When it comes to the issue of cell phone use in a restaurant, it’s a habit that pretty much ticks everyone off (accept the person using the phone in the restaurant). From answering “really important” phone calls to taking an Instagram shot of a blue plate special, diners have all sorts of reasons to reach for their iPhones in the middle of a meal.

One restaurant in Los Angeles has had enough when it comes to their clientele’s inability to keep their hands off their phones. They’re so peeved, in fact, that they’ve come up with an incentive program to curb the distasteful “eat-tiquette”. Eva Restaurant is offering a 5% discount to diners who keep their hands off their phones and on their forks.

Says chef and Owner Mark Gold: “It’s really not about people disrupting other guests. Eva is home, and we want to create that environment of home, and we want people to connect again…It’s about two people sitting together and just connecting, without the distraction of a phone, and we’re trying to create an ambiance where you come in and really enjoy the experience and the food and the company.”

Whether or not the incentive program works, chances are if using a cell phone is the only way to pay for the your meal at a restaurant (which could very well be the case in the near future”, I bet Eva will be more than willing to make an exception.
Paying for dinner with your phone is easy-as-pie these days.

If you didn’t already know, mobile payment transactions are predicted to reach $1.3 trillion per year by 2017, as reported in this mashable.com article.

There are a number of ways you can pay for your food with your phone, and here are two of them:

1. Food delivery websites and apps allow the hungry to browse through local restaurants that offer take-out, delivery or both, menus, prices and diner reviews. Some of the most tantalizing apps are:

Foodler.com, Seamless, GrubHub, BiteHunter, Eat24Hours

 

 

2. Going out to dinner with a big group of friends is probably top on the list of most people’s favorite things to do. But on a full stomach, no one wants to be the one to break down the bill, calculate who owes what, who’s got cash vs. who’s got credit and so on… That’s why there are money-transferring apps like Dwolla and Bump. Both services allow users to transfer funds to another person’s account. In the case of the group dinner, this function can take the buzz-kill out of a great night.