food at Robot Restaurant Tokyo-Robot restaurants

Robotic restaurants put a new spin on fast everyday

They're not our conspirators just yet. At these restaurants, the robots are here to serve you.
When ever someone says "robot restaurant, " I first think of an LED and laser show at a Tokyo venue where remote-controlled robots dance with bikini-clad girls in a sensory show that accompanies supper.

But the reality of robot restaurants is generally way more pedestrian and low-class.

One of these is Eatsa, the San Francisco-based restaurant company that takes orders through iPads and dispenses meals through automated machines. Until now, Eatsa has been using this tech to provide up quinoa bowls to health-food fans in the own restaurants. But the company announced Friday that is actually expanding its robotic system to the fast-casual restaurant chain Wow Bao next month.

Tap on your cubby to receive your food

At Chicago-based Wow Bao, you can already order your steamed buns via its application or an on-site kiosk. Good results . Eatsa's tech, you'll also manage to acquire your meal from an LED-lit cubbyhole showing your name. Text appearing on the front of the cubby, one amid a larger array, will tell you once your order is cooking and when you can double-tap on the box to gather your meal.

It's a quick turnaround for Eatsa, which only a couple weeks ago announced the closing of five of its several restaurants across the country. The company has now turned its focus to offering automated tech as a platform to other restaurants such as Wow Bao.

A combo of man-made intelligence, personal screens, robotics and -- perhaps most crucially -- the determination of hungry customers to skip human interaction is coming at the right time to make Eatsa's shift possible. It's part of a gradual creep of technology that's transforming our encounters of dining out, and even dining in, thanks to advances in delivery tech.

Eatsa's concept might appear exotic today, but Neil Stern, senior partner at retail consulting firm McMillan Doolittle, said we can expect to see more of this kind of tech popping up. "Does it seem sensible to hide assembly of orders and deliver via a workplace? " he said. "Maybe not. But Eatsa will present a vision for the future that will be duplicated or enhanced. "

food at Robot Restaurant Tokyo-Robot restaurants

The first Eatsa-equipped Wow Bao will open in the Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago on Dec. 1. Using the technology, Wow Bao plans to twin its sites in 2018. It currently has seven company-owned locations, plus air-port, college or university campus, hotel and stadium franchises.

"When I first heard about Eatsa opening in San Francisco, I jumped on a plane to come see it, " Wow Bao President Geoff Alexander said in a statement. Alexander praised the technology as both entertaining and efficient. "I knew instantly that Eatsa would be the perfect technology to incorporate into our future locations. "

Do robots fit in in the kitchen?
At Eatsa and soon at Wow Bao, the robotic technology is front and center in the restaurant, serving customers and providing these an experience to go along with their takeout. In other restaurants, robots remain strictly consigned to your kitchen.

At Coffee shop X and Zume, both based in San Francisco, robots make lattes and pizza, respectively. California startup Miso Robotics has built a kitchen assistant robot called Flippy, which from early on 2018 is expected to be grilling burgers in CaliBurger restaurants.