Simplify restaurant ordering: a new type of “fixed menu” where patrons can only be served the exact single dish listed at their table setting—no more menu confusion!

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Background:

Most restaurants provide a menu that lists the various food and drink options that can be ordered. Some restaurants also only offer a fixed menu for a particular day, with a small number of dining options (perhaps exactly one!).

Proposal:

Interestingly, there are no restaurants that provide a fixed menu based on the specific seat that a customer has chosen. Let’s remedy that.

In this new “per-table-setting“ fixed menu, the “menu” is printed directly onto the table, and the person dining at the restaurant has no choice but to order whatever is printed on the table where they are sitting (Figure 1).


Fig. 1: This table has four menu options: one per seat. If a person sits at the location marked “A,” they will receive a clam chowder for $27.75. 

Conclusion:

This should greatly simplify ordering, as patrons will no longer spend a long time consulting a menu, and could be eco-friendly as well, since menus will no longer need to be printed and/or hosted on a web site.

PROS: May expose diners to new foods that they wouldn’t have tried before.

CONS: Allergies could be a problem: if a person with a deadly peanut allergy sits down at the Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich And Thai Peanut Curry table setting, they would probably have a bad time and would leave a three-or-fewer star review of the restaurant.

P.S. This idea is related to the earlier hat-related menu-streamlining idea from October 2021: https://worstplans.com/2021/10/18/chicken-hat-and-octopus-hat-restaurant-dining-help-for-waiters/.