I noticed that in some places when you order, they give you a slip of paper with a number and put it on your table. I used to see this in Soviet cafeterias, but why is this still being used?
it's elementary, really. the number is so the waiter or cashier knows which dish goes to which table. when there's a bunch of tables in a café and several orders are being cooked in the kitchen at the same time, without numbers it's total chaos. the cook yells out a number - the waiter immediately sees the number on the table and knows exactly which table it goes to. fast, simple, no mix-ups.
it's not just something from soviet times. a lot of places still work like that right now, especially when there's not much staff or during rush hour. in small cafés it's the most reliable way. sometimes they put the number right on the bill or receipt so you can see which table is paying. plus if a customer suddenly gets up and goes to the bathroom or wherever, by the number you can tell the table is occupied and the food will go there.
in some fancy places of course they don't do it, they've got a different system. but for a regular café it's normal and it works. i'd even say it's convenient when people show up at different times and different dishes take different amounts of time to cook.
I work remotely and often have lunch at cafes where I see this system - basically the number ticket is just insurance against mix-ups when the kitchen is cooking several dishes at the same time and they need to quickly figure out which one goes where, so they don't end up giving someone else's order to the wrong customer.
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