When you get into the restaurant, the waiter will give an iPad as a menu. The chef will be shown on the screen and welcome your visit. Then you can take a look at the menu with beautiful pictures and detailed descriptions. After you selected the dishes you want, the iPod Touch from the waiter will receive a message. The waiter will reconfirm what you have selected. If there is no problem, the order will be immediately sent to the kitchen. When you are waiting for the dishes, you can even use the iPad to go on the internet, check the email and watching online videos etc.
Some people may think that this iPad ordering system can only be a gimmick and draw people’s attention. But actually it brings a lot of advantages to the restaurants. First, it can lower the cost of making a menu. You may think that buying iPad and iPod Touch would be much more expensive then a menu made of papers but it is not the truth. For a five star restaurant, they need to have a very sophisticated menu. They need high quality printing and papers, they need to hire professional photographers for taking photos and they need designers for designing the menu. It costs around 200 euros for one menu and they need to change it once a month so in long term it will be much more expensive than using iPad ordering system. Second, it is much easier for them to change the menu. They just need to change them in the system. In the past, they needed to wait for a week to make a new menu. Thirdly, it can assure the dishes on the menu can be provided definitely. Sometimes the ingredients are not available or because of special reasons the restaurant cannot make that dish. If you are using iPad system, you can just delete that dish and people will not choose the dishes the restaurant cannot provide. Fourthly, It can greatly reduce the human errors. Since the whole ordering process is computerized, it will not have mistakes on the prices or ordering form. Lastly, it is more environmentally friendly. If you are using iPad system, you do not need any menu and ordering form. It can save many papers.
In the future, the restaurant is planning to install cameras in the production place, the logistic place and the kitchen. Then customers can see the whole process of making a dish, from getting ingredients, transporting to the restaurant, and to cooking them.
I think it is a very creative and clever method to make well use of information technology in tourism industry. It will definitely be a great success and more hotels will try to use the same method.
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