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Ask HN: Tell me some futuristic innovative things to do on a restaurant

3 points by raghav003 ↗ HN
Using modern technologies like iPad, Android, TouchScreen, Social networking etc.. One idea is to make the menu on a touch screen near the table and ordering through it. Can you help me with more ideas ?

5 comments

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bomdelata
you can let your customers make a reservation as well choose a table through their gadgets also you can add a service like that "make a pre order for drinkd for example'while you arrive!
HerraBRE
Why not give the store a simple web-server with a menu, and then let people browse and order drinks and food using their own smartphones? Then you can do things like collect ratings and complaints and such on the same interface (not necessarily all made public).

Using a QR-code on the table, you can send people directly to a specific URL which identifies their table without them having to key that in manually.

Plug a printer into the web server and orders can go directly to paper.

The same web server would be useful for take-out or home delivery.

HerraBRE
Following up to myself... using a plug computer and something like http://pagekite.net/, you could make this a plug-and-play product which works with any consumer Internet connection. Remote support will be relatively easy, as the product will actually have a public facing website.
mw63214
what is the area like, demographics wise, where your restaurant is? is it heavily populated? average-ish age of most of your target market? do most customers have smartphones?
T2P
If you go with the touch screen on the table, it would be really neat if users could place orders from their table using the device, and see the progress of their order going through the kitchen.

Good online ordering and options for pickup would be really cool for the website. Also, put your hours and an HTML menu on the front page, right up at the top. 99% of the time, if I'm going to a restaurants page, I want the hours or the menu. Most eateries seem to miss that.