What is a smart restaurant?
A smart restaurant is an eating establishment that leverages modern devices and equipment to streamline its processes and boost customer experiences. It has become more common as the technology in the restaurant industry responded to the challenges of the COVID-19 restaurant shutdowns and social distancing.
So, what are smart restaurants? When outlining the specifics, it comes down to any progressive tech from robotics to data analytics to improve the overall operational management.
Benefits of smart restaurants
Adopting smart restaurant technology for business solutions allows restaurant owners to achieve the following:
- Competitive advantage. Because more and more brands are using restaurant technology solutions, those that do not can fall behind. Businesses recognizing how technology is changing the restaurant industry are more in touch with their client base and achieve their objectives faster.
- Better customer journey. Today, clients are more empowered than before, and they view restaurant technology as a guarantee of a positive, more user-centered experience. Brands using new and emerging restaurant technology are more likely to secure brand loyalty and demonstrate their dedication.
- Safety. Despite the value of human staff, restaurant software solutions minimize potential dangers by monitoring food storage temperatures, keeping track of expiration dates, and assessing cleanliness.
- Data-driven insights. Modern analytics promotes more informed recommendations and ensures more personalized propositions for clients.
- Satisfied staff. Instead of performing labor-intensive tasks, employees can delegate them to restaurant technologies and focus on creative or intellectual tasks.
What technologies are used in smart restaurants?
How does technology affect the restaurant industry? Contemporary businesses continuously expand their application of tech. Every technology used in the restaurant business in this category might give you a few ideas:
- Robotics. A relatively extravagant emerging restaurant technology, it often involves restaurant-specific robotic elements to clean the kitchen or wash the dishes. More high-end restaurants might use robots as hosts to create a specific appeal.
- Digital menus. This restaurant technology for restaurant owners is quite common today: users can scan the QR code to open a digital menu on their phones or interact with digital signage to check the offering.
- IoT systems. Such systems include various equipment that seamlessly connects the ordering systems to kitchen equipment, making the ordering process faster.
- Self-service kiosks. Emerging as restaurant software solutions for clients who’re not into conversations with the staff, they provide menu and payment options on the spot.
- Smart appliances. Smart refrigerators or stoves, air control systems, gadget-controlled cutlery, and similar examples of innovative restaurant technology prevent potential human error and deliver top-notch results.
- Tracking programs and devices. Covering every piece of software for restaurants not mentioned above, these tools help check what food can be donated or whether the temperature in the kitchen is fit to work in.
Examples of high-tech restaurants
Haidilao. One of the locations of this Chinese hotpot restaurant chain has opened a completely robotic facility that functions using robot cooks and waiters.
Sweetgreen. After purchasing Spyce which brought robotics and customers together, Sweetgreen teaches its clients how to use technology in a restaurant. They can order their food using self-service kiosks or apps and look at robotic chefs preparing their meals.
BOTS&POTS. This Croatian restaurant delivers food from a robotic cooker that uses a digital recipe. The brand promises to provide the same quality and taste to every meal due to its restaurant software.
McDonald’s. This restaurant chain has modernized its processes and now uses digital waiting screens, self-service kiosks, and drive-thrus to connect human interactions with modern tech advancements.
Inamo. Seated in Soho, London, this establishment takes orders from customers using the world’s first interactive tables. Aside from placing the order via this innovative tool, customers can choose a tablecloth and play a game.