Some 45 Manhattan restaurants, including Il Buco Alimentari, Benoit, the Odeon, and Tamarind Tribeca, are among those now offering diners the choice to pay with their phones. OpenTable’s mobile payments feature is integrated with the reservations-booking service’s app, and, like its competitor Cover, allows diners to settle the check digitally, then simply leave the restaurant post-meal without any chit-chat or waiting. The promise for customers is a streamlined experience, even if the legitimized dining and dashing does upend more than 100 years of restaurant culture. Servers — in theory, at least — get to turn tables faster by not having to listen to you repeatedly exclaim “they all look so good” as you fumble with the dessert menu for ten excruciating minutes. [Official site, Related]
