E-tablet Menu: Will Technology Lead Menus to a New Era?

Menus and technology are joining hands together.
During the recent few years, e-tablet menus are staged in many restaurants all over the world. In Australia, diners at Mitoki Japanese Modern Tapa view delicacy via ipads. In China, customers eating at Haidilao Hot Pot choose their favorite meat and vegetables by tapping screens. In US, customers are provided with a tablet when ordering at Arooga’s Grille House & Sports Bar.

It is assumed that e-tablet menus are able to contain more information and requires more customer input than paper menus. But do customers really feel better informed? Are they feeling burdened dealing with new devices? Are tablets effectively assisting customer’s ordering?



Diners use e-tablet at Haidilao Hot pot

While e-tablet menus are increasingly popular, researches on the efficacy and advantages of e-tablet menus are still lacking. Among the few researches in this field, a study published on International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management compared e-tablet menus with traditional paper-based menus, and found some evidence for e-tablet menu’s superiority.

The study was conducted in a real fine-dining restaurant. Totally 390 customers participated in data collection during 2-month period, among which 191 were served with e-tablet menus while 199 were served with traditional paper-based menus. Participants were invited to complete a questionnaire after meal, reflecting how they felt about the menu design and ordering experience. Researchers also observed time spent on viewing menu and customer’s requests to further explore the potential for e-tablet menus.



Mitoki Japanese Modern Tapa

The finding was overwhelming. Compared with traditional menus, e-tablet provided better-understanding and more appealing information; e-tablets were pretty easy to learn and use; and customers reviewed that ordering experience was pretty enjoyable and definitely enhanced by the tablet. One concern before the study was the longer viewing time of e-tablet menus due to the large amount of information. However, in this study, the order durations were almost similar of both menus as observed.



Arooga’s Grille House & Sports Bar

This study provides confidence for e-tablet menus. “E-tablet menus do have a large potential” said Srikanth Beldona, one of the authors of this study, “…We see a strong ability of e-tablets to transfer large amount of information in an interactive and attractive manner. It enables restaurants to add a vast variety of information to a menu which is typically not possible with paper-based menus, such as the video of food preparation…”

Another author, Nadria Buchanan, also pointed out that a key advantage of e-tablet menus is the value co-creation involved in such ordering process. Customers are not passively reading the menu, but they are actively creating their own dining experience. They put their efforts and gained more fun. “It is not just novelty” Nadria added, “It is a real experience.”

Reference:

Beldona, S., Buchanan, N., & L. Miller, B. (2014). Exploring the promise of e-tablet restaurant menus. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 26(3), 367-382. doi:10.1108/IJCHM-01-2013-0039