Restaurants are becoming increasingly digital. Various functions that have traditionally been carried out using analogue methods – cards, cash, phones and so on – are now migrating to the digital sphere, thanks to the ubiquitous, all-powerful smartphone. Nothing new there, of course, but the recent health emergency has prompted a sudden and quite considerable acceleration in the use of digitised restaurant procedures. There are now many solutions available that will make the out-of-home dining experience smoother and more streamlined, thanks to a variety of online and offline interactions.

One thing that has gone digital in a big way is the menu. What used to be a mere curiosity used by just a few “young people’s” catering chains has suddenly become a necessity for everyone. Now there are countless solutions enabling diners to consult it at their leisure before they even get to the restaurant: that is also another way of reducing the times people spend together when they go back to dining in enclosed spaces. Other useful services are translations into various languages and the option of “filtering” the dishes on offer according to personal nutritional needs. Some menus now even suggest combinations, with a wine or a cocktail, something more and more people are enjoying with their meals.

The opportunity to change the menu in real time in accordance with the availability of ingredients, which may change over the course of the day, is clearly an advantage for restaurateurs, enabling them to manage orders better and reduce waste. And geo-localised messages can also be sent out to attract potential new diners passing through the area, perhaps combined with a special promotional offer.

The menu can be the starting point for deciding to have the chosen dishes delivered to the home, or for booking a table, and this makes the whole dining process more fluid and user-friendly. Delivery is a complex business, especially for the many restaurants who had never used it before. In this field there are now booking apps that make it possible to manage the order from top to bottom, helping to establish the delivery times depending on the amount of work the kitchen has to do and the distance between it and the home. Apps are now also used to manage takeaway services where there is now a need to avoid people gathering outside the shop: a problem that can now be easily solved thanks to the possibility of ordering online and knowing exactly when it will be ready for collection.

Some systems connect front-end services with back-end ones. That involves everything from creating a line of communication between the kitchen and the dining-room to managing contactless payments and visualising data regarding promotions or loyalty cards for regular customers. Indeed in this initial stage of lockdown easing it has been seen that people have preferred to go to their favourite restaurants rather than looking for new ones, because of the reassurances they give.

So there are countless opportunities for digitised restaurants, starting from the menu and continuing through to the management and marketing of the establishment. It is quite a significant aid in these times of great change and one worth seizing on. And all these innovations, which spread across the entire world of hospitality, will be showcased at HostMilano in October 2021. Next year’s not-to-be-missed edition promises to give renewed impetus to the sector. Because future success will depend on the ability to approach the market with a cool head, and to pick up on new opportunities. Thanks, among other things, to technology.