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The value to having something like this is pretty clear but I can't reconcile it with the fact that I don't want to be using my phone at all when socializing with friends and I prefer they didn't as well.

In my opinion there is no better interface for communication than human-to-human speech. This is why butlers, waiters, and personal assistants exist, and also why natural-language AI is promising.

In my opinion we should aim to get screens out of our lives except when necessary and intentionally focused on a task (i.e. work) and maintain presence in the real world whenever we're doing anything else. This means leaning more on human language and less on screens.

To be honest tapping my order on my phone seems much better than through a waiter or even something like a per table Alexa.

I really dislike how often communication gets cut off because multiple participants are trying to get the attention of a waiter or the topic is uncomfortable to talk about with an unknown person over your shoulder.

You know people at nearby tables can hear you talking at a restaurant, right?

Yeah, but it's not like they are actively interacting with me or a friend. I assume everyone more or less automatically ignores the background noise of other tables.

My experience with paying through the app has been pretty subpar. Usually I'm required to type in my credit card by hand, on my phone. Yuck. If I have to use some app / website to order food at your restaurant it better support Apple/Google Pay.

Edit: the number one thing users want in a restaurant ordering system is ease. I'm in a restaurant to relax, eat, and enjoy good company. The last thing I want to do is register for get another app (because none of the restaurants use the same one) and type in my payment details. Some of the things you mention do sound more convenient than the traditional paper menu and human waiter, but if I have to type in a credit card number or sign up for an account, I'd prefer the human.

we do support apple pay and google pay for that very reason

I've used the iPad/tablet systems at airports. They usually work great.

What I don't like, however, are:

• Full-screen ads that you need to scroll past, to get at the menu.

• Request/Requirement to sign up an account (even if less "in your face," it's still creepy as hell, because this crowd, especially, knows exactly what will happen to that data).

• Enticements to "download our app." I have stopped downloading these apps, because, in the best case, they are watered-down Web pages, and in the worst case, borderline malware (why does a menu app require all my contacts and pictures?).

• Awful information architecture, that makes it difficult to find what you need (with a paper menu, it's less than a second. With a phone menu, it can take ten seconds or more, and, on a couple of occasions, I never found something that I knew the restaurant had).

Phones aren't iPads. The systems frequently seem to have been designed for tablets, and often, the phone experience is a watered-down, "lesser" experience to a tablet.

I'm really big on end-user experience optimization (as opposed to app developer experience optimization), so I know that I'm a cranky customer.

None of those 5 things are about focusing dinner attention in an enjoyable meal. I came to eat and talk, not mess around in a computer doing the staff's work for them.

"no more awkwardly trying to get the waiter's by looking in their direction and locking eyes awkwardly like two grindr matches in a small midwestern city."

Hum, what? Since when is looking people in the eye to catch their attention awkward?

Pretending to solve made up problems is better PR than honesty.

A more honest take would be "This will grow our and our b2b customers bottom lines, at the expense of the consumer experience. Most consumers won't have a choice if we get enough of the market."

Honesty doesn't sell when you're a parasite.

> This will grow our and our b2b customers bottom line

You're not wrong here. the reality is that staff costs are going up and restaurants are happy to jump on technologies that let them do more with less. With our product, staff can be more efficient. We consider the experience of the waitstaff using our product to be a high priority and it shows when they are enthusiastic about pushing our solution to operations.

> at the expense of the consumer experience.

We're not forcing our system on anyone. We're doin our best to make it a better experience overall for the customers. There's a few restaurants that choose to have a QR code only experience but thats not something we push on them. Not saying we're perfect (god knows getting instant apps working has been the cause of a few sleepless nights) but we take customer feedback seriously and are aggressively improving our product to encourage them to use it to order. I personally don't want people using our app because they HAVE to but because its a superior experience.

> Honesty doesn't sell when you're a parasite.

You're entitled to your opinion. We provide a product that helps restaurants be more efficient with their resources and make less mistakes when it comes to ordering. our customers, (both restaurants and users of our ordering app) like it and thats what ultimately matters.

US its not typically an issue but try getting a waiter's attention in Latin America or Europe and you'll start to understand

>Yea completely annoying when you run into a qr code and it opens a menu.

Usually a pdf, and one that hasn't been updated in a couple of years.

Nah, it's an app trying to sneak in price increase you won't notice. The only reason for computerized menus is to avoid the menu effect", to raise prices more quickly.