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Meal Rankings Menu

 A menu that sorts meals according the number of them that have been ordered that day
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The menu's are placed in docking stations on the table. The docking statiosn are conected to a central computer (via bluetooth) that counts how many times a meal is ordered. This information is then colated and the meals are then ranked by popularity.

The menu's are specialised tablet PC's, and have book-style electronic pages, so a different page is available for starters, main courses, puddings, and drinks.

I'll have what he's having.

—[ sctld ], Sep 21 2002

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       plus, it could be like a constant up-dated menu, so if they run out of anything you don't have to order it and wait for the waitperson come back 5 mins later to tell you its off the menu.
—Zircon, Sep 21 2002
   

       Interesting. I read somewhere that it's a good practice to order the most popular dishes at a given restaurant because it gives you the greatest chances of getting the best they have to offer. I think it would be nice to see the most popular that day, week, month or season, as well as the all-time most popular.   

       I wonder if the most popular dish would vary from waiter-to-waiter due to their own recommendations to diners they serve.   

       An extra thought: maybe you could have various pivots so that you could display by, say, least popular; by specific ingredient used; by caloric content; by portion size and et cetera.
—bristolz, Sep 21 2002
   

       I like this, but I agree with [bristolz] about having more than just daily popularity for meals. With this sort of system you could order through the menu which could cut down on staffing costs. You could also integrate a small mp3 jukebox into the table!
—madradish, Sep 22 2002
   

       A good idea. I think though the restaurant's interests are not always the diner's interests, eg when it comes to offloading yesterday's fish in pie form, and it the canny diner will still have to decide what's propaganda and what ain't.
—General Washington, Sep 22 2002
   

       Is this just to see what most people order? What would I do with this information? If you really want to know, I'm sure the wait staff, or certainly the shift manager could tell you.   

       I am not going to be more likely to order the meatloaf just because it's the second-most ordered dish today, if this is what you're thinking. Otherwise I don't see your point for this.
—waugsqueke, Sep 22 2002
   

       you run the risk of going to the restaurant after a large group of people whose favourite dish was sheep eyes on a bed of steamed nettle...
—senatorjam, Sep 22 2002
   

       Well [senatorjam] that would depend on whether I frequented the same restaurants that you do and, apparently, I don't.   

       [waugs]: Some people are just naturally curious about things like this and some . . . aren't.
—bristolz, Sep 22 2002
   

       Could I find out how many times something has been ordered by diners who'd had it before?
—lurch, Sep 22 2002
   

       I hate to be disappointed when dining out. The worst meal I can recall settling for was at a steakhouse following a onslaught of sports teams -- name any good thing on the menu and shop was sold out.   

       Had this ordering feature been there it wouldn't have helped. I generally assess the quality of my server by how well s/he can answer a simple, "What can you recommend in a __________ type of meal?" I guess it would be nice to know customer ratings of the meals, even if variables such a choice of preparation style, presentation, and side dishes can matter.
—reensure, Sep 22 2002
   

       Which chief cooked it ? Did anyone get sick ? Which supplier/farm/market provided the ingredients ? What did policeman order ?   

       So many questions so little time !
—popbottle, Jan 10 2017
   

       And fifteen years have passed since the last fellow ordered - are the ingredients still fresh?
—normzone, Jan 10 2017
   


 

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