sure I have. But the book menu and the board/photo of the entire menu on the wall were never literally 3 inches across. (Also, this is not a casual counter joint, but a full-service restaurant where the entrees generally start at over $20 each.) I find scrolling around through blown-up photographs on that small screen painfully slow; getting through all 18 pages of it on my phone did literally take me 45 minutes. (The menu book prices had been completely painted out; just white blobs.)

If the image names at least were in English as well, or if the QR led to a multi-page document that could be searched with English-keyboard phones, then I wouldn't be annoyed, but this was truly cumbersome on a phone, and I normally don't tote a full-sized tablet when I go to a nice restaurant ... and I don't think I'm unusual in that. The diacritics on the filename characters also did not transliterate correctly in the links, so the image names were more a series of random characters. I'd have been happy with "Người khởi xướng_Starters", but that wasn't what I got.)

Also, forgot to mention that the QR worked on my Android phone, but DH could not open it with his iPhone, so I had to figure out my own order, copy it out on a scrap of paper so I wouldn't forget it, and then hand the phone to DH so he could also go through this laborious process.

 

[Mysterian]

There’s a bistro that uses carrier pigeons, but those birds can’t carry coins without dropping them. Sometimes, instead of change, you get back part of a mouse. I have no clue what’s going on here.

 

[Mysterian]

There’s a bistro that uses carrier pigeons, but those birds can’t carry coins without dropping them. Sometimes, instead of change, you get back part of a mouse. I have no clue what’s going on here.

I’d like to apologize for my answer. I just remembered that this was actually the time I hallucinated for three days in the woods behind a Wendy’s.

 

[RangerPooh]

Many of the table service restaurants that we have been to over the last two years have gone the way of scanning a QR Code. Traditional menus may be available when asked. Although I have seen more restaurants bringing back physical menus, but they are fewer options than in 2019.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Not a fan of these places & won't go, those QR codes are very off putting, not an ambiance I dig.

Chick-Fila is tolerable every now and again, mostly because it's not trying to be anything other than fast food, but the places that try to look like a family sit-down who throw this in are just ick mostly because they tend to run the same price as nice family run places who actually have staff and care. For my $60-$80 I'd rather help some family pay their bills than drop into a franchise, even fast food can run around $50 now, which is just ridiculous to me. I totally deselect places with QR code dining.

 

[mrodgers]

McDonald's has those big flat screens, while Taco Bell locations seem to be going with smaller ones. I'd been to one McDonald's that only allowed ordering from the kiosks unless one has a disability that makes it difficult to use. Even if paying cash, one has to order at a kiosk, get a number, and take it to the cashier (usually just one). I suppose it's supposed to reduce the need for cashiers. I've used one of these before where the printer was out of paper, it jammed, or just didn't put out anything except a white piece of paper. That could get interesting because one time I was told there was no means to look up previous orders without the number - that I never got. But more recently I've had that happen and they could look up previous orders on the kiosks, showing that they'd reprogrammed them.

I don't use the kiosk at McDonalds. I can't afford the new shoes every time I eat with all the walking away to look at it because I can't read a menu 12 inches away on a giant bright 50" television screen. I have to keep walking back and forth from reading it to selecting whatever it is I want.

I'm not tipping at a restaurant either if I have to do everything on a tablet and all they are doing working for a paycheck is the 45 seconds it takes to walk my plate from the kitchen to the table. $20 tip for that? For 45 seconds worth of work? I don't care what you are doing during the off hours when your employer should be paying for your labor or if it's slow or if it's busy or anything. I am paying you a wage when you are working directly for me and I'm not paying $1600/hour to have a plate of food brought to me.

 

[Colleen27]

I like the tablets when they're used the way some of the casual sit-down chains are using them - as a way to add to your order (ie, order dessert or a second beer) or notify the waiter that you'd like a drink refill or to pay at the end of the meal. I don't like when the QR codes or tablets are used to replace the waiter, because that tends to mean no one is offering refills or otherwise checking in. We've been to a few places post-pandemic where your only human interaction is with a food runner, and I feel like service suffers under those conditions. I don't mind the kiosks at fast food places, though; I like being able to see that my order is correct, especially if we're ordering something without pickles or mustard or whatever because that often gets lost in background noise or inattention or just plain hitting the wrong key when a human being takes my order.

I'm also not a huge fan of the QR trend because it makes life so much harder for those who don't have a cell phone/data at all times. I never really thought twice about it in the US because I always have service, but when we were overseas I didn't spring for international data, just bare-bones pay-per-used talk and text in case we needed to reach one another, and it was disappointing how many places have moved their audio tours or other guide materials to QR-based access that requires data. And a lot of those same places either don't have wifi at all or only have it in limited areas, so if you aren't traveling with a cell phone with data, you're just out of luck. I get that it is easier and, post-pandemic, more sanitary to expect people to use their personal devices instead of checking out old-school audio tours, but if a place is going to do that I do feel like they should make sure their wifi is up to the task.

 

[pookybean]

I dont like the QR codes because sometimes my phone gives me a hard time and doesnt want to open the page. I also inevitably forget something and need to reopen the page to look while ordering.

I do use the kiosk at Mcdonalds though because i like to flip between different options looking at prices. My daughter and i often share nuggets so rather than just buy two meals I look at different ways to make our own combos. I could do it at the register but the menus above are always changing.... now those drive me bonkers!

 

[auntfrannie]

I was at a sit down restaurant last week that had the QR code to scan. I thought it would just be to view the menu but you had to order online as well. The only time you saw the server was when they brought the food. You couldn't even order non-alcoholic drinks from the server. They had a self-serve kiosk to get soft drinks. I won't be going back there again.

 

[Magical2017]

I was at a sit down restaurant last week that had the QR code to scan. I thought it would just be to view the menu but you had to order online as well. The only time you saw the server was when they brought the food. You couldn't even order non-alcoholic drinks from the server. They had a self-serve kiosk to get soft drinks. I won't be going back there again.

This is too bad, because many people will not tip as much. A personable server will get an increase from 20 to to at least 25 % from me, sometimes more. No, I don't go out much anymore, lol. Unless restaurants are paying the servers more (and most probably cannot afford to do so even if they wanted to), it seems like it might limit the tips to have such little contact with guests. I get that it is considered safer due to COVID. I just don't like it much.

 

[holden]

A ramen place near us has robots that take your order and deliver the food. Not kidding. No human interaction at all.

 

[ncc1701]

Only a few sit down places near us have a QR code for the menu. And even they will give you an option for a printed menu.Most have a QR code to pay but we still do it with our CC of Cash. Only a few chains have those annoying tablets that work half the time to pay.
We have yet to be in a sit down restaurant with no server to take our order.
Maybe it is a thing in certain areas of the Country. We live in NJ ( Philadelphia suburbs) & have been eating out since they re-opened restaurants for on site dining.

 

[ronandannette]

I really like the Landwer cafe model, you can order from the QR code at the table and pay when you order. When you finish eating, you can just leave without having to wait for your check. You can order the traditional way if you want and there are wait staff to assist if you need something.

How does tipping work before you're received any service? Do they still have the 18%/20%/22% options and expect you to choose one?

Some places I've been to, the menu is limited and most of what they have is referenced in the QR code. I suppose that helps when prices and menu items change often. However, where I went yesterday had the full menu on a video menu board.

One of the most infuriating ones around here is KFC. Lots of the fast-food places have gone to offering coupons and discounts only available when ordering through their apps, not at the register. KFC jumps the shark by actually having menu items that can only be ordered on the app; they absolutely will not sell them to you if you try to order them in person.