Wednesday 10 September 2008

Restaurant: Inamo, London

Inamo is an Oriental fusion restaurant in Wardour Street in the heart of Soho. Its claim to fame is that you do all your food and drink ordering using computer generated images that are projected onto your table.

Each table has a projector above it that projects a sort-of computer screen on your table. One corner of your table has a hollowed out circle in it and this is your mouse control. You move your finger around in the circle and this controls the mouse.

Using the screen that is projected on the table you can choose your food and drink, order the bill, request a waiter and even order a taxi. There is also has an "ambiance" option which allows you to control a set of colour/image combinations that are projected onto the table.

A final option is to turn your table into a game board and play battleships!

The big fear in going to a place like this is that the food comes a long way second after all the new gadgetry. Thankfully in the case of Inamo this fear doesn't materialise as the food is rather good. Given that the chef is ex-Nobu & Hakkasan this should be no surprise.

The menu is presented with options for Small Dishes and Large Dishes. For two of us we chose 4 small dishes and 4 large dishes. This gave us plenty to eat.

As you scroll through the menu each dish is projected on to your plate so you get quite a good impression of what you are ordering.

For small dishes we ordered Wild Boar Roll, Baby Back Ribs, Vietnamese Spring Rolls and Baby Crispy Prawns. Each of these dishes was delicious with the spring rolls and ribs particularly standing out.

For large dishes we ordered Black Cod, Chilean Sea Bass, Pomegranate Duck and Marinated Quail.

For me the stand-out dish was the Chilean Sea Bass. A fine succulent piece of fish. The Black Cod was also good but I've yet to have Black Cod anywhere that beats the one at Nobu (although this one came close).

Overall the food was of a high standard and I would happily return.

If you're a technophobe then I would suggest that you eat elsewhere as the ordering system will probably drive you bonkers. I noticed an older woman at the next table get more and more frustrated with the system and eventually she resorted to calling over a waitress.

For a computer-age person like me it was both easy and fairly intuitive to order. If this is the future then bring it on.

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