A robo-restaurant in Heilongjiang province is offering silicon service with a smile to Harbin diners.
Sterile surroundings? The real restaurant may have a little more atmosphere Image: HH Robots |
In a city that already boasts a high-speed train, a tiger park and an annual ice festival, the latest addition, a Robot Restaurant, is proving popular with locals and tourists alike.
The staff of busboys, cooks and waiters consists of 20 robots designed and built by the local Harbin Haohai Robot Company.
The robots cost between 200,000 to 300,000 yuan ($31,500 to $47,000) each and can perform a number of different functions.
There are waiter-bots, who carry the food to and from the customers’ tables; chef-bots, who are able to determine the necessary ingredients and recipes for over 30 dishes in just three minutes; and the usher-bot, who greets patrons at the door and shows them to their table.
The average cost of the meal is a modest 60 yuan ($10 and you probably don’t need to tip either.
For those who can’t afford a fully-fledged chef-bot, the purpose-built Noodle Bot is available for a more modest 14,800 yuan ($2,330 although its repertoire is somewhat limited, as its name might suggest.