Somewhat hidden inside Insee Father Noodles House’s wood-heavy interior — designed by its owners to resemble a mid-century home in Thailand — are coasters on each table that display a QR code. Each table also has a number.
When customers arrive at the noodle shop, which opened this month at 1700 Platte St. #130 in Denver, they are seated and informed that they can order in one of two ways: by using their phones, via the QR code, or with a server. The server leaves the table with water and paper menus, just in case.
Owner Ounjit Hardacre envisioned Insee as a fast-casual companion to Daughter Thai, the restaurant she opened next door in 2019. In theory, Hardacre says the ordering system moves tables along more quickly without having to rely on extra labor, the costs of which local restaurant owners say are increasingly cutting into their profit margins.
However, early issues with the point-of-sale system Square, especially with large parties, have caused some delays in the full adoption of the mobile ordering and purchasing process, she said.
“Eighty percent get it, 20% don’t,” she said during a recent lunch rush, resting briefly from clearing and wiping tables.
Most customers that day were going in on deep bowls of noodle soup, the kinds Hardacre and her business partner Dueanphen Rungrueang prepared en masse at a previous operation in San Francisco. The Platte Street lunch clientele included families, groups of friends and employees at surrounding LoHi businesses.
The QR codes direct customers to the Insee menu, where they can start their order by typing in their corresponding table number. Once an order is ready, the customer pays with their smartphone. A minimum tip of 15% is recommended on the payment page.
A bowl of pork rib noodle soup, with a rich broth and a thick slice of pork rib ($17.89 without tip), was ready seven minutes after the order came in. Other tables flagged down their servers to order or for the check.
Ordering through the phone is easy for single orders but has caused confusion with larger parties, Hardacre and her staff have noticed. Six people paying for separate orders creates six receipts that spew out from the register onto the floor. Electronic orders can get lost or fail to make it to the kitchen. The paper jam led Insee to turn off the mobile system for a couple of hours one day.
Though the hybrid ordering system is working, Hardacre said she’d prefer having just one method. Having both makes it harder to track who has paid for their meal after ordering. Most customers want to order through the phone, she said. Even if it didn’t work the first time, she sensed regular customers would pivot to the electronic system eventually.
An Insee employee stationed at the front of the room poured batter to make Thai coconut pancake cups. Hardacre said she would like to sell them, though right now only a limited number are available each day. It’s a practice that also takes time, she said.