One can now walk into a restaurant in Chennai and have food served by robots. Chinese restaurant MOMO in Chennai’s Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR) that served authentic varieties of the tasty dumpling has employed robots as 'waiters’ to serve food to their guests at the table.
The restaurant that has now been relaunched with a new name 'Robot' is based on a robot theme that has four robots serving dishes to the guests, for the first time in the country.
The restaurant has been founded by Venkatesh Rajendran and Karthik Kannan. Venkatesh is a former IT sector employee. He also owns another restaurant in OMR itself which is themed like the inside of an aeroplane.
Talking about how the idea of designing a robot theme struck him, Karthik said in a report by Deccan Chronicle: “MOMO was quite popular among our customers for its authentic taste, but it wasn’t something out of the ordinary. After 747, I wanted to bring something new to the people.”
He also went on to mention that a “trend” of robot restaurants seems to have already caught up in countries like Japan, the US, Europe and even Bangladesh., and was disappointed to see there was none in India.
Robots serving food at the restaurant (Courtesy: The Hindu)
At the restaurant customers can order food through iPads placed at every table- the menu largely comprises Chinese and Thai food- without interacting with the waiter, i.e the robot.
The orders get sent across directly to the system at the kitchen.
After the order is ready (real chefs cook, by the way, need not worry about that), one of the robots pick it up and deliver it to the table.
In an interview to The Hindu, co-founder Karthik said that in the restaurant business , it is no longer about the food, the experience matters equally.
Venkatesh said that the robots were battery operated and can be controlled through sensors. They have been programmed in such a way that they know which dish goes to which table, and also stops if someone blocks their path.
To add to the cool factor, the restaurant has a selfie corner outside for people who want to take one with the robots.
Besides the unique theme, the pricing strategy also seems to work for the restaurant. As per The Hindu report, the average cost for a table of two is Rs 1000.
The duo wants to set up more branches and upgrade their robots, so that they can greet and receive guests, guide them to the table and also recognise them if they come visiting again.
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