What the screen asks
CatchTable is a restaurant reservation app that also provides waitlist tablets. Tabling is another restaurant waitlist service.
The tablet on a stand just inside the door of a busy restaurant may be a CatchTable or Tabling device for joining the restaurant’s waitlist. The registration process may ask for: the number of people (인원), a mobile number (전화번호 or 휴대전화번호), sometimes a seating or menu choice, and then register (등록). Check that you received a waiting number (대기번호), then confirm whether staff will call you by message, aloud or through the app (호출 means calling a party).
Check whether the tablet supports your contact method
Some tablet setups expect a Korean mobile number. If the screen does not accept your number or no message arrives, look for a visitor option or ask staff before registering again. Do not assume that silence means you have a place in the queue.
Look for a visitor or language option
A restaurant has to ask CatchTable for the multilingual version of the tablet — it takes about a week and costs nothing, but it is not the default. Where it has, there is a small Foreigner (외국인) button, a globe, or a QR code in a corner of the screen: it takes an email address instead of a phone number, or opens a web page where you watch your place in the line. A Korean 010 number may work for ordinary text alerts if the SIM supports receiving those messages. This is separate from carrier identity verification.
Ask staff if you cannot register
Ask the staff — “Could you register us, please? There are two of us.” (등록 좀 해 주시겠어요? 두 명이요.) The same tablet has a staff side, and they can add a party from it without a text going anywhere. Ask whether staff will call your number aloud, send a message or use another method. Stay where you can receive the call and return within the restaurant’s stated deadline. Smaller and older restaurants still keep a paper list or simply ask your name; that sidesteps the phone entirely.
A waitlist entry is not necessarily a reservation for a later date. Ask about the restaurant’s advance-booking channel if you want a table held for a particular time. See “Which booking system does this restaurant use?” and “Asking your hotel to book a restaurant”.
