Restaurant offers diners 50 per cent discount if they turn off their phones

It's a common occurrence in restaurants, both up-market and casual: diners talking loudly on their mobile phones, annoying other patrons. The opposite occurs just as frequently: diners engrossed in their mobile phones, ignoring the other patrons with whom they're supposed to be dining.

An Israeli restaurateur has come up with a powerful ploy to deal with both problems, by offering diners a 50 per cent discount if they agree to turn off their mobile phones.

	Restaurant owner Jawdat Ibrahim.

Jawdat Ibrahim, owner of the Abu Ghosh eatery outside Jerusalem, said that all but one patron of his restaurant over the past week had agreed to the smart phone condition and taken the discount.

The one patron who simply could not turn off their phone was a TV news journalist, he said.

"I'm changing something. It might be something small, but maybe in some small way I'll be changing the culture of eating," Ibrahim told the Associated Press.

"Technology is very good. But just when you eat, just especially when you are with your family and your friends, you can just wait for half an hour and enjoy the food and enjoy the company. A lot of people, they sit down and they don't enjoy their food, their company."

Source: News.com.au, 25 November 2013