Ever been at a buffet type place, at the end of your meal, stuffed to the gills to then walk out, past the buffet table and see that they just put out apple turnovers?!? The horror. Perhaps the solution is to have large projection screens at several locations in the restaurant; listing the updates of dishes being put out. This way one won't have to get one's fat overfed rear out of one's chair to see if there's anymore chicken wings out yet but can just check the screen.
-- Graciem, Oct 25 2001

It's actually more crucial to know what's happening in the kitchen so that you know what's going to come out in 5 minutes. Likewise for conveyer-belt sushi places.
A sushi forecasting service could be very implemented very cheaply using existing conveyer-belt sushi technology - if a complete circuit of the belt takes 2 minutes, then as the belt passes through the kitchen they put a little sign saying "Yellowtail sushi - 4 minutes" on the belt. Then on the next revolution, it's replaced by the "2 minutes" sign and on the next revolution, the sushi.
-- hippo, Oct 25 2001


Graciem's idea would also help the times you pile your plate high with the stuff you see first, because it looks quite nice, and then find you've overlooked a whole section of your favourite delicacies further up the counter/table, and there's no room on your plate. Buffets are too confusing.
-- pottedstu, Oct 25 2001


How could one combine this with dim sum carts?
-- hello_c, Oct 25 2001



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