I think even the amount to transfer and who to transfer to should be automated. The app should just know who visited the restaurant and the menu would already have the prices. You just choose what to order/buy and it's charged, just like on Amazon etc. Once we abolish tips everything will become automatic!!
Correct me if I'm wrong, but do you mean basically ordering your food on your phone?
That destroys the human element, which is a big part of the restaurant/hospitality experience.
There are products out there that let you order through a tablet at your table, and also apps that let staff use an iphone instead of a notepad, but it takes away a large part of the experience.
It's fine for places like McDonald's (who now have touch screen ordering in some countries, like New Zealand and Australia), but if I went to Bouchon Bistro, I wouldn't want to be ordering through a tablet.
Well, I wouldn't mind if most restaurants had robots instead of waiters and digital food ordering (like tablet on a table). Human element I usually need is people I came with, not waiting staff, I don't remember when I had any useful input from them (they don't know my taste and their goal is different from mine). Nice looking smiling human per hall, who can come up to our table once and ask if everything's ok would be enough. Maybe in top fancy restaurants it's not the case, but 90% of restaurants aren't in that category where I live.
That McDonald's style kiosk ordering takes away the human element I can understand, but I don't see why would that be the case if the waitstaff is using a digital notepad instead of a paper one (I'm talking about something like a Noteslate).
