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Comment by acdanger | Hacker News Reader

Care to share what kind of restaurants are using these? I’m guessing they’re more the cafeteria-style places. My family owns a few fine dining restaurants and are constantly getting sales people trying to sell them robot food runners. It’s always an amusing sales pitch.

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Kura Sushi (https://kurasushi.com/) that's mentioned in the comments is one place, but there are also a few others whose names I can't remember in the Sawtelle Japantown. It's worth noting that Kura is highly automated and you don't have to interact directly with staff after you are seated.

All of them basically center their feel around the futuristic automation spiel.

Near me (SE Michigan), I've seen them at 3 locations total: Kura Sushi (a conveyor sushi chain that's starting to enter the market) at 2 locations, and at a small asian boba shop in Lansing named Koala Tea and Bakery. Notably the second of those seems locally owned/operated. There are probably others. I wouldn't call either cafeteria style, though they're also not 'fine dining'.

What's amusing about the sales pitch? (I'm always looking for a laugh.) Amusement is actually what I got out of the article. It was nice to shake the dystopian vibes that I associate with workers being replaced by robots. Something about the hospitality industry and (as described by the author) "bimbly" robots is light and fun.

Also curious where these robot drink servers are. I only know the (fantastic) drink-pouring robot at Two Bit Circus.[1]

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgGZQNx-qN0

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