Talk to the Tab

Escobar and Royal China also switched to the Apple tablet last year. Now,many others are following suit. Mainland China has phased out paper menus. Bistro Grill in Juhu has introduced this hi-tech way of ordering dinner with a unique concept called Bistro Stock Exchange. This allows diners to order alcohol at fluctuating rates akin to the Bombay Stock Exchange ratings. “Customers can purchase premium scotch whiskeys for as low as Rs 110 based on how the ‘commodity’ is performing,” says Vikram Bawa,owner of the restaurant.

The menus,only on iPads so far,differ based on what the individual restaurants want to offer in their dining experience. Some feature simple interfaces with dishes and pictures,whereas others allow diners to place their orders on the tablets and furnish a summary of the bill with taxes. “Restaurants today want to go with a more rounded approach by allowing diners to customise their dishes based on their preferences,”says Ameya Hete,founder and CEO of Titbit,an online ordering website and a customisable app for restaurant menus. “Our application for restaurants also allows diners to sign into their Facebook account to ‘Like’ what they’re eating in real time,” she adds.

At Royal China in Bandra,the iPad menu allows diners to browse through various dishes and make their selection. But before the order is placed,a summary of the items with prices are presented to them. “Sometimes,people are worried about the bill and refrain from ordering too much,” says Edgardo Cruzet,managing director of 360 CMS,a company that offers customised media solutions for online processes and tablet computers. “This way,they can budget their order by adding or removing items,” Cruzet adds.

But this isn’t to say that paper menus will be obsolete. Chef Saby Fernandes,a consultant with Juhu Residency that runs Pebbles,believes tablets will take at least another four years to replace paper. As the whole process,starting from customers placing their orders to servers confirming and forwarding them to the kitchen,is online,there’s a lot of pressure on the restaurant to ensure that the WiFi connection is strong at all times. “There are times when the system goes down,and this happens especially when it’s crowded,” says Fernandes.

There are still those who are refraining from adopting this trend as the costs involved in creating customised apps and replacing menus with iPads can be steep: an iPad costs over Rs 30,000,and based on capacity,restaurants need around 20 to 30 pieces. Cruzet is hoping to create tablet menus on the Android operating system,which is used by a wider range of tablet computers. “The investment for any restaurant in this regard is significant and is confined to the Apple OS,” he says,adding,“Taking the solution to Android can be economical for restaurants.”