Experience interactive dining at inamo

If you are ever visiting London, then put this restaurant on your must do list. This place is unique, innovative and a lot of fun. Welcome to interactive dining at inamo, where you are in control of your whole dining experience. I took my two teenage kids to this restaurant when we were visiting London and it was an absolute winner. Not only is the inamo concept interesting, but it also dishes up the goods on amazing food. The menu is all about Asian fusion – with influences from Japan, China, Thailand and Korea amongst others.

The inamo concept

Interactive dining at inamo is controlled by you via your table top. Your only contact with the wait staff is on arrival with a quick tutorial on how to use the table top ordering system. The menu is projected from overhead to the table top and displayed on the plates in front of you. The table top becomes your personal computer screen, with a touch panel that allows you to view, choose and order your meal all without the presence of someone to take your order. The order goes straight to the chef or to the bar for quick service. You can even order a taxi at the end of your night from your table. There is no waiting around as each meal is brought out in around 15 minutes after you have sent your order through cyberspace. Whilst you are waiting for your meal to arrive, you can change the table top design, check out what’s to see and do in the area or even check out the chef cam all from your table.

My experience

On a cold, rainy night in London, I visited the popular inamo interactive restaurant in Soho. I had booked online a months in advance as I only had a small window of time to visit. It is very popular and you will need to book in ahead if you haven’t the flexibility on dates and times. When I arrived for our 8 p.m sitting we had to wait around 10-15 minutes for our table to be ready. I kind of thought that our time was going to be cut short (we just lost 15 minutes of our allocated time) as we had to vacate our table by 9.30 p.m – I needn’t have worried. We were asked to wait downstairs in the bar. The bar has a cozy atmosphere, with the main lighting by candlelight, it’s actually quite dark inside which created a real intimate feel.

Once our table was ready, we were escorted up stairs again with my glass of wine in hand, that I hadn’t quite finished and shown to our table. Our waitress then explained to us how to use the touch panel on the table (which became like a computer screen) to select and order our meals. Once we had our orientation, she left us to play around with the table. Whenever a menu item was selected from the touch panel it was projected onto the plate from overhead. We found this a lot of fun and a great idea to see what your meal may look like. It didn’t take us long to select quite a few meals and within 15 minutes it arrived at our table. The food presentation was beautifully done and more importantly the food was extremely good. In fact it was one of my favourite meals in London.

Not only could you select and view what your meal will look like, but you could also change the design of the table top. Our design changed every few minutes, as we all couldn’t help but check out what each of the designs would look like. You can also bring up a menu of what things there are to do in the area as well. Another click of the button and you can bring up the ‘chef cam’ and see what the team of chefs are up too in the kitchen.

My son using the touchpad to make a selection of what meal to order. Each plate also comes up with a description of what it entails and the price.

Of course no meal is complete without a little wine. Once again there is no getting up from the table or summoning a waiter. A quick tap of the finger on the table top and your drink order is on it’s way.

The table top design can be changed when you so desire, it’s quite entertaining whilst you are waiting for your meals to arrive.

A couple of our meal selections.

Once we were finished and it was getting close to 9.30 pm, I clicked for the bill via the table top touch panel. The only times we had contact with our waitress was when we arrived and when I requested to fix up our bill. Having said this, in no way is the service impersonal as there is always staff on hand to help you or meet your requests. The inamo experience is something you control, it’s within your hands and you decide on how much or how little contact you want to have with staff. Personally I loved the concept, as it all worked efficiently. I could decide on what I wanted at my own leisure and order when I was ready. Even after you have ordered, you can add to your order at any time as the request goes straight to the kitchen.

If you are ever visiting London, I highly recommend this interactive dining experience at inamo – it’s fun, it’s innovative and most of all the food is tasty.

Location

inamo

134-136 Wardour Street

Soho London UK

Tele: 020 7851 7051

For the inamo website Click here