Will waiterless restaurants be a trend or transient fashion?

For people around the world, dining out follows a similar pattern: Arrive, queue, wait to order,eat and then pay. One Chinese restaurant, however, has ripped up the rule book, and in doing so might just change the way people eat out forever.

全世界外出吃饭的模式都相同：达到餐厅，排队等候，等待点餐，就餐，最后付款。然而，一家中国餐厅却打破了这些规矩，这也许将永远改变人们外出就餐的方式。

While many restaurants go to great lengths to create a certain ambience or plate up food so that it looks more like art than a meal, noodle restaurant Renrenxiang, in Beijing's downtown Guomao, has made a name for itself by doing something all-together different.

当很多餐厅在殚精竭虑地打造特定的就餐环境，或者将食物以艺术的方式呈现时，位于北京国贸的人人湘面店，却以焕然一新的就餐方式闻名。

The first thing customers notice when they arrive at the noodle restaurant is that there is something missing. While it is customary that waiters greet customers at the door and show them to a table, there is no one to do this at Renrenxiang. In fact, there are no wait staff at all.

一进入面店，顾客首先注意到这里好像缺些什么。尽管通常情况下，侍者会和顾客打招呼，然后把他们引向餐桌，但是在这家面店，却没人做这些。事实上，这里根本没有侍者。

In place of hosts, waiters and cashiers, there is something a lot more 21st century — a phone app. The only place with human activity is the kitchen where chefs turn digital orders into dishes.

一些更21世纪的东西取代了店主，侍者和收银员，这个东西就是一款手机APP。店里唯一进行人工活动的地方就是厨房，厨师在这里把电子点餐制成一道道菜品。

The restaurant's app runs on WeChat, China's most popular online messaging app.

餐厅的APP在中国最流行的聊天软件-微信上运行。

Diners order and pay with the app, wait for their number to be called and then take their own food from the counter. After eating, they deposit their crockery on a cleaning table.

顾客用APP点餐并且付款，等待叫号，然后领取食物。吃完饭以后，他们把自己的餐具放在清洗台上。

Moreover, customers don't even have to be in the restaurant to order. One frequent diner,Miss Wang, who works nearby, says she orders while still in the office and takes a leisurely stroll down to the restaurant. By the time she arrives, her food is ready and she can enjoy it immediately. "It's very convenient," she says.

除此以外，顾客甚至不需要在餐厅点餐。在附近工作的王小姐是店里的常客，她说她在单位点餐，然后悠闲地漫步到餐厅。她一到达，食物就已经准备好了，她马上就可以用餐。“非常方便，”她说。