E-table inventors and Inamo founders plan interactive restaurants that will make waiting for another round a thing of the past

Inamo restaurant in Soho has installed the E-table

E-table menus are displayed on the tables using a combination of ceiling projectors and a table interface.

Poor table service may soon be a thing of the past if a new E-table takes off.

The co-founders of Inamo Asian fusion restaurant in Soho were so frustrated by trying to order another round of beers that they invented and patented new technology to make the process automatic. The E-table gives diners the power to adjust the lighting, play videogames and pay for dinner without waiting around for a waiter.

Noel Hunwick and Daniel Potter had been friends at Oxford and fellow students in Magdalen College. They dreamed up the E-table while struggling to get served one night. "It has its foundation in wanting another beer, but so do the best ideas, really," Hunwick told the BBC.

The two entrepreneurs are experimenting with queue-busting technology, such as computer tablets that customers can use to order while they wait for a table. They have since opened a second eatery in St. James’s.

Menus are displayed on the tables using a combination of ceiling projectors and a table interface. Hunwick said the first five items on the e-menu get ordered 50 per cent more.

The hardest aspect of the project from a technological perspective was creating a mouse that two people could use on the same computer.

Next, they want to improve on the technology so the tables and projectors can be moved around more easily.

In the meantime, Inamo is already popular with romantics. It was listed by Match.com as one of the best places to go on a first date.