Olive Garden rolls out tabletop tablets for ordering and payment

Olive Garden is about to get technical.

The chain of Italian-style restaurants announced on Tuesday a partnership with Ziosk to introduce tabletop tablets in all of its restaurants nationwide, allowing customers to order and pay at their tables through the device.

A spokeswoman for Olive Garden said the tablets are meant to function as a server assistant, not as a server replacement, and that feedback from an earlier trial of the tablets has been positive.

“Interaction with servers is one of the reasons people visit restaurants, and the tablet frees servers to spend more time in the front of the house interacting with guests, and less time running back and forth… to put in drink refills or manage payment.”

According to the spokeswoman, on average, servers with customers using the Ziosk tablets see a 15% increase in tips, and turnover their tables seven to 10 minutes faster.

The Ziosk touchscreen tablets run on Android OS and allow customers to browse the menu, order food and drinks, pay for their meals, and also read USA Today and play trivia games.

Ziosk also has a partnership with Chili’s.

Twitter: @traceylien