I think it works okay for a place that caters to a young crowd with good eyesight , and a limited menu, especially if most patrons know what to expect.
My problem has been when I want to see multiple items at the same time when making choices, especially if I want things to sort of go together, and I can’t keep it all in my head.
I also don’t want to “work” when I am eating out for the service. Looking at your phone is not so much work, but digging for glasses, taking a picture, maybe downloading something and having to figure out where it was downloaded to, maybe more than once, and maybe helping someone else or sharing a device doesn’t contribute to a relaxing experience for me.
I went to lunch with some friends and the place had QCR menus. As we all (50+) squinted at our small screens, we gave up and asked for the printed menus. And a I mentioned above, I just find printed menus easier at spots where there will be multiple rounds of small plates and\or drinks.
I have a microsuede/microfiber sofa and recliner chair in my living room, and a microsuede/microfiber partial couch/sofa bed in my 2nd BR for guests. They’ve helped immensely to avoid the shredding of the arms of the furniture.
Yes, I find it makes the choices more enjoyable if I can glance back and forth in the choosing. I’m much closer to imagining flavors from a real menu. This is one of the dirty little secrets of French bistros and bouchons–the chalkboard that’s placed tableside. On my phone, it’s like ordering on eBay.
When a restaurant clearly offers two different ingredients, but won’t combine the two.
For example, I like to get eggplant and shrimp on pizza, but some places don’t want to do it – even when they offer (as an example) shrimp fra diavolo and eggplant parmiggiano.
Look, you get to charge me more for adding shrimp, plus you’ll probably only throw two or three on the pie anyway. What gives?
Then there were the random restaurants in China that wouldn’t prepare certain dishes for me because they simply said the two ingredients wouldn’t go well together. Let my veteran taste buds and wallet make the decision, not the chef.
n.b. on a subsequent visit to China, my Shenzhen hotel had an intriguing slice of literature in the desk drawer. Basically, the book concerned traditional Chinese medicine, and the “nature” of food (i.e. hot, cold, and neutral).
