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The story
Manga artist Tatsuki Noda’s social media post about Ootoya’s tablet ordering system went viral after he struggled to find the “Kaasan-ni Chicken” (mother’s-style simmered chicken) dish, which wasn’t listed under the chicken section at all. The post sparked a wave of sympathy on 5ch, with users piling on to agree the “UI is bad,” while others pushed back, arguing that “not being able to find it is just laziness.” The debate soon spread beyond Ootoya, dragging in touchscreen ordering at Sukiya, Matsuya, and conveyor-belt sushi chains, as users compared just how confusing digital ordering has become across the restaurant industry.
Excerpt
That said, plenty of voices also questioned whether Ootoya’s touchscreen was hard to use, with some even sympathizing, saying things like “I get how this customer feels.”
The post drawing the most attention was one shared by manga artist Tatsuki Noda.
Source: sirabee.com / Original article here
What people said
Right there with you. Couldn't find what I wanted either, ended up ordering something else since people were waiting behind me.
Matsuya's even more confusing than Sukiya.
This one seems pretty fair though.
What's even the point of a digital order screen if it's like this?
This falls under criticism/discussion, doesn't it?
Whoever designs garbage UIs like this should be fired — or worse — though nobody's actually saying that seriously, it's just good material.
Telling the staff or filing a complaint with customer service doesn't do anything.
You've got to rally support online and turn it into a "this happens to everyone" meme to actually spread it through society.
What even is this —
"Fish" and "Clay Pot"? lol
But then everything would just end up under "Set Meals."
Designers aren't working from a "make it easy to read" concept — it's "push the products they want to sell to the front." That's fundamentally at odds with what users who want clarity are looking for.
I think Matsuya's trying to weed out the bottom-tier customers.
Out of all the beef bowl chains, Matsuya actually has the best customer base.
Want a button like conveyor-belt sushi places have, that lists everything sorted by price lol
Kura Sushi's UI is decent enough, I think? Conveyor-belt sushi places get little kids and elderly customers too, so they tend to be more user-friendly.
Do that and people just browse from cheapest to priciest, and it tanks the average spend per customer lol
Sense has nothing to do with it — nobody complains about ticket machines that just show the item name and price, so that's basically peak design already.
Saizeriya's pretty easy to use, actually.
At Saizeriya you just check the menu and type in the item number, so there's no heavy navigation involved — it's actually pretty logical.
After the internal power struggle and the buyout by Colowide, they switched to a central-kitchen system. Before the buyout there was basically zero intention of serving fast — they cooked to order, so you just had to wait and wait.
Way back it wasn't like that at all, food came out fast. Then somewhere in the middle era the stores got nicer looking but you'd end up waiting like an hour.
Had people storm out angry lol
So I stopped going during busy hours.
This was late-90s Shibuya, by the way — Ootoya's operations were completely broken back then.
Chain restaurants are hopeless.
Conveyor-belt sushi is beyond the pale.
Analog really is the safe, reliable choice after all.
I don't even want to eat sushi anywhere but at the counter.
It's just the cheap places that switch to tablet or smartphone ordering.
Go to a pricier place and you'll get normal table service.
Same with katsudon or tempura soba — with dishes like these, it's such a shame when that crispy coating turns soggy and mushy.
Maybe that's the kind of made-up excuse they're using to talk everyone into it.
Unrelated to tablets, but McDonald's Japan pulled the 100-yen menu off the menu entirely, didn't they…
And then right before you confirm your order, it hits you with "How about adding this too?" trying to get you to buy something extra you don't need.
Why is every restaurant's ordering system hard to use?
Makes you wonder if no Japanese people are even involved in designing these.
It's the opposite lol
It's hard to use BECAUSE Japanese people are involved.
Usually it's just that the store tends to pick out and highlight whatever they most want people to order.
I make a point of skimming through everything even if it takes longer to order,
but while tablets are fine, I'm no good with ticket machines.
Nah, isn't it the opposite?
When Japanese people are involved, they listen to requests from every department, tack on feature after feature, and it's entirely plausible it ends up confusing as a result.
There's nobody overseeing the whole thing.
That's Mom, right there (playing along with the joke).
Isn't it just a female parent hen? (i.e., "kaasan" here just means "mother hen," not literally someone's mom)
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Ootoya became a subsidiary of Colowide following an internal “family feud” over control of the company, and switched to a central-kitchen model as a result. In the thread, users recalled how, before the buyout, orders were cooked from scratch after being placed, leading to the long waits of that era. The rollout of tablet ordering roughly coincides with this shift in business model. At the heart of the debate is a clash between those who see a hard-to-use UI as simply bad design and those who argue that failing to find an item is just user laziness. Partway through, some pointed out that designers build these interfaces to highlight high-margin items rather than prioritize clarity, raising the possibility that the confusion is the result of deliberate design choices. Similar complaints piled up regarding touchscreen ordering at other chains like Sukiya, Matsuya, and conveyor-belt sushi restaurants, suggesting that the usability of digital ordering has become an industry-wide issue in dining. That said, it’s worth noting that any claims about each company’s design intentions or concrete improvement plans remain speculation within the thread and are not confirmed facts.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Geisokuho+) thread “Ootoya’s Tablet Ordering Causes a Stir as ‘Confusing’ — Manga Artist Baffled That ‘Chicken Kaasan-ni’ Isn’t on the Chicken Page, ‘The UI Is Bad’.”
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