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March 11, 2009 8:15 AM PDT

Inamo restaurant the future of eating out?

by Nick Hide,
Rory Reid
and
Drew Stearne
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Crave UK recently went for dinner at Inamo restaurant in London, where interactive touch-sensitive tables take your order. Each table has an overhead projector and a 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 you home.

When you're ready to order, you can browse the menu, with each dish projected onto your place setting. When you've chosen, you can even see a live Webcam feed of your chef at work. The restaurant's founders say the concept evolved from the simple idea of "wouldn't it be cool if you could just hit a button and a waiter brought you another beer?" Watch our video for more.

(Via Crave UK)

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by checodaman March 11, 2009 8:59 AM PDT
Aww I was hoping theyd use the microsoft surface tables...still cool.
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by Eauboy March 11, 2009 9:43 AM PDT
No, this is NOT the future of dining out. When I was a kid there was an otherwise below-average restaurant that we went to that had phones at the table. You'd order by phone. That wasn't the future of eating out and neither is a touch-surface table.

Robot servers. Now *that's* the future of dining out.
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by checodaman March 11, 2009 4:28 PM PDT
The future is NOW:
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/robo_waiter/robot+staffed-restaurant-launches-in-germany-295454.php
by zmnatz March 11, 2009 9:57 AM PDT
long live the standard approach of humans taking orders and bringing out the. If you wanted to have a meal devoid of human contact, why go out in the first place. Stop being lazy and learn to cook. Going out should be a more social experience.
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by tenacioust March 19, 2009 10:05 AM PDT
Absolutely!
by tenacioust March 19, 2009 10:03 AM PDT
Very interesting conept....clearly covers the service aspect of the dining experience, but where's the hospitality. I don't see the social animal drawn to this brand, which is a large part of the "foodie" culture. Idon't see this going beyond the upscale/fast casual demo.
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