How hi-tech innovations are rapidly changing our culinary world

The restaurant industry has been shaken up in the last decade or so by a series of innovations and technologies which have revolutionised the way we eat out, and eat in. But one Scottish company has just launched an app which combines the convenience of time-saving innovation with the old-fashioned restaurant experience.

The app, Time2dine, is a free download onto a smartphone which allows diners to pre-book their table, view participating restaurants’ menus and pre-order food so it is ready on their arrival. The bill is also paid for through the app, so there is no trying to catch the waiter’s eye at the end of the meal, which is also a time saver.

Carolyn Mandache, who dreamed up Time2dine with her husband Florin, explains the seed of the idea: “We have four children and always enjoyed eating out, but it wasn’t always that relaxed when they were small. I think every parent has had the experience of trying to keep kids entertained while you wait for the food to arrive.

“We realised that if there was a way you could pre-order and prepay a meal so when you get there the food is ready, that would make things a lot easier for families.”

From this, the couple carried out extensive research to see if customers would be interested in the service and found that as well as those with small children there was a wider market elsewhere.

Carolyn says: “For people who only have an hour for lunch, instead of grabbing a sandwich and sitting at a desk, this would allow them to go out and have a relaxing lunch hour without worrying about being late back into the office.

“Diners who are going to a theatre or a concert also know the stress of ordering, then clock watching while you wait for your food, thinking that you aren’t going to have time to eat it.”

Carolyn’s background is in graphic design, banking and PR, while husband Florin, who is originally from Romania, is an experienced

IT manager and developer, and the couple have found that their combined experience and skill-sets work well together.

They first came up with the idea in 2015 and started working with a few initial adopter restaurants in Glasgow but the ambition is to take it UK-wide. Carolyn explains: “What did come through in those early conversations was that they had been using the same point-of-sale system, in some case for decades, which wasn’t the most efficient.

“We developed a whole new system so we can offer a whole restaurant technology, which integrates with the app.

“It was difficult sometimes to explain the concept as I think the industry here is not quite as forward-thinking as other places. In the US for instance, ordering from the table with tablets is commonplace.”

After some initial scepticism from restaurants, those who have embraced the technology are enthusiastic. Carolyn says: “That will have a knock-on effect because word-of-mouth recommendations and success in improving the customer footfall is the best way to expand to other restaurants.”

But trying to get the concept across to customers can also be a challenge, as Carolyn outlines. “People think ordering online is for home delivery,” she says. “We do offer that as well, because early feedback from restaurants asked for it, but the key is to understand that the USP [of the app] is that you pre-order food to eat in the restaurant, to save time.”

The Mandaches, who have run a business together before, reached out for help in the early days of setting up Time2dine. RBS, Entrepreneurial Spark, Strathclyde University’s entrepreneurial network and Scottish Enterprise all offered guidance, courses and workshops which were very helpful, as was meeting and exchanging ideas with other people in the same situation of starting a business.

Carolyn advises: “It is definitely a good idea to ask for as much help as you can, from all different sources. You aren’t supposed to know everything about the business that you are trying to get into.”

The couple have already started to build a team, with two developers and an administrator taken on. In an industry seemingly in a state of flux the key is to look for opportunities. Carolyn says: “Following the US model, many places are now bringing in big touch-screens for ordering, such as McDonalds, or tablets at each table – but it is a big expense, particularly for small independents.

“We can offer something very similar, just by putting a QR barcode on each table, diners can scan it and order directly from the table on their phones, which is very popular with customers.”

The biggest challenge to restaurants still comes from home delivery. But Carolyn says: “We are trying to make going out to eat a lot easier and doing it in a more modern way.

“We say we are providing food fast, rather than fast food.”

This article first appeared in The Scotsman’s spring edition of Vision. A digital version can be found here.