Waiterless Restaurants?

Looks like the Chili's and Applebee's chains are replacing waiters with tablets to order and pay from.
Would you seek out a restaurant that was this way? And why? To avoid tipping? Or to avoid annoying waitstaff?

I don't mind tipping and I usually have good experiences with most waiters so I don't think I would normally go to a restaurant like that.

lol And I can't imagine Twin Peaks going to a business model like that.

I like to be waited on.

Agreed. It's part of the eating out experience (along with not having to do the cooking or the clean up).

I will NOT use automated check out at the grocery store, for the same reason I would NOT
dine at a waiterless restaurant.....I try NOT to be a participant in the replacement of a human
being's job.....jobs are hard to come by as it is.....JMO

I dined a few months ago at a Nepali place in Golden, the Sherpa maybe?
The waiters took your orders with I-Pads and would send them to the kitchen, except ours didn't go. Frustrating.
I did go to a brewpup pizza place in Wheat Ridge, East Coast Pizza? and the beer menu was on I-pads, I found that useful because it was easy to update and they had room to put enough info for each brew.

Science Chic wrote: The Sherpa House - good food! I like Namaste in Lakewood better for Indian though.

homeagain, as I said they still have to have waiters and waitresses to bring the food. Granted, they probably don't have to have as many because they don't have to spend as much time at each table now.

That gets us to a bigger picture discussion: is it such a bad thing for the human race if more menial work is replaced and people move into jobs that require more intellectual power? It's inevitable that technology will cause jobs to be outdated (after all, you don't find blacksmiths and stables at inns in every town to take care of your horse anymore now that the automobile is king), and people aspiring to learn more is a good thing. As you mentioned in the healthcare thread, change is messy and never smooth, and while there is a glut of over-educated people unemployed and arguments about the over-emphasis of getting a college education for many, don't we as a species want to strive to grow and learn new skills and knowledge?

I am ambivalent about this issue....while I understand progress and the need to improve
the bottom line,there is STILL the question of the "human touch"/service that is invaluable.

DaVinci robotics performs surgeries and while it IS amazing....I still can't help but ponder this...
the surgeons HANDS,composed of flesh,tissue,nerves,bones can FEEL things in the body cavity
that a robotic arm/hand can NOT.....(would be my understanding).

I think I would rather have a human's tactile response mucking around inside me that a
mechanical device.

I think a REALLY good mechanic who thinks outside of the box and can troubleshoot a problem,
is far better than hooking up the car to a computer and having a printout of what is wrong.
(thinking of my brother here, who has owned a small engine repair shop for two decades.)

I think the automated call ques that large businesses utilize is a method to "dump" the customer,they KNOW that the prompts,ques and loops will DETER all but the most diligent
of callers.

I think the "human touch" has become more and more obsolete and that is a sad commentary
on our society,as a whole. JMO, I believe isolationism is on the rise and that society,as a
whole, is NOT better off,but woefully lacking in grace.

When I read BB post on Christmas and the despondency that was reflected within the words,
I am sadden that JOY is not part of the equation in everyday life.....AGAIN, I understand that
progress and innovation are an integrate part of evolution.....it just seems that life has become MORE AND MORE impersonal......and THAT just seems wrong.....on MANY levels..JMO

Good points SC. In so many menial jobs, people just stagnate mentally. There was a story this week about how even airline pilot skills are getting rusty because they are using the auto-pilot too often.

homeagain wrote: I will NOT use automated check out at the grocery store, for the same reason I would NOT
dine at a waiterless restaurant.....I try NOT to be a participant in the replacement of a human
being's job.....jobs are hard to come by as it is.....JMO

I sure have to agree with this. I really like "human" contact and it's really comforting to have someone else do the work for a change. I've only used the automated checkout at the grocery store one time and got so screwed up someone had to assist me anyway! I would never rely on my lack of knowledge of all this "high tech" stuff to even order the right things from some sort of tablet!