
Deep Thoughts on the Food Tech Revolution by Captain Obvious McClure - playhard
http://500hats.com/why-menus-suck-food-tech-revolution
======
kolektiv
God I'd hate this. Restaurants are places of relaxation, company, discovery,
beautiful foods. I want to order something which sounds good and then see
whether it is - I want it to come to me as a surprise - "Oh Tuscan Rabbit? I
wonder how the chef will do it confit... Oh! Wow, let's try _this_ then!"

It's not about efficiency, it's about atmosphere. I don't want a glowing
screen anywhere near my dining table. I don't want anything which helps me
order "what I had last time". I don't want them to ask me about the last time
I was here 3 years ago either.

Can we invent and work on technology which adds to the beauty and experience
of life next please? Either that or get the brain in a jar thing working.

~~~
MattRogish
If I want the most efficient dining experience I'll order in or go to a fast
food place.

I go to a restaurant for the UX: a date night, the atmosphere, getting out of
the apartment, people watching, hanging with friends, etc.

Downtime is the point! It is supposed to take time. It gives me a relaxed
period of time to talk with the people I'm with while drinking beer/wine and
waiting for the food to arrive. To enjoy the experience.

Converting restaurants to a twitter/facebook 30-second attention span
experience seems like a net negative de-evolution to me. I don't play with my
phone while I'm at the table with other people - I think it's rude as hell -
but Dave does that all the time I suppose.

Giving me a wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am experience is _not_ what I want. I don't
have children or am in a giant hurry, but it sounds like that's where he's
coming from. Perhaps that's a bigger section of the population than I expect.

But, there's a reason why McDonald's has pictures of food _as_ the menu and
Ruth's Chris doesn't.

edit: That said, I do wish restaurants had a better idea of who their "best"
customers are and all that jazz. I just don't think dropping iPads at every
table is the right way to go.

~~~
davemcclure
so you really believe that keeping people waiting is what they want?

seriously? seriously? bueller?

ok fine, guess I'm the only customer in the world who hates waiting in fine
restaurants.

yeah, right.

~~~
MattRogish
Waiting? Waiting for what? Food obviously takes time to prepare, so there's a
necessary wait as component of the experience. Of course, the "unnecessary"
waiting: for a table, for a waiter's attention, etc. are suboptimal. But, I'm
not sure an iPad is the solution to that problem.

~~~
davemc500hats
>>Of course, the "unnecessary" waiting: for a table, for a waiter's attention,
etc. are suboptimal

yes, they're very suboptimal. and whether or not it's an iPad that's used to
fix the problem, it's probably some type of basic tech. this is the
opportunity that i'm talking about.

if you don't experience the frustration of the wait time, then congrats...
guess you're not a customer then.

~~~
MattRogish
>> yes, they're very suboptimal. and whether or not it's an iPad that's used
to fix the problem, it's probably some type of basic tech

Then I think we're in agreement. Restaurants absolutely should be improved

Maybe some way to anonymously rate them and/or tip analysis would help give
the owner insight into how their staff is doing. Being able to pay immediately
is nice - sometimes at "slow" places that we know we get the check much
earlier than when we're ready to leave for just that reason.

Anyway, it's likely I mis-understand the potential solution, I'm visiting a
different type of establishment, or I'm not the target audience.

Good luck!

------
malachismith
Dave,

You're a smart cat. And you've been really successful in the tech /
entrepreneurial venue.

But this piece perfectly illustrates a common problem among successful tech
entrepreneurs. You've not only assumed that a problem you struggle with is
universal, you've also assumed that your success and expertise within one
industry means that you know how to operate within other industries (that you
don't know about). Worse still... you assume that you don't need to know
anything about the industry to "fix" it. This is VERY common among successful
tech entrepreneurs. You've started with the assumption that you KNOW BETTER
than the people who are currently operating within the business (despite the
fact that you don't know the realities of running such a business). In your
case, you also assume that most people running restaurants are morons (because
if they were not, they'd obviously be running their businesses as if they were
tech start-ups).

This combination of myopic narcissism, arrogance and ignorance has gotten a
LOT of entrepreneurs and investors in a LOT of trouble in the past.

Might I suggest that you should: 1) learn about the food service business
(perhaps you could assume that successful food service professionals are not
idiots to start?), 2) test your assumption that there are a reasonable number
of people who share your problem

Final Note: tech entrepreneurs and investors - I'd suggest looking at this as
a good illustration of a condition that we should all avoid.

~~~
davemcclure
1) I've been a customer of restaurants for far longer than I've been a tech
entrepreneur.

2) I've been an investor in over 20 food-tech based Startups. I'm not clueless
about the industry.

3) I come from middle-class (or lower-class!) america -- Appalachia, to be
exact -- and my opinions are not based exclusively on either fast food
restaurants nor high-class ones, but rather all of the above.

you're welcome to your own opinion, but I'm hardly I'll-informed about the
industry, from either customer or operator perspective.

~~~
malachismith
Being a customer of restaurants and being an investor in food tech start-ups
is not the same as understanding operating a food service business.

That logic is similar to the logic of people who say, "I love cooking, I'll
open a restaurant." (which, by the way, is one of the major causes of the high
rate of infant restaurant mortality).

~~~
davemc500hats
look dude, i get your argument, but again i'm not friggin retarded about an
industry i've spent a half-decade investing in/around, and in fact made my
first restaurant investment over 10 years ago.

get off your high horse, i've got a clue and my extended family has been
involved in food service businesses since the great depression.

~~~
djt
no point feeding trolls Dave. Good luck with your investment, as I said in a
comment below I know one of your competitors very well and it is a very
competitive market to try and crack. Good luck to you both.

------
mattmaroon
I suppose this depends on the type of restaurant. You're never going to see a
picture on the menu of a high end restaurant. In the same way that people
equate a screw top with bad wine (even though it's about 10 times better of a
technology than a cork) people will always equate pictures on a menu with
Olive Garden type restaurants.

Also the really good restaurants base their menu on what's fresh that day, so
pictures wouldn't be practical.

And I think that people who are intimidated by the lack of pictures on a menu
tend to mostly dine at the places that have them.

~~~
usaphp
I absolutely agree with you here. Also I would like to note that having a
single tablet for let's say 4-6 guests is impractical and will take lot more
time to order vs having a paper menu for each of them.

~~~
mattmaroon
Very true. At Per Se you order wine off a tablet, which works because a table
tends to order 1 bottle at a time.

------
jw_
Virtually everything he complains about - the broad range of choice,
unfamiliar items, long periods of time spent without electronic distractions,
semi-forced interactions with people - are what most would consider positive
aspects of fine dining. As others have said, there are other establishments
that show you pictures of a limited range of familiar items and that slam them
out in a short period of time - they're called "fast food."

Suggested followups: "Nightclubs: they suck because they're loud, dark and
full of drunken horny young people" and "Concerts: how MP3 players could
disrupt live music by playing every piece consistently without the bother of
having to go to a live music venue".

~~~
davemc500hats
>> unfamiliar items >> semi-forced interactions with people >> long periods of
time spent without "electronic distractions" -- ie, the ability to pay when i
want, and call a waiter when i want

so just to confirm here -- you really think that's what people like about
high-end restaurants? they enjoy unfamiliarity? they enjoy forced
interactions? they like to not be able to pay when they want?

if so, please remind me to never put you in charge of customer service or
marketing at any of our companies.

seriously: i party down with people at nightclubs and concerts regularly, but
waiting in line or getting shitty customer service is never what i equate with
the best parts of those experiences.

~~~
djt
Working in products for hospitality, one of the hardest things to get right is
staffing, especially in peak times.

Having a consistent product is also important when trying to grow a business
(especially pubs and restaurants) and I can see hoe something like this would
improve the experience for customers, if used well.

------
caffeineninja
This has been done to a degree, and it failed pretty quickly, faster than
most. uWink opened a restaurant in Mountain View with tablets for ordering
food and playing games while you wait.

The tablets had menu items complete with photos, reviews, and it took about 15
minutes for the food to arrive to your table. Typically the waitstaff would
only bring you your drinks and food. The Mountain View location of uWink was
open for less than a year.. about 9 months, so you can all guess how well that
went. Most restaurants, even terrible ones, managed to stay open for more than
that!

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UWink>

~~~
jmartens
yes, because 1 company/restaurant failed...no other will ever succeed. Thanks
for your ever so brilliant wisdom.

~~~
davemc500hats
seriously.

and the world needs like, maybe 5 computers total.

------
klaut
Problem#3 is not really I problem for me at least. When i go eat in a
restaurant I am usually in company, so I do not want to hurry with order, eat,
pay and go. I want to enjoy conversation, food and take an easy time. I also
think that many choices on the menus are fine.

But i would definitely NOT want the restaurant to have a profile of me.

------
minimax
"Problem #3: Have to Wait FOREVER for Waiter to Order, Re-Order, & Pay. Also,
Nothing To Do While I’m Waiting."

This is pretty straightforward. If you're in a huge time crunch, order
delivery. I'm not sure what it's like in the bay area, but here in Chicago you
can order something from grubhub with very little friction.

~~~
ojbyrne
One of my personal pet peeves is the arrival of the waiter halfway through to
ask "how are things here." It's just a pointless ritual, and annoys the crap
out of me. I rarely have complaints, or additional requests, and I'll catch
their eye if I do.

~~~
ThadCloudDine
So this ritual isn't there to annoy you. Sorry that it does. Waiters do
because it saves the restaurant money and because not doing so can cost them
money.

Huh? How so?

Let me explain. My apologies in advance if you already know this. Checking on
your table is called a food check and usually happens a few minutes after your
food is delivered. It's to make sure you got everything your ordered, the meat
is cooked to your liking, all you sides are there, the stuff you are allergic
to isn't on there, etc...

Why?

Here's two example scenarios:

1\. The wait staff does a food check and finds a problem which they can fix.
If they did not fix it, odds are you won't come back. If you don't come back,
the restaurant loses future revenue plus gets bad word of mouth that further
reduces revenue. An unfixed problem meal means lower waiter tips too.

2\. The waiter doesn't do a food check. Unscrupulous guests will eat almost
all their meal and then complain to the manager. The manager often will give
the meal away. Because the waiter didn't do a food check, some restaurants
will take the cost of the meal out of the waiter's tips.

There's a even worst scenario with food allergies and lack of food checks
where people can go the hospital. Hopefully it now makes sense why the ritual
is there.

~~~
ojbyrne
I kind of understand that, and its specifically that its a "ritual" that
annoys me. I find I appreciate wait staff who keep it to a minimum.

------
pshah88
I read through Dave's blog and through all of the comments here and I find
this very funny. Dave is right, Food is huge and is only getting bigger. I
have worked with restaurants for 5+ years now, specifically in technology, and
both restaurants and consumers want to see this industry evolve and there is
not going to be just one solution that solves all of its problems. To people
who are saying they do not want screens on their tables, then do not use them,
but I will argue you are in the minority. The high-end restaurants that would
go on for an anniversary dinner or take a big client out will probably not
have that because you pay for attentive service. However, for the fast-casual
restaurant space, which is the fast growing, people don't expect that level
attention from servers and why it makes sense to integrate virtual order, user
history, reviews, etc. This stuff is coming and it will be better for
everyone, including restaurants, because they will receive more information
about their customers and can start making better business decisions like what
menu items to keep or get rid of.

The restaurant industry is just very slow to adapt, generally speaking,
because the people that run them have not grown up in the age of technology
and are focused on the operations. As more new restaurant owners come, this
will change and the opportunities in food tech will grow larger.

Great article Dave.

~~~
davemc500hats
thanks

~~~
pshah88
Dave - one thing I know I personally struggle with when implementing new
technologies for the restaurant industry is POS integration. More specifically
getting the big companies like Aloha to allow me to integrate. What are your
thoughts on this as well creating a more 'open' platform POS?

One other thing I thought you missed in your article was the trend towards
quicker service, specifically for lunch. I have seen a substantial investment
from restaurants to build more drive-throughs, increase delivery, etc. What
are your thoughts on this trend and using tech to enhance?

~~~
nickler
pshah88 I've been looking into this, and we found a group out of Calgary
called eThor that are working on developing a universal API for restaurant
POS.

They have a really interesting solution they're working on that they'll use it
with, but I don't think I can say anymore. I do know that they'll be releasing
the API to devs and public in the near future.

------
johnrob
A few issues:

1) Will implementing these features actually increase profit? This was never
addressed.

2) Restaurant revenue does not grow exponentially into the sky like many
internet businesses do. There are hard limits on growth. Thus the ROI on
measurement (A/B testing) won't be nearly as high.

3) Is a digital ordering system (with all the bells and whistles) something
that is high on the priority list of a typical restaurant owner? If not,
selling these things will be a chore.

~~~
ordrin
I've worked around the restaurant industry for 10+ years and am a founder of
Ordr.in, part of 500S' food portfolio. Digital ordering absolutely increases
profitability. Average tickets are higher (estimates are 15-20% higher) and
cost of serving the order reduced. Plus online orders smooth out and extend
demand. I.e. serve more customers without adding fixed cost. Restaurants are
just beginning to adopt online and digital tabletop ordering. Not only is
online ordering profitable (though I don't think there is a one-size-fits-all
solution) but customers are demanding it. This year 40% of diners will order
online at least once (up from 13% 5 years ago). If merchants don't lead,
customers will.

~~~
davemcclure
great to see u jump in david :)

------
nickler
I'm a restaurateur, and a big fan of dmc, I enjoyed his take, but...

I've sketched out probably every idea Dave has illustrated here, and most of
them don't make it far enough to even bust out an MVP. I have the advantage of
a massive network of restaurant owners, from high end to QSR (quick service
restaurant), and an even bigger network of hospitality staff. They chew on
them, and spit them up.

It's not that it's impossible, and paradigm shifts in how the business is done
is something I've pursued my whole life, but it takes a tremendous effort, and
a retraining of your customers. Friction.

My operations were fine dining, casual wine bars, and nightclub/lounges.
Exceptional experiences are the highest pursuit, and every problem DMC has an
issue with would never exist in one of our operations. It's just a competent
operator, well trained staff, and proper systems.

Some of the QSR chains I've worked with could use some help from tech, but the
customer at a QSR is looking for less customer friction, not more.

I'd love to sit down with DMC sometime and give him some insight on where the
real opportunities are in the space. He's right, it's a prime target for
disruption, but not in the way he's thinking right now.

~~~
davemcclure
happy to chat... ping me @davemcclure.

if it's really the case that _none_ of your staff at _all_ of your nightclubs
/ restaurants have these issues, them I'll eat my shorts & buy you a beer
(either way, I'll buy u a beer in fact ;)

certainly it's been my experience that technology used to improve efficiency
may not always be appropriately / perfect, but in MANY use cases where I've
had to wait or choose from confusing menus, I can't imagine how it wouldn't
help.

however, I'm open to hearing why I'm wrong if you have data to back it up.

~~~
nickler
Awesome Dave,

I've reread your blog post a few times to make sure I've got a real sense of
the pains you're talking about. You've got one of our early favorites in there
too, I'll tell you how alpha testing went with it.

Pinged you with @fourmojo.

------
archangel_one
I can see some advantages in what the author says, but I don't think the tech
industry is a particularly good metaphor - for example, suggesting high-
quality pictures of food will convert better. I've not ever been involved in
the business end of a restaurant, but I've eaten in a few, and I can't believe
that "converting" people who are reading a menu into people who have chosen
something is actually a big problem - 99.5% of customers surely manage that
one way or another.

Similarly, I'm not sure that providing reviews is obviously a good thing for a
restaurateur - they hardly want to show you negative reviews of their dishes,
and if they only show the positive ones it's obviously useless. I sort of see
what he means about people saying when things suck, but surely if the
restaurant knows one of their dishes is crap they'd be better off fixing or
removing it than showing it with poor reviews.

------
tripleseat
As a 20 year veteran of the restaurant business and Founder of Tripleseat,a
CRM and Event Management web app for the restaurant's Private Dining business
with 500+ customers let me add my 2 cents on the challenges on making Dave's
ideas to work in the restaurant business. 1) Pictures on menu's-Menu's change
constantly because of food costs and trends. To have a new photo taken every
time you make a menu change is too time consuming. Also, you don't want a
crappy picture of your food on the menu and that means professional
photographers and that means added costs.

2) Electronic Menu's etc-Good idea in theory, does not work (yet) in the real
world. #1 and #1A reason restaurants won't do it is because of theft and
breakage. To replace an iPad or whatever is too costly (sensing a theme here?)

3) CRM system that knows who you are and what you have ordered have been
around forever BUT the Server who has 6 tables (and impatient customers) will
not take the time to review it. It is not a problem technology can fix IMO

4) Technology to entertain the customer is called TV and Bartender (Sorry
about being snarky)

It has been my experience that a majority of restaurant Owners and Operators
will not invest in any technology (outside a POS) unless there is a proven,
hard, ROI. These buyers, by their very nature, are pragmatic buyers that
measure their money in nickels. Unless your technology widget can show them a
fast ROI and make them more money they are going to pass

------
nathan_long
I do not want to interact with more technology _in_ a restaurant, but I do
think restaurants tend to have stunningly bad websites.

Most restaurants have either 1) a giant PDF or 2) a crazy interactive Flash
experience. (Would you like to build an animated pizza? Would you like a
Taylor Swift CD with your pizza?)

When I come to a restaurant's site, I want to see this: 1) Location and hours
2) HTML menu with pictures

This could all be on one page.

If there's an online ordering process, it should be fast and remember my
favorite choices. That's about it.

~~~
hackinthebochs
Why is flash automatically seen as bad? When done right it is a seamless
experience that only the most technical could possibly take issue with. I, for
one, enjoy papa john's interactive pizza order menu.

~~~
nathan_long
It isn't always bad, but it's definitely slower than text and images. My
purpose in ordering a pizza is to _order a pizza_. When I'm doing a task, I
don't want fun animations; I want to finish quickly. What do you have, what
does it look like, what does it cost? Pick, pay, done.

Ordering a pizza is not part of the evening's entertainment; _eating_ a pizza
is.

------
richardjordan
Few (inconsistent) thoughts on this. As usual I think DMC is right on most of
this, however I wonder if the average Joe is keen on logging in to a
restaurant for the benefit of customized menus. I like that idea, personally,
but then I don't have a shit-fit every time something happens on Facebook that
brings the privacy folks out - I understand the trade-off I make for free
goods. Jury's out though on how many folks will do this, and therefore how
much benefit it is to the restaurant compared to how much overhead/effort is
involved.

The other thought I have with this is that it's typical of a lot of problems
startups are tackling right now where the information (menus) is the type of
information that needs to be free and everywhere, but the startups'
monetization strategies are based on locking in that information in order to
lock the customer into paying.

Anecdote signifying nothing: had coffee the other day with someone at a place
that served food by having people log in on ipads, choose their item, order,
pay then it was ready for them at the counter. I just wanted to look up, see a
board with items on it, tell a polite person behind the counter my order and
wait with my coffee for food. I didn't order.

------
kstenerud
Actually, I like menus with lots of choices. It would be nice to have more
pictures, though.

~~~
prostoalex
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen_Confidential> talks about refrigerator
space and other constraints common to modern restaurants. Whenever you order
that chicken that's on the menu together with shrimp, lobster, steak, ground
beef, pork chop, pork loin, tuna, turkey, salmon, tilapia, etc., you risk
ordering something that's been re-frozen multiple times, stuck in the back of
the fridge (the more exotic it is, the higher the chances are that it's been
there for a while, alligator kebabs and ostrich burger patties least likely to
be fresh), and handled multiple times by line cook's hands while he reaches
into the fridge to retrieve stuff for other customers.

~~~
wylie
Just to clarify, it sounds like you're suggesting that a larger menu will have
less-fresh food. That makes intuitive sense but confused me at first.

~~~
prostoalex
Yeah, sorry about the verbosity.

------
djt
I'm surprised by how negative a lot of people are here to new ideas.

A friend runs Menupad. You should check out the demo. Does some cool stuff
such as allowing people to get wine recommendations for each dish, organized
by the sommelier. That is a big value add for the customer.

Another point is that with health care reforms in the US, wages for waiters
will increase, which may tip the balance for restaurants to go the technology
option.

------
CurtMonash
I don't think lack of personalization is a big problem. If I have something I
like, I generally remember that well enough to order it next time. That fits
with the general rule that personalization has a clearer, easier-to-prove
benefits for vendors than for purchasers

More information about menu items I haven't ordered before would be great. But
for me a list of ingredients would be much more important than a picture.

Check-out efficiency would be wonderful. The same expensive tablet that offers
that at every table could probably be used for upsell of desserts and after-
dinner beverages, both for impulse-purchase reasons and because restaurants
struggle to take those orders at the right time just as they struggle to bring
you the check exactly when you want it.

An ETA on next-course arrival would be welcome, just as it is for airplanes.
That's another good use for an on-table electronic device.

\----------------------

Anyhow, Dave was calling for a huge redesign in the processes whereby
restaurants operate. It's much more reasonable to think of these ideas working
at SOME new restaurants than of them working at a large fraction of existing
old ones.

------
harryf
All fine except for one thing. Your typical restaurant owner would rather run
their business rather than create high quality online content. They typical
lack marketing resources.

Menus today are simple / easy / quick to produce. If you want restaurants to
move this online plus manage a CRM with their loyal customers preferences, it
has to be just as simple, easy and quick as "old school" menus.

------
coditor
I stopped reading after a few paragraphs; it's not necessary to write crappy
english to get your point across. Most restaurant owners have neither the
resources or knowledge to run as some kind of food startup. This author seems
to think that people actually want better technology instead of better food or
pricing or service. I can't eat a digital menu.

------
paul_f
The restaurant industry divides itself into four classifications - quick serve
(Wendys), fast casual (Chipotle), Table Service (Chili's) and Fine Dining
(Ruth's Chris). I can see e-menus making headway in Table Service spots where
people are usually in more of a hurry, might have kids, and the restaurants
don't always have the best servers. I can envision wine menus in Fine Dining
locations.

Most restaurants focus on keeping costs low even more than top-line revenues,
so my guess is an innovative business model might be needed for a wide
deployment. But nothing wrong with a little disruption in this space.

~~~
davemc500hats
more efficient ordering / reduced turnover time / increased ticket size are
good for almost all of the categories above.

while reduced turnover time might not seem to be what Ruth's Chris is looking
for, if they're full to capacity, and people are ready to leave/pay sooner,
don't you think the people will be happier and the restaurant can seat another
customer?

again i'm astonished at how many people think increased efficiency = you
_have_ to rush.

nothing could be further from the truth -- it's because service is efficient
that you DON'T have to rush.

------
bengwatson
Inertia and friction will always be a challenge. I would suggest combining the
online ordering process (website) with the in house ordering process(menu) by
creating a 'second screen' that can be used on a cell phone to display more in
depth menu information (pictures, reviews, payment etc) regardless of
location. As the approach gains traction introduce iPads into the restaurant.
Frankly, with so many large screen phones and iPads already in use it would be
great to see an ordering solution that spans local and online customers.

------
jmartens
I am surprised by all the pushback here....even for HN! Only explanation I can
come up with is that you pimply faced virgins feel better about yourselves
because you told off Dave McClure.

Ummmm, congratulations?

------
prostoalex
On pictures, link from couple months ago
<http://mashable.com/2012/10/16/instagram-menu/>

~~~
davemcclure
nice. Tiny Post (nee Tiny Review) was headed that direction at one point...

------
andrewcooke
uff. doesn't this depend hugely on context?

we regularly eat at lomitz which is a traditional chilean/german place, with
the same long menu every day. the items are all famous, traditional dishes
that everyone knows (i guess for americans this is like my local diner).
pictures would be a nuisance except for tourists.

there's a fancy (but more fantasy/preuvian than "authentic") sushi place up in
vitacura that we go to for treats. it's frustrating because they use fictional
names without descriptions. pictures would look very nice, i'm sure, but not
really help you decide. what they need is detailed descriptions (what _would_
be cool is if you could record what you'd had previously, and your rating, so
you can work out what to order next time...)

there's a restaurant up the road that's basically french. reading the
descriptions is a pleasure. pictures would be chintzy.

another favourite restaurant of mine is down towards italia; it's russian.
pictures there would be great because it's never clear exactly what the
description means.

each one is different.

~~~
davemc500hats
yes it does depend on context; probably diff solutions for diff types of
restaurants.

that said, can't see how more efficient systems / process would be an
inappropriate benefit for almost any of them... even at the high-end, some
systems would probably help both customer and restaurant.

------
sputknick
I love this idea, and I think most of you will too. Many of you are
complaining about ambiance, but how many of you use your cell phones at dinner
(be honest). This will enable restauranteurs to turn over a table more
quickly, and have fewer wait staff, both of which will mean more profit for
them, and lower costs for us. This is a great idea and it WILL happen.

------
rdl
Often when I go to a new restaurant for the food (vs. for a meeting, or
because it's a convenient, etc.) I google the restaurant, which usually takes
me to a Yelp page, with reviews written by some smart people and some utter
morons with axes to grind, and then I end up trying to pick dishes based on
that.

------
ConfitDeCanard
"While some smart restaurants do feature a few specials (some even with
pictures), most places fail at this very simple (largely offline!) innovation.
Fewer items with pictures & more obvious recommendations would streamline
production, reduce cost, reduce time for customers to order, for kitchens to
prepare, and increase customer satisfaction."

Restaurateurs are actually a far more sophisticated bunch than McClure knows.
Decisions about where items are listed, what is bolded, etc. are frequently
made with the intent to increase ordering of items with higher margins. The
idea that menus are designed without care, or that they a painful source of
cost and inefficiency for restaurants, is naive.

"places i visit frequently should give discounts to come back regularly"

Why? If you are already a frequent diner, I have less incentive to give you an
outright discount. That said, restaurants frequently reward their most loyal
patrons in other ways. If you are a regular and need a last minute reservation
on a Friday night, chances are you'll be accommodated if at all possible.

"places i visit infrequently should give discounts to try them once or twice"

Discounting to get customers through the door isn't always a bad idea, but as
many less experienced restaurant owners have learned the hard way from
services like Groupon, it's difficult to build a profitable customer base by
targeting people who are only interested in trying your food because they're
saving a buck or two.

"while waiting/eating, i might enjoy music, movies, games, or other media"

There are plenty of restaurants that provide entertainment (live music,
televised sports events). If McClure wants someone to baby sit him, however,
there are better options than a restaurant.

"First, it would be great if the restaurant knew something about my order
history and user profile data, and customized the menu selection to my
favorite tastes and interests. Obviously if i’m a vegetarian or a person with
special dietary constraints, it would be a high priority to match food options
with my specific lifestyle choices or health needs. This would again
streamline choice, reduce time & confusion, and increase customer
satisfaction. Also, new dishes could be recommended that i might like to try
for the first time."

A good restaurant is rarely defined solely by its food. It is defined in part
by the experience it offers. A properly-trained waiter is not only more likely
to be able to provide satisfactory recommendations, he or she will be able to
do so via a human interaction that makes the dining experience more enjoyable.

It seems that McClure's vision for what a restaurant should be is everything
that a good restaurant isn't. He's in a rush, doesn't like making decisions,
can't do research on his own, wants to minimize interaction with restaurant
staff, is afraid to ask questions, prefers external entertainment to the
enjoyment that comes from eating a good meal with company, etc. Instead of
investing in a space that he appears to know little about, however, I'd simply
suggest that he stop by the drive-thru at the nearest McDonald's the next time
he's hungry. I think he'll find it to be everything he dreams of, and perhaps
it'll even exceed his expectations.

~~~
davemc500hats
>> "He's in a rush, doesn't like making decisions, can't do research on his
own, wants to minimize interaction with restaurant staff, is afraid to ask
questions"

i think you just described: 1) most moms, 2) most people who work day jobs,
and 3) most people who are first-time visitors at restaurants.

in other words, you just described... most people.

so while i appreciate your right to your own dining experience, assuming there
isn't a huge effing market with those needs is an extremely narrow view of the
dining universe.

regardless, you're welcome to bet your own money on snooty, unresponsive,
offline dining experiences with menus that are confusing and non-illustrative.

meanwhile, i'll bet our fund on the other kind, that everyone else in middle
america (& the rest of the world) might appreciate.

------
mburshteyn
Mistook the E La Cart logo as Fla Cart.

I usually just look at yelp/chowhound on my phone for pictures and
recommendations while checking out the menu.

------
kikowi
one thing that really bothers me and u havnt mentioned: foods should have
calories written ffs!

------
cpspencer
I need a super cold beer....

------
nazgulnarsil
all restaurants should be mcdonalds!

uh no, kindly fuck off.

