Why do some restaurants make ordering so hard?
Joanna Blythman on why, increasingly, getting food to the table feels like an obstacle course. This article is exclusive to BBC Good Food app and print subscribers.
With the economic climate affecting us all, going out to eat is reserved for special occasions only. It's a treat that we should look forward to. But unfortunately, it’s becoming increasingly stressful because of how some restaurants force us to order food by phone. You’re told to train your smartphone camera on a QR code that takes you to a web link, or download an app.
Forget about being greeted by a host and presented with a menu to consider at your leisure. Instead, you just wander in off the street and order online. A downbeat way to start a meal that hobbles any sense of occasion from the get-go.
This pared-down service guarantees that everybody’s phone comes out at the start of a meal. And given the nation’s creeping digital addiction, it more or less ensures that they remain on the table thereafter. Their presence eggs us on to post pictures of our dishes on social media, when we could be enjoying the company of our fellow diners.
Welcome to the restaurant where people don’t speak to each other because they’re anxiously waiting to see how many likes they’ve got for that picture of their starter. Phones create a food attention deficit that diminishes conviviality, fostering introversion and low mood. Unless we separate ourselves from them when we eat, our satisfaction with what’s on our plates, and our social confidence, will suffer.
Squinting as you scroll down the pages of a disembodied menu on your phone blights the whole restaurant experience for me.
"People don’t speak to each other – they’re constantly on their phones"
It keeps interaction with front-of-house staff to a perfunctory minimum and dispenses with one of the most pleasurable rituals of dining. Proper menus allow us that lingering moment to size-up all the options and savour each dish in our heads, guided by a knowledgeable member of staff who can, if necessary, answer questions we might have.
Of course, this digital system was triggered by the initial fear that paper or laminated menus might contribute significantly to covid spread. Yet still it lingers on in more informal establishments.
Phone ordering goes hand-in-hand with the casualisation of the workforce and eating out. It’s a gift to lazy operators. Often, such establishments also try to make a virtue out of stripped-back, uncomfortably austere interiors.
I smell the whiff of commercial self-interest here. Such restaurants should more honestly put up a sign saying, “We’re doing the minimum to help you enjoy yourself and the maximum to reduce our staffing costs”. Call me cynical, but cutting the wages bill is surely the prime motivation for restaurants that adopt this ordering method?
And who gains access to your email when you order by phone? This system raises data protection issues. Don’t expect the person who serves you to know. They’ll probably direct you to the unreadable ‘privacy’ area of a website. Staff, after all, are just there to plonk your plate down in front of you, aren’t they?
Our contributing editor Joanna is an award-winning journalist who has written about food for 25 years. She is also a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4. @joannablythman
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