A table that's made to order

an article about restaurants using computers for ordering (from Chicagotribune.com):

>>LONDON—You want to eat out. You want good food, nice wine, a convivial ambience. Why let a waiter stand in the way?

This is the premise of Inamo, a restaurant in Soho, central London, where diners use their table to order.

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In the U.S., the uWink franchise allows diners to order food and drink via touch screens, as well as play games and watch movie previews. There's a place on the table for swiping your credit card when you're ready to pay the bill.

The brainchild of Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari Inc., the first franchise opened in Woodland Hills, Calif., in 2006, with restaurants also in Hollywood and Mountain View.

"UWink is the only touch-screen restaurant in the United States," said Alissa Tappan, a spokeswoman for the Van Nuys, Calif.-based company. "On our touch-screen terminals are short games, word puzzles, trivia quizzes, horoscopes and a wide variety of activities.

"You can play with one other person, or even compete against other tables or the whole room," she said.