If you’ve been to an Olive Garden anytime in the last year, you’ll notice the Italian casual dining chain no longer offers unlimited pasta on the menu. More consequentially, the Olive Garden menu itself is displayed by a computer monitor at your table. It’s called Ziosk, a black 7-inch touchscreen that allows diners to order from the menu and pay on demand. Apparently, the first systems were tested in 2013, and are gradually being adopted by major chains, including Chili’s, Uno Pizzeria and Grill, Ruby Tuesday, Red Robin, Outback, and Applebee’s. Today, there are Ziosk consoles in 3,000 restaurant locations, serving 50 million Americans every month. If you haven’t dined with Ziosk or one of their competitors yet, you’re bound to eventually.
The obvious advantage of Ziosk for these chains is they can run the same sized restaurant with a smaller staff. By their own estimates, Ziosk also allows guests to leave the restaurant an average of five minutes sooner because they spend less time waiting for a server to take their order and bring the check. Quicker turnaround means serving more guests, shorter wait times during peak hours, and a greater day’s profit. Ziosk also increases the size of the average check. The bright display’s constant advertisements have increased Chili’s appetizer and dessert sales by 20 percent, and it seems customers are leaving larger tips because the machine has a generous default setting.
But wait, there’s more. In addition to its basic functions, Ziosk does, well…everything. Depending on location, guests can use the console to play games, read the news, sign-up for loyalty programs, fill out surveys to rate their experience, take selfies with the built-in camera to post on social media, donate to the featured charity, and shop for restaurant branded merchandise. Because of its versatility, Ziosk acts as a data tool that’s able to give restaurant owners real-time feedback on customer satisfaction and daily sales reports. The advantages are so promising it seems, that Ziosk confidently describes the cost of installation as “less than free.”
Perhaps tablets at tables don’t deserve a second thought. After all, the technology itself is nothing new and may be obvious considering the phones in people’s pockets. Americans have been ordering at fast food drive-throughs since 1948, and Domino’s recently started using drones to deliver pizza.
So the marriage of tech and food isn’t novel, but Ziosk stands apart as a bold step toward connecting tech with dining, a different matter entirely. Dining is a social event with a greater purpose than mere calorie intake—something important enough that we dress up, clear our schedules, and spend money—and surely it has something to do with enjoying the company of other people. Ziosk may be an advantage to owners and a mixed blessing to employees, but what does it do for customers enjoying a night out?
For what it’s worth, Americans faced a similar choice in the 1950s when televisions became widely affordable and could be found in a majority of homes. The bright screen drastically changed dinners at home: organizing meals around the broadcast schedule; drawing families into the living room; spurring the creation of take-out menus, TV dinners, and TV trays. The trend certainly distressed Marguerite Gilbert McCarthy, author of The Queen is in the Kitchen (1954), who wrote,
Meals together, in any context, are an important part of our social fabric. Like television, Ziosk will change your dining experience for better or worse. Restaurants have made a smart business decision in adopting the system, but whether diners join the ranks of enthusiasts remains to be seen. If you’re curmudgeonly enough to be irritated by friends on their phone, and the flat-screens everywhere you go, here’s a pro-tip: the battery pack can be discreetly removed from the base of the monitor, turning the screen black.
