AUTOMATED WAVES OF THE FUTURE

Germany has invented an automated restaurant where there are live chefs but no wait staff. Making choice easier, food servive more pleasant and faster, are trends being set in many place, in different ways. A few years ago, while in London, I was introduced to Yo! Sushi. A conveyor ran on its track so that it all the choices were accessible to all tables. Dishes circling were color coded. A patron would pull off their choice, eat, and at the end of the meal a server would add up the colors of the empty plates and total for the final bill. Both of these restaurants seem to have excellent food with good chefs.

Another form of robotic food service in the vending machine. If this method is currently in use, it has not been well-publicized and I have not partaken of its products. Our current vending machines only use mechanical means to serve and collect money around me here.

It takes someone with an idea to start a trend and then innovators and entrepreneurs to make it happen. I have no doubt that the menu will eventually contain a list of ingredients, food value, and the approximate length of time it takes for preparation.. That way a party can coordinate to some degree how long it will take for their entrees to arrive, though the present system of letting some food cool down, or even get cold, until the whole order is done might continue.

I wouldn't miss that 20% tip which seems to be needed even though the service may be less than perfect.

Addenda 4/9: This came as an email rather than comment, so I am adding it here:

"Many decades ago (1962) Jean and I were in Hong Kong on vacation. We were taken to

lunch by our tailor (Charlie Wei) to a local establishment. There, waitresses roamed around

with trays of various food items. The plates were never taken away so that at the end of the

meal the tab could be established by looking at the color bands on the plates. I have to

assume that was a long established tradition."