@Mr.Purple: Eater parlance for reservation.

matt buchanan

@Lite: Exceptionally convenient and awesome? Yes. It's still anti-social though. Like real-life networking vs. Facebook.

matt buchanan

I love OpenTable. It's a great site for researching restaurants nearby, getting pictures, approx. price, and then making reservations. If I had an iPhone, I would definitely get this app.

ryaninc

@fredygamer: This should cure you. A year and a half after the initial release of the original iPhone, it still does not have cut/paste.

Lite

AAAAAHHH! all these iPhone apps are making me want to buy and iPhone.

fredygamer

@ripfire: God forbid you have to talk to a waiter! The whole point of this app is to not have to talk to someone. You don't have to depend upon them to actually write the reservation down somewhere important. It just goes directly into their reservation system, they confirm it with you, and you lose that sense of adventure where you wait 10 minutes for someone to answer a phone, put you on hold, and then hope they actually hit hold instead of hang up on you.

Now you don't want to have to talk to a waiter who may have valuable insight like don't have the special, or mixing house red with your chocolate fondue may give you the trots?

Lite

Uh, so using sites like Open Table to make reservations during a time in which the restaurant is closed, is anti-social? Let alone the fact that it will send e-mail reminders about your reservation, you can invite others through it, or that they send you deals (Hell, I get deals through Morton's lately.) and quite a few higher end restaurants use it here in Seattle?

Somebody isn't casting a wide net at all here.

Lite

Ok, now how about an app that will pull up a menu and queue up your orders..

ripfire

I don't know what a "resy" is, but I love Momofuku... I assume you like it too...

Mr.Purple

@Lite: somebody sounds awfully sensitive about the whole "antisocial" jab.

Elaine Chow

@Mr.Purple: I tried for weeks to get a Momofuku Ko resy before I left New York. No dice. My damn computer was just too slow I guess.

Elaine Chow

I use the system because I can see all the restaurants in a neighborhood or across the city (that are on the system, of course) that have room at various times, rather than calling a bunch of different places and doing the "how about 8 o'clock, well, how about 9 o'clock, okay, what about 6:30?" thing over and over...

In addition, the opentable system offers a point system which you can redeem for $20 or $50 coupons at Opentable restaurants.

The regular ratio is one visit = $1 worth of coupon. But they often have special offers that equal $10 for one visit, so you can earn those $20 or $50 coupons fairly quickly

And last but not least, various restaurant-focus events are often accessable through the system. Mother's day brunches, father's day steak dinners, holiday dinners, New Years Eve events, plus regional events like Philly's Center City restaurant week and South Jersey Hot Chefs.

lutton

On a side note, WD-50 is a great restaurant....

Dirk

@iAirmanshirk: Thanks for saying that out loud.

Sure I could use cut/paste, but why is it that so many people act as though it's some sort of deal-breaker? The iphone still rocks.

Dirk

@iAirmanshirk: While you may not, some of us do have a need for such a thing...

Lite

@Lite:

This just in: no need for copy/paste! oops did i say the truth out loud?

iAirmanshirk

This reminds me of the time I saw another iPhone user standing directly outside of a burrito joint in San Francisco, reading the menu through the window, and placing her order by phone, because she didn't want to stand in line.

Akibake-

@matt buchanan: It isn't really anti-social if you're not going out of your way to not speak with a person. I can make reservations far quicker w/ a browser than I can by calling and waiting for someone to list off what times they have open reservations for.

It keeps me from having to remember the phone number of a restaurant. I can just go to say, The Melting Pot's website which uses opentable for their reservations when I want to treat the woman to fondue. I could look up the number and call them, but if the link is right there to make the reservation, why wouldn't I?

Lite

I think I've heard that sometimes if a restaurant is booked through its in-house (talk to a person) reservation system, it still might have tables available through Open Table. Something about the restaurant putting aside a certain number of tables for Open Table that may be available even after the stylish hostess with the shiny blond hair and unflappable smile tells you that yes, she has all your albums and she'd be happy to pleasure you in the bathroom, but I'm terribly sorry, there's simply nothing available until December.

frigg

@fredygamer:

BUY ONE! You won't regret it

jcrockerman

@92BuickLeSabre: God, I hate a screwed up comment. That should read:

Not to mention that there is nothing all that social about....*ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring (...) ring, ring, ring, ring, ring* "Hold please." Just a small town girl living in a lonely world She took the midnight train going anywhere Just a city boy born and raised in South Detroit He took the midnight train going anywhere A singer in a smokey room the smell of wine and cheap perfume For "Yes, can I help you?" "Yes do you have..." "I'm sorry, hold please." a smile they can share the night. It goes on and on and on and on Strangers waiting up down the boulevard. Their shadows searchin in the night Streetlight people living just to find emotion Hiding somewhere in the night Working hard to get my fill everybody wants a thrill Payin anything "Yes, can I help you?" "Yes do you have a table for two Thursday at 8:30?" "We have one at 9:30." "Okay, can you put that under Smith?" "Done." *click*

[where (...) stands for 45 rings]

[Much better. Now I can sleep in peace tonight.]

92BuickLeSabre

@Elaine Chow: I'm not antisocial, I'm just a misanthrope that hates society in general. =)

Mostly I just really like Open Table and tend to use it to organize social gatherings for food at restaurants. Which I find to generally be the opposite of being anti-social. Personally I find the idea of eating alone, depressing. I like meals as an experience shared with friends.

Lite

@Lite: Not to mention that there is nothing all that social about....*ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring (...) ring, ring, ring, ring, ring* "Hold please." *ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring (...) ring, ring, ring, ring, ring* "Yes, can I help you?" "Yes do you have..." "I'm sorry, hold please." Just a small town girl living in a lonely world She took the midnight train going anywhere Just a city boy born and raised in South Detroit He took the midnight train going anywhere A singer in a smokey room the smell of wine and cheap perfume For a smile they can share the night. It goes on and on and on and on Strangers waiting up down the boulevard. Their shadows searchin in the night Streetlight people living just to find emotion Hiding somewhere in the night Working hard to get my fill everybody wants a thrill Payin anything "Yes, can I help you?" "Yes do you have a table for two Thursday at 8:30?" "We have one at 9:30." "Okay, can you put that under Smith?" "Done." *click*

[where (...) stands for 45 rings]

92BuickLeSabre

@Akibake-: Not a bad idea...Never thought of that...

anti-hello-kitty

@Dirk: Just stop it OK! I'm trying to convince myself that I don't need to buy one! Sheesh!

Lite

@92BuickLeSabre: For reals. It isn't like you engage the person on the phone about what's good at the restaurant when you're calling for a reservation. My luck though, they'd be playing the elevator version of Natalie Imbruglia's Torn. (Which exists, and I've heard it...)

Lite

@Dirk: yeah i gotta agree. as someone still shopping for the right phone and that doesn't have an iphone, it's more because of the additionl cost of the plans, being stuck for two years and the lack of a keyboard that have kept me from getting one so far.

diamonddnice

@Akibake-: what is particularly iphoney about that? pretty sure you could look at the menu and call the joint with a RAZR

The Chad

meh these online restaurant and night club websites are always a hit or miss. I checked out open table and noticed quite a few places were not listed. enough so that I would not trust it to find the most popular sushi place in another city. With this site and most others, when you are searching for a place to eat, you are limited to what they display, not what is out there. I also noticed quite a few of the higher end places in hollywood on sunset, brentwood & santa monica are not listed. These sites need to get every place online or it simply does not work.

YasinCassiopeia