Technology is on the menu(1)
A menu with a difference will give customers food for thought. Liu Zhe / China Daily
Restaurants set to dish up a surprise to customers with a thoroughly modern approach to ordering food, Zhao Yanrong reports.
Up until recently, the antique furniture at Qin Restaurant and Cafe in east Beijing, including the timeworn tea sets and the seven-string zither, called a guqin, gave customers the sense of eating in ancient times.
But that feeling of antiquity for diners has now given way to an attitude of hipness after the introduction of something very modern and sleek: Apple iPad menus.
At a time when iPhones and iPads are reshaping many industries, from telecommunications to retail, the catering business in China, which is highly labor-intensive and believed to be slow in adopting new technologies, is also embracing the change.
"The catering industry has a big market, but it is also one of the less-developed industries using technology. Most restaurants still depend on pen and paper, and managers yelling and waiters running," said Guo Jiasu, general manager of Pingxin Technology, a company that has developed tablet-PC software used to order food.
"The digital ordering system using mobile devices has existed for a few years, but it is the iPad that made the real change," Guo said.
The company ran the ordering system for 3,000 tablet PCs during the Beijing International Beer Festival from July 18 to Aug 17.
"I believe the wireless ordering system will become a core feature in the development of the catering industry," Guo said.
The restaurant inside the Red Wall Garden Hotel in Beijing's Dongcheng district started using iPad menus in April, even offering a version in English.
The tech-savvy restaurant manager said iPads will be an important tool during the next decade and the catering industry shouldn't be an exception.
"More managers or owners now were born in the 1980s and they want to use high-tech products everywhere," said Wei Jun, the manager of the Italian restaurant. "It's inevitable."
He also said the sleek product is a reflection of the high-end restaurant where customers, usually businessmen and businesswomen, typically spend more than 200 yuan ($31) per person for a meal.
