Make a meal out of click-to-order concept

An Asian-themed restaurant in London’s theatre district is giving customers a virtual bite before they order a meal by projecting images of dishes directly onto plates.

Inamo has a projector above each table that beams down an interactive tablecloth with icons for browsing and ordering.

The plate stays blank until customers use a touchpad to open the menu and click on items, when the projector beams down images. Dishes appear as they are selected and diners click to order.

Once a dish is chosen, the order is sent to the kitchen. A waiter greets the customer before the meal and only comes around again to serve the food.

Entrepreneur Noel Hunwick says he came up with this idea while eating at a pizza parlour with his friend, and future business partner, a few years earlier.

“We were desperately calling out to the waiter, who wouldn’t listen to us. So we thought, wouldn’t it be great if we could press a button and get our food? The idea had legs,” Hunwick says.

The concept of Inamo is a high-tech, high-end take on conventional picture-menus common to Asian restaurants.

Hunwick says the click-to-order concept enables the owner to cut costs without compromising on service, so why not open a similar restaurant here?