Mouse to Mouth Resuscitation
With more cupboard clearing to look forward to - where the hell did we get all these herbal teas anyway? - yesterday now seems but a distant dream of computerised eating at the actually-quite-good Inamo.
The first of its kind anywhere in the world, the Inamo concept will probably be coming to a city near you soon because it: a) is fun; and b) works. There are no menus and very few waiting staff. Instead, you have a little mouse pad on your table and a table that acts like a screen. Touch the pad, a menu - of the computer definition - appears. This allows you to move between the food - a pretty decent and well-executed range of Asian and Asian-influenced dishes - the drinks, a running total of the bill, and some other stuff and more on those in a second.
Tapping the mousepad on the projected picture of the dish you fancy brings up an order confirmtion. Confirm that and you'll see the real dish in front of you within 15 minutes. Like Wagamama, the food comes when it's ready, so it's probably safest to order a few small dishes and eat those before weighing into the larger plates. Unlike Wagamama, the food is good. Happily, with an Inamo veteran guiding the way, we negotiated our way through some thoroughly decent fare: seared tuna, some excellent salt-crusted ribs, chicken and apple in betel leaf, a fine piece of rib eye that you cook yourself on a hot stone, a good value black cod... And there's a fine selection of interesting teas if you don't feel like boozing it up. Puddings - a good creme brulee, an excellent mango and sticky rice combination - were better than expected too.
And while you're waiting for the food, you can change the ambience of your table with background patterns and images, play Battleships with the person sitting opposite, watch the kicthen spring to life to prepare your sushi via the 'chef cam'... All good fun and very good value to boot.
Right. I'll leave you to it. I've got a load of soya mince and a box of Blackberry & Nettle tea to get through...
The first of its kind anywhere in the world, the Inamo concept will probably be coming to a city near you soon because it: a) is fun; and b) works. There are no menus and very few waiting staff. Instead, you have a little mouse pad on your table and a table that acts like a screen. Touch the pad, a menu - of the computer definition - appears. This allows you to move between the food - a pretty decent and well-executed range of Asian and Asian-influenced dishes - the drinks, a running total of the bill, and some other stuff and more on those in a second.
Tapping the mousepad on the projected picture of the dish you fancy brings up an order confirmtion. Confirm that and you'll see the real dish in front of you within 15 minutes. Like Wagamama, the food comes when it's ready, so it's probably safest to order a few small dishes and eat those before weighing into the larger plates. Unlike Wagamama, the food is good. Happily, with an Inamo veteran guiding the way, we negotiated our way through some thoroughly decent fare: seared tuna, some excellent salt-crusted ribs, chicken and apple in betel leaf, a fine piece of rib eye that you cook yourself on a hot stone, a good value black cod... And there's a fine selection of interesting teas if you don't feel like boozing it up. Puddings - a good creme brulee, an excellent mango and sticky rice combination - were better than expected too.
And while you're waiting for the food, you can change the ambience of your table with background patterns and images, play Battleships with the person sitting opposite, watch the kicthen spring to life to prepare your sushi via the 'chef cam'... All good fun and very good value to boot.
Right. I'll leave you to it. I've got a load of soya mince and a box of Blackberry & Nettle tea to get through...
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