A new dining experience
- What will the future service concepts look like?
On a friends recommendation I went to a restaurant called Inamo on a recent visit to London, a “pioneering Oriental fusion restaurant and bar” as they call themselves . The reason is their unusual service concept with the intention of leaving the control of the dining experience to the customer.
We were seated as in every other restaurant but quickly noticed that the table top wasn’t a normal wooden or metal one but an interactive screen. A waiter introduced us to the concept: You place your order yourself, whether food or drinks. When clicking through the menu you se a picture of every dish (on your “plate”) along with a short description. By clicking on a dish or drink the system saves it in an order folder until you activate it, since all meals are served within 15 minutes from when the order is placed. This means you plan yourself what you want to eat when and hardly have any contact with the waiters.
When introduced to the interface I first connected it with Surface, an advanced touch-screen product from Microsoft, that I saw a demonstration of in Dubai when visiting the Microsoft Office with 180° Academy. Of course Surface is a totally different product but the version at Inamo offers a service similar to some of those intended for the Microsoft Surface. Since having experienced a close-up live demonstration of Surface, I can tell that it is amazing what you can do with the product and the possibilities/business ideas are endless! With a thought through concept a lot of services can become more user friendly and efficient which will surely make a lot of people happy, offering self-service in a new dimension. At the same time it might lead to a discussion about how products like Surface influence the level of social interaction in every-day life boosting the development of society becoming slowly more individual. Still, I’m excited to se which products will be introduced in the future as a result of the development in this product range!
