The future of dining out? It’s all about computers

The staff at CNET in the United Kingdom checks out the high-tech Inamo Restaurant in London, which is so much more than an Asian Fusion restaurant. Inamo likes to tell customers that “control of your dining experience is firmly in your hand.” That’s because the restaurant features interactive touch-sensitive tables that take your order (effectively putting waiters and waitresses out of work, but I digress…). According the CNET UK piece on the restaurant, “each table has an overhead projector and mouse trackpad so your dining surface is effectively a PC monitor. You can customize your ‘tablecloth,’ play a video game against your companion, and order a taxi to get home.”

There used to be a chain of restaurants in the United States — I can’t remember the name — where customers ordered their food from telephones at the table. That was cutting edge technology then! And that’s still how customers order their burgers at Fritz’s Railroad Restaurant in Kansas City, where “high-tech” means that a little train — the “skat kat” — delivers the food. Sorry, it doesn’t order a taxi either.