The pandemic drastically changed the dining experience with the prioritisation of customer safety over the pleasurable experience of dining. To restrict interaction between customers and staff and limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus, restaurants and cafes were restricted to table service only but not the kind of table service we were previously spoiled with in the pre-pandemic hospitality world.
Table service has become more of a self-service offering, with diners accessing digitised menus via a QR code instead of being handed a physical menu. Whether that’s a beautiful leather-bound wine list, or the daily specials printed on paper, either way diners have always loved taking the time to browse food options at their leisure.
It feels like this experience is now a long-distant, nostalgic memory from our former dining out experiences. Gone is that enjoyable experience of reading a menu and flicking through pages, and instead, we’re all having to stare at our phones, navigating different pages and scrolling back and forth. And not just once, but every time we wish to order something…. Out comes the phone again. There’s also something about being rushed to order whilst flicking through a phone and working out how to use the apps, which seem to vary hugely from restaurant to restaurant.
According to a recent reader survey in Food & Wine Magazine 2021, only 26% of people want to use QR codes to view menus in the future.
As the hospitality industry recovers, QR codes may well become a permanent fixture for many dining establishments, who perhaps feel pressure to embrace new technology. However, as this recent research has shown, diners, particularly within the fine dining sector, wish to see return of the traditional printed menus in order to maintain an enjoyable dining experience.
With that in mind, we would like to share with you our synthetic print media solutions for smarter, cleaner and safer printed menus alongside other applications for the hospitality industry which enhance the dining experience whilst maintaining a safer and cleaner environment:
KernowPrint PRO
Durable, wipeable, tear, stain, grease, oil, alcohol and water resistant, our KernowPrint PRO synthetic media is proving to be one of our most popular solutions for producing printed restaurant menus, takeaway menus, signs and notices, leaflets, price lists, placemats and more!
Tried and tested, it is designed to last in the toughest of environments including a cycle in a dishwasher! KernowPrint PRO is also resistant to the harshest of cleaning chemicals to ensure that menus can be disinfected to keep them free from harmful bacteria. With no need for lamination, just print and go!
If this has given you some food for thought, click on our link below to learn more about our synthetic print media solutions for the hospitality industry.
If you supply the hospitality trade, get in touch with us for samples: samples@kernowcoatings.com
