uWink Inc. (UWKI)

[Netman]

uWink offers techno spin on dining in the iPod age

Technology has finally brought the restaurant eater into the kitchen.

The invention of the stove is old news like ancient artifacts and the waitress is slowly being phased out like the Mayans. In the wake of Apple's iPod revolutionizing our take on music, uWink is revolutionizing the dinner rush.

Fully equipped with a bar, patio and restaurant seating, this sit-down establishment has a computer at every table.

Technology has quite possibly bombarded the battle between customer and server, making the food-order communication line much clearer.

Listing every item from bar drinks to desserts with more product ingredient information than my brain can handle, along with displaying a picture of each item, the computers are your menus.

When seated, the hostess gives you a card, which you swipe in the computer to start your tab. Then you simply click on the item you want and the waitress brings it out.

The computers serve as much more than menus though. They are filled with a variety of free games ranging from sports, music and movie trivia all the way to games about love and horoscopes.

Of course you don't have to play them, but in my case the screen's calling of my name sucked me into a tarot card tug-of-war. According to the first round my love life is in shambles, but thank God I persisted because by the third and fourth I had apparently hit "Hot Tamale" status.

With visual projections lining the walls with pictures of amoebas and far-off places, sport- and news-filled plasma screens and the table's resident computer, the restaurant could surely glide through the corporate market quite lavishly without the appearance of quality food.

For the sole reason that I'm anti-technology I was really hoping they chose that route but as I searched for the establishment's downfall in the menu, I came up short. The menu boasted so many food choices it made my head spin. I settled on the sushi and it was phenomenal.

The menu has a great selection that incorporates nearly every Americanized multicultural dish possible with Greek salads, steaks, burgers, vegetarian dishes, pizza and that is barely the tip of the iceberg.

If the fact that the iPod has attached itself to my body like an extra ligament is not hypocritical enough, uWink only furthers the truth that my resistance to move with electronic advancement is unprecedented.

The restaurant combines quality food, casual quick dining and best of all, affordable prices. According to their Web site, the target average check is $12 to $16, which is accurate and well worth it from my experience.

Computers at your table are the way of the future, advance or bust. It is truly a great restaurant.

The location below is the first and only uWink up and running, but the concept plans to add ___ more in 2008. So keep your eyes peeled for the new establishments, which will be making their way to Hollywood and Howard Hughes Center in Los Angeles.

5/16/07 (older, but not seen before...)
http://media.www.therounduponline.net/media/storage/paper1033/news/2007/05/16/Reviews/Uwink.Offers.Techno.Spin.On.Dining.In.The.Ipod.Age-2904343.shtml