“The iPad is already a tasty product among gadget lovers, but a North Sydney restaurant has become the first in Australia to replace their printed menus with Apple’s new touch screen device,” Stephen Fenech reports for News.com.au. “Global Mundo Tapas in the North Sydney Rydges Hotel yesterday introduced a custom-made iPad application which allows customers to browse the virtual pages of the menu with a sweep of their finger.”
“Diners can peruse the dishes and see a picture of what the dish looks like along with tasting notes before compiling their order and sending it wirelessly to the kitchen,” Fenech reports. “The iPad menu can also suggest the best wines to go with certain dishes and suggest the best food pairings.”
Fenech reports, “When ordering steak, users can even specify how they’d like the meat cooked and which sauce they’d prefer. It will even ask them if they’d like fries with that.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: In some darkened Vegas hotel room, Bill Gates is muttering about pen-based input as his fingernails grow out of control.
After looking at the menu, did anybody gave those ipads back ???
what is an aussie or kiwi’s excuse for not tipping, when the waiter works in an area that pays them a very low wage cause it is expected they will get a tip?
Great take!! haha – I remember that story.
this video says it all
Worried about iPad restaurant menu costs because you need to employ a decent amount of iPad menus?
The restaurant can always do what the US Government is thinking of doing to help save the Main Street Media (MSM) and the failed journalism that it is… and that is to add, of all things, the number one play in their playbook, an iPad tax! Why am I not surprised…
http://blogs.reuters.com/james-pethokoukis/2010/06/03/will-washington-bail-out-the-msm-with-an-ipad-tax/
MDN magic word “future” as in looking mighty bleak right about now…
I think someone (MDN perhaps) needs to start a website with links to businesses using the iPad. That would be cool and give us
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moronsiPad addictsThat cute blond in pic is on facebook
http://www.facebook.com/florence.sandford
the hotel is promoting it on their website with more pics
http://www.rydges.com/Hotels/RNNSYD/Rydges-North-Sydney/Mundo-first-to-use-iPads-as-menus.htm
Yet another Tapas bar in Sydney, supposedly with good service but so-so food.
Now if they can just dump the flash on their web site!!!
@jim
“what is an aussie or kiwi’s excuse for not tipping, when the waiter works in an area that pays them a very low wage cause it is expected they will get a tip?”
There “excuse” is the same as that for Europe. Our system sucks royally.
There system factors the tip into the bill & pays the wait-staff a decent salary because it IS NOT expected that they will get a tip.
My experience in Europe, is also that you get better service.
“their” not “there”.
I hate not being able to edit remarks!!!
‘Custom made application’ = pdf.
LOL!
@ Jim
Tips are not expected or compulsory here in Australasia. A waiter is paid a reasonable wage and any tips received are a bonus on top, and usually shared out by the staff.
AFAIK it is illegal to “hire” people to work for tips, as is slave labour. We tend to look out for one another here, and usually see government regulation in the workplace as a good thing.
Self regulation = no regulation = a race to the bottom = every bastard for themselves. That’s no way to live, is it?
It’s a bit unrefined. Is it more of a café than a restaurant?
I don’t want to claim credit, but the minute I saw the iPad, I kept thinking of things it could do. This, believe it or don’t, was one of them. I just did not think it would take so little time.
Wayda go guys.
Great idea. Now to follow it up with the ability to pay the bill by “bumping” the funds to the same iPad.
Definitely one of the five best MDN takes in the history of the site.
——RM
This is awesome!
I can’t wait until the day where it is no longer necessary to wait in a line, and have to deal with schmuck order-takers, who are very good at screwing up my order.
Imagine this kind of system, everywhere you go!
@Steve,
Great! Now we can all be international stalkers!
jaundiced, the (Mundo etc., see ‘John’) restaurant would be the (expensive) house restaurant for the Rydges Hotel. I’ve stayed at Rydges (and Novotel, Mercure, etc.) but never eat at their restaurants (apart from complimentary breakfasts) because of the steep menu prices.
In the long run, even for ordinary eateries, the iPad sounds like becoming a gold-standard way to order, tally the bill, count calories, etc. and pay.
MacDailyNews Take: In some darkened Vegas hotel room, Bill Gates is muttering about pen-based input as his fingernails grow out of control.
As his protégé and over paid hand job grunts and squeezes the future of his delusions.
@bildad
“I wonder if location services is accurate enough to get the right plate to the right person”
Do not wonder (you idiot with all respect) because the order will include the table number. You don’t need and don’t want location services to bring the food to the table.
People.
Wasn’t the big ass table from m$ meant to dominate the restaurants, bars and casinos?
I like their strategy, I like it a lot.
We can also thank the iPad (and the iPhone) for discouraging tacky fake nails
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It is not true that Australians do not tip… we just don’t have to like is expected in the US.
I will always tip for good service. I tip a lot for GREAT service.
I will not tip if the service sucks… which is fair enough, this is actually what a TIP means… it is a bonus to recognise the exemplary service provided by staff.
It WAS what the point was in America, until employers realised it had become an expectation for customers to tip a minimum % (regardless of the quality of the service), and then used the existence of tips to provide rubbish wages to their staff.
At least in an Australian restaurant the true price of eating a meal is listed on the menu, and then if you are given great service you can choose to tip as much as you like.
In the US, the prices on the menu are carrying a hidden cost of at least 15-20%, which is the EXPECTED tip for staff, regardless of the quality of service.
Let’s face it, in a restaurant, you should expect a MINIMUM level of service – restaurants are a SERVICE business!
I will say however, unfortunately some cheapskates in Australia (as there are in the US no doubt), take advantage of the lack of requirement to tip, and even for brilliant service, leave no more than a couple of dollars…
I do laugh at Australian (and EU) waiting staff that complain about our system… when you tell them how much the hourly rate is in the US for waiting staff, they usually shut up. And I’d say, if they think the US system is so much better, then why don’t they head over to the US and “earn big bucks” over there?!
I know they can’t due to visa’s, but even if visa’s weren’t a problem, US waiting staff do NOT earn as much as those in Australia, even with their 15-20% tips, unless they are in a TOP restaurant.
To put this in perspective from the Department of Labor in the US:
Answer: According to the Fair Labor Standards Act, tipped employees are individuals engaged in occupations in which they customarily and regularly receive more than $30 a month in tips. The employer may consider tips as part of wages, but the employer must pay at least $2.13 an hour in direct wages.
An employer may credit a portion of a tipped employee’s tips against the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour effective July 24, 2009. An employer must pay at least $2.13 per hour. However, if an employee’s tips combined with the employer’s wage of $2.13 per hour do not equal the hourly minimum wage, the employer is required to make up the difference.
I wonder how many Aussie wait staff would be willing to advocate the US system after reading that?!
Note that in Australia our minimum wage is high ($14.31/hour for full time employees and $17.17 per hour for casual workers) and EVERY adult employee must be paid at least the minimum. It is illegal to pay someone at a lower rate because they can earn tips… i.e. the employer CANNOT count the tips they earn as a credit against the minimum wage. Australia also has penalty rate (i.e the employer has to pay 1.5-2 times the minimum wage on certain holidays, or after certain hours worked etc! So a waiter in Australia can earn their minimum wage, PLUS tips, whereas in the US, the waiter has to earn in EXCESS of the minimum wage in tips before they really start earning tip in addition to their wage.
As I said I LAUGH when Australian waiting staff talk longingly about the US tipping system!
And yes, I have been a waiter in restaurants and cafes in Australia, so no sib stories about how I wouldn’t understand.
my 2 cents (tip)
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Luke