I went to 2 different hot pot restaurants in the last 2 days with wildly different experiences. Both were "all you can eat" style, where you periodically ask for additional orders of meat and vegetables to add to the hot pot.
The first had QR codes at the table, where you _must_ order using your phone. You cannot have multiple phones ordering at the same table at the same time. It hard-limited you to making orders only once every 10 minutes. This can be particularly problematic when the same limit applies to all tables, regardless of the number of people at the table. Orders would variably be delivered by a person or one of those BellaBot serving robots [1]. I had no problem pulling my plates off the tray and pressing the button to dismiss it, but other tables clearly struggled with it. At some larger tables, the robot would stop near the far end of the table and a person would have to get out of their chair to fetch their own food. Sometimes a server would see it happen and assist the table, but it was sad to see older people struggling with it.
The second place I went to had paper menus which you just checked off what you wanted. There was no limit on how much you could order at once, and they didn't arbitrarily throttle you.
Both restaurants had a similar number of tables with 3-4 staff in the dining room at any given time. The first restaurant was actually a miserable customer experience, with the only take-away being how interesting it was that the novelty made the experience so much worse. I will unlikely go back to that first restaurant, while the second one will always be on the rotating list that me and my wife go to.
I _really_ dislike having to read a menu on my phone or struggle with some low-quality ordering software. From what I could tell, the first restaurant saved nothing on staffing from their "automation."
The all you can eat was not trying to save money on staffing. Slowing the ordering was the goal of the system. All you can eat is only profitable if people eat every little
That may be true, but if a given group wants to eat a certain amount of food, either they are throttled and stay at the table longer, or they get their food quickly and the table will get turned over sooner. The throttling limits the ability to turn over tables.
Regarding the staffing, I think the robot server is designed to help save on staffing (not the throttling policy, which may also be intended to not overwhelm the kitchen).
I haven't tried all-you-can eat restaurants with QR codes.
My (good) experiences have been at bars and outdoor restaurants, where normal process of placing additional orders is usually slow in my experience, giving the new approach a chance to shine.
I agree with you re: the novelty aspect and personally I dislike ordering on my phone, but will tolerate it for the places where it makes the overall experience better.
The first had QR codes at the table, where you _must_ order using your phone. You cannot have multiple phones ordering at the same table at the same time. It hard-limited you to making orders only once every 10 minutes. This can be particularly problematic when the same limit applies to all tables, regardless of the number of people at the table. Orders would variably be delivered by a person or one of those BellaBot serving robots [1]. I had no problem pulling my plates off the tray and pressing the button to dismiss it, but other tables clearly struggled with it. At some larger tables, the robot would stop near the far end of the table and a person would have to get out of their chair to fetch their own food. Sometimes a server would see it happen and assist the table, but it was sad to see older people struggling with it.
The second place I went to had paper menus which you just checked off what you wanted. There was no limit on how much you could order at once, and they didn't arbitrarily throttle you.
Both restaurants had a similar number of tables with 3-4 staff in the dining room at any given time. The first restaurant was actually a miserable customer experience, with the only take-away being how interesting it was that the novelty made the experience so much worse. I will unlikely go back to that first restaurant, while the second one will always be on the rotating list that me and my wife go to.
I _really_ dislike having to read a menu on my phone or struggle with some low-quality ordering software. From what I could tell, the first restaurant saved nothing on staffing from their "automation."
1. https://provenrobotics.ai/bellabot