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Dennis Schröder

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How will the future menu card of restaurants look like? Digital?

It's almost obvious that the future is digital.

The newspaper got to be ePaper. You can reserve your seat for movies in cinemas. Radio went to the web and amazon makes everybody shopping online.

My question is, how you see the future of menu card's in restaurants/places to eat in 10 to 20 years from now?

I'm looking forward to your answers.

Topics: analog digital food future menu menu card paper restaurant
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    John Locke

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    Nov 23 2011: 10 or 20 years from now isn't that far away. So, while I would love to say that we will just eat small pills that taste like whatever we want them to, I don't believe that possible in the next decade or so.

    I believe that resturants will probably stick with the old fashion paper menu however some resturants are already beginning to have touch screen, computer-like stations on your table where you can order your food and then play games with people around you like poker or hearts. I think that is a great idea for a sports bar however I can't imagine eating at a fancy resturant and playing a game of poker... Plus it is expensive to buy and install these machines.

    No one knows what the future may bring, hopefully it will bring some good changes though!

  • Robert Galway 30+

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    Nov 18 2011: I think video at least. Seems like a smart applications builder should be able to make a video menu for restaurants that the texting set could use to see the product, get instant reviews, prices etc.

    Perhaps Iphone 10.1 will have a smell producing capability that can be further used as a sales tool. :)
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    Gerald O'brian 50+

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    Nov 18 2011: Near future or distant future?
    Cause I would imagine a comfortable helmet that simulates 5 seconds of tasting a selected dish. It teases you this way.

    Of course, in cheaper restaurants, you would eat blank pasta with this helmet on and your menu card helmet becomes virtual reality, and every bite at the pasta is connected to pleasure.
    But this is too far into the future and I'm lost. With virtual reality directly connected to your brain, you could be doing anything, could apply for a 40 year contract at cleaning toilets without ever being bored of it, since you'd be bungee jumping, having sex, dancing, watching a movie, while your hands would be busy brushing crap.
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      Dennis Schröder

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      Nov 18 2011: so, the mobile absolute experiance for humanity. Could be ;)
      What do you think about the next 20 years, where the menu card will go? It will be getting digital, but how do you think will it be?

      Nice thinking ahead with the helmet by the way. It's hopefully not where we go...
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        Gerald O'brian 50+

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        Nov 19 2011: How about a transparent slate that you slide vertically out of the restaurant table. Two lovers face each other and a rotating image of the dishes is displayed between them. Whenever they wish,they may lift the slate up and press on a dish or a drink they wish to order.
        Lift it at the end and press "Bill, please" when you're ready to leave. There is a slit in which you may insert your credit card, (the price can be displayed on one side of the slate only).. But credit cards will be dead as disco, so just wave whatever device you use for telecommunication once the slate is expecting it, enter your password, and you're done.

        But fancy restaurants will have something better. Two dim lamps on each side of the table. Press a button and one of them blows a thin plane of smockey nitrogen towards the other lamp, which sucks it in. So you got something of a flowing translucid pingpong net between your two lovers. Projector hits it with displays of the menu's content. The lamps detect your hand motion near the net. Put your finger through the smoke and drage sideways to scroll. When you want something, grab it. Also, the device can tell the waiter whom ordered which, and the grabbed food goes to the grabber.
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        Gerald O'brian 50+

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        Nov 22 2011: @Juliette

        There'd be discos, but they'd have a different name by then. In fact, this should've happened a long time ago.
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          John Locke

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          Nov 22 2011: Hahaha, I find it very amusing that you can have such creativity about something like a menu card. But as I think about it, these ideas are extremely possible (in expensive resturants) and I would definatly enjoy the helmet idea. Perhaps we will eat pills that will give us nutrional value but we will need those helmets to experience taste.
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    Dennis Schröder

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    Nov 18 2011: what do you guys think about putting everything mobile, to give a mobile user experiance?
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      Debra Smith 200+

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      Nov 18 2011: I think that the ideas I proposed would work even better in the mobile environment because it would attract customers and bring them in to try the dishes.
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    Debra Smith 200+

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    Nov 18 2011: One of the things that a digital menu of the future could contain is marketing in the form of tours of the kitchen, a look at the ingredients featured for the day with mini videos of the prep. These things would take the experience to more one on one the way it would be with friends in a home environment. The chef could talk about the experience of finding a special ingredient. These things could be available by choice along with the choices and prices. Thus guests could be directed to certain dishes on certain nights and steered away from others when the kitchen is too busy or the ingredients have run out.
    By making the people aware of the processes and the skilled people who passionately prepare their food you could cultivate a relationship and relationships do not just lead to one sale of one meal but to a stream of income for the restaurant as people prefer to 'belong' or to be part of something at their 'favourite restaurant."
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    Donna Longstocking

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    Nov 18 2011: Wow. Would be awesome if restaurant tables had LCD touchscreens where the menu is viewable and interactive. You can just type in your order and your order gets registered directly to the restaurant's system that forwards the information to the kitchen and the cashier. That would be an awesome system. Ideally, the tables should be covered with nano-coating waterproof films and made shock-proof.
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