Queueing up before you get to a restaurant

[somethingfunny]

I've just found out about this feature where you can get a queue number for a restaurant on the internet.  (It's probably been around for ages).  I was wondering if anyone had tried this for notoriously busy restaurants.  If you're not sure what I mean, you can see it in 大众点评 where you click a restaurant and there is a 排号 button.  I've never used it and would like to know how easy it is to use, or whether you're likely to miss your number and have to queue from scratch if you arrive a little late.

 

Also, in case anyone is recommending I go to a less busy restaurant, thanks for the advice.

[gato]

I've used a queuing app, and it worked fine. Just get a number and it'll tell you approximate how long you have to wait. Just don't cut it too close.

[somethingfunny]

What was the app?

[gato]

Might have been 美味不用等. It stopped working after a while. I assumed that the business was cannibalized by a bigger company like 点评.

[somethingfunny]

That would make sense.  Well, I'm going to try using this a few times in the coming weeks.  I'll report back with my experiences.

[ouyangjun]

I've used these also.  They are easy to use and you know how long you have to wait.  Some of them require you to follow the restaurant on Weixin and use it through that.

[somethingfunny]

How can I follow the restaurant on wechat without having been there before?

[somethingfunny]

Tried this a few times last couple of weeks with very little success.

 

First time I tried it I could see how many people were in the queue for each type of table but when I tried to book one it wouldn't let me.  I ended up calling the restaurant who just told me to come down and wait.  I followed them on wechat and tried to reserve a place on there but was similarly unsuccessful.

 

Tried it a few other times and either had problems showing the number of people in the queue or the actual number getting process.

 

So, while this is a great idea in theory, and probably does work in general, I'd be careful and get familiar with it before you use it for anything important or if you're in a rush.