I’d read about this touch table diner in the newspaper, and it seemed a coincidence when a friend suggested we meet there for drinks and brunch/lunch. Touché (too-shay) is situated on 100 feet road in Indiranagar, probably the most happening area in Bangalore, above the Reid & Taylor showroom. It is also the world’s 5th touch table restaurant.
The entrance seemed a tad dark as we entered and we were shown to our table. Once there, we were amazed at the sight that greeted us. The entire table is a touchscreen and we spent the next 15-20 minutes just playing around with the options and getting used to it.
Beautifully laid out, it is quite well classified with a nice menu system and categories for type of food (veg / non-veg, starters / appetizers, main course, chicken/mutton/lamb/beef etc). Ditto for the drinks menu. Arrows on either side allow you to read the menu from your side of the table.
Selecting an item brings it to the centre and you get information about it. In this case, I’d selected Cocktails->Long Island Iced Tea, and I was shown information about the drink, the price, an option to increase the quantity, and then add it to our order, much like a shopping cart on an e-commerce site.
Once the order is placed, it is sent directly to the Galaxy Tab wielding stewards! There is no manual intervention here and the steward only confirms your order to ensure you’ve not clicked the wrong item by mistake.
There are several games, puzzles and jokes to help while away the time till your food and drinks arrive. We tried a couple of games which were disasters, mainly because we weren’t pressing the touchscreen at the right place. The angle of viewing and the actual ‘hotspot’ weren’t quite matching. We settled on tic-tac-toe eventually :p
An interesting feature here is the group buying discount that is available depending on consumption of an item. The more the consumption, the greater the discount. The price of the Long Island Iced Tea was Rs.400. If 1 more person ordered it, the price would drop to Rs.368 and so on, up to a maximum of Rs.288 if 7 people ordered the same. Similar stats were available for whatever else was being consumed by the patrons there. I think this concept is pretty good and benefits everyone. It is also nice to see what others are ordering, besides being quite nifty and fun too. 😀
We ordered a combination of veg and non-veg along with our drinks. The food was good and they have an extensive variety to choose from. However, I wouldn’t say it was excellent, especially some of the veg stuff. The prices are on the higher side, whether for food or even drinks. For eg, the Long Island Iced Tea is priced at Rs.400, which would cost Rs.275 in a comparable place in Pune like Kiva Ivy in Baner.
Overall, the experience was a nice one, although it is definitely an expensive place, no doubt to justify all that “high tech grandeur”. Be prepared to shell out a packet when you head there!
Touché Diner
3rd Floor, #762, Above Reid & Taylor Showroom,
100 Feet Road, Indiranagar, Bangalore
Tel: 080 30412940
Update: Woohoo! Super thrilled to see this post being referenced in the Business Standard and Rediff 😀
