2008 Woodie Awards
uWink offers techno spin on dining in the iPod age
Portia McGroarty
Published: 5/16/07 at 10:00 AM PST Section: Reviews
Technology has finally brought the restaurant eater into the kitchen.
The invention of the stove is old news like ancient artifacts and the waitress is slowly being phased out like the Mayans. In the wake of Apple's iPod revolutionizing our take on music, uWink is revolutionizing the dinner rush.
Fully equipped with a bar, patio and restaurant seating, this sit-down establishment has a computer at every table.
Technology has quite possibly bombarded the battle between customer and server, making the food-order communication line much clearer.
Listing every item from bar drinks to desserts with more product ingredient information than my brain can handle, along with displaying a picture of each item, the computers are your menus.
When seated, the hostess gives you a card, which you swipe in the computer to start your tab. Then you simply click on the item you want and the waitress brings it out.
The computers serve as much more than menus though. They are filled with a variety of free games ranging from sports, music and movie trivia all the way to games about love and horoscopes.
Of course you don't have to play them, but in my case the screen's calling of my name sucked me into a tarot card tug-of-war. According to the first round my love life is in shambles, but thank God I persisted because by the third and fourth I had apparently hit "Hot Tamale" status.
With visual projections lining the walls with pictures of amoebas and far-off places, sport- and news-filled plasma screens and the table's resident computer, the restaurant could surely glide through the corporate market quite lavishly without the appearance of quality food.
For the sole reason that I'm anti-technology I was really hoping they chose that route but as I searched for the establishment's downfall in the menu, I came up short. The menu boasted so many food choices it made my head spin. I settled on the sushi and it was phenomenal.
The invention of the stove is old news like ancient artifacts and the waitress is slowly being phased out like the Mayans. In the wake of Apple's iPod revolutionizing our take on music, uWink is revolutionizing the dinner rush.
Fully equipped with a bar, patio and restaurant seating, this sit-down establishment has a computer at every table.
Technology has quite possibly bombarded the battle between customer and server, making the food-order communication line much clearer.
Listing every item from bar drinks to desserts with more product ingredient information than my brain can handle, along with displaying a picture of each item, the computers are your menus.
When seated, the hostess gives you a card, which you swipe in the computer to start your tab. Then you simply click on the item you want and the waitress brings it out.
The computers serve as much more than menus though. They are filled with a variety of free games ranging from sports, music and movie trivia all the way to games about love and horoscopes.
Of course you don't have to play them, but in my case the screen's calling of my name sucked me into a tarot card tug-of-war. According to the first round my love life is in shambles, but thank God I persisted because by the third and fourth I had apparently hit "Hot Tamale" status.
With visual projections lining the walls with pictures of amoebas and far-off places, sport- and news-filled plasma screens and the table's resident computer, the restaurant could surely glide through the corporate market quite lavishly without the appearance of quality food.
For the sole reason that I'm anti-technology I was really hoping they chose that route but as I searched for the establishment's downfall in the menu, I came up short. The menu boasted so many food choices it made my head spin. I settled on the sushi and it was phenomenal.
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