International Journal of u- and e- Service, Science and Technology Vol.9, No. 4 (2016), pp.401-410 http://dx.doi.org/10.14257/ijunesst.2016.9.4.39 ISSN:2005-4246 IJUNESST Copyright ⓒ 2015 SERSC Electronic Menu and Ordering Application System: A Strategic Tool for Customer Satisfaction and Profit Enhancement Arnelyn M. Torres Department of General Studies, Hanseo University, South Korea lynnetorres@gmail.com Abstract Culinary tourism is a new niche market that is gaining ground in Korea. Food is one of the top reasons why tourists visit Korea. However, they are reluctant to eat local food when the written menu is in the host country’s language. There are several apprehensions for this. First, they lack the familiarity with the food ingredients and the way of ordering it. Second, tourists are afraid to enter an eating establishment because they might be cheated about the price and overcharged. Lastly, if they do not know what is on the menu, the food might be culturally unacceptable. This paper proposed an electronic menu and ordering system that intends to provide an efficient and effective customer-wait staff communication, an ideal tool to provide exceptional customer service in restaurants. The use of interactive menu and ordering system application is expected to overcome the challenges and fill the communication gap between the customer and waitstaff. The features of the menu are anticipated to a give a vivid image of the dish, enlighten the customers about their order, ingredients, food allergens, grades of spiciness and price. The well-informed customer can now easily choose and decide for his order based on the information he had seen from both text and photos. The orders can be quickly sent to the kitchen through a touch screen or a smartphone and prepared fast for immediate customer indulgence. The application system expects to encourage more customers, repeat business, promotion of Korean cuisine and increase restaurant sales. Keywords: menu, customer service, culinary tourism, communication gap 1. Introduction One of the main implicit factors that tourists consider in choosing [1] the destination is food. In November 2000, an international conference on cuisine and tourism is held in Cyprus. The majority of papers mentioned that local meals play a leading role in impressing tourists and increase the attraction of a region [2, 3]. The menu is the geographical map that guides the customer through the fare offered by the establishment. Like the map, it is of greater importance as a guide through the culinary territory to outsiders, such as tourists [4]. Besides, it is the principal means of mediation between establishment’s offerings and prospective customers [4]. In some Asian countries like South Korea, tourists’ avoid local culinary establishment, even they desire to visit them. There are several reasons why tourists are reluctant to try local food. First, menus written in Hangul are hard to read, and local dishes are difficult to identify. Second, they are unfamiliar with the ingredients and names on the list. Third, most of the waitstaff lack the competence to interact with foreign tourists. These reasons identified classified as communication gaps.