Restaurant in New York completely replaces menus with iPad 2

Don’t you just hate it when you go to a restaurant, place your order with the waiter, and after emphatically conveying to the waiter three times that you do not want parsley in your salad, it comes covered with the stuff?

Granted sometimes it can be the chef’s mistake who may be so used to pushing out stock orders that he/she forgets that this order is slightly different, but perhaps this restaurant in New York will be able to cut down on waiter/waitress mistakes and improve efficiency.

Located in New York City’s West Village, De Santos is a high-end Italian restaurant and they’re also apparently the first restaurant in New York to fully make use of the iPad 2 as a menu.

Given that each iPad costs about $500, it does seem like a pretty expensive investment, but the owners are convinced that it will pay off itself eventually by streamlining orders, making the ordering system more efficient. Orders taken will be sent directly to the kitchen via WiFi, and bills can also be paid via the iPad through the use of Square (a mobile payment system launched by Twitter’s co-founder Jack Dorsey) and a custom point-of-sale system.

If you’re in New York or perhaps planning a trip, perhaps you might want to experience this iPad ordering/paying experience by visiting De Santos. Let’s just hope that they have a backup plan in case the WiFi goes down for whatever reason!

Tyler Lee
Categories: Tablets
Tags: food, iPad 2, mobile payments, new york, square