| Sunday, October 08, 2006 |
| Robot Kitchen review |
This week, we trekked across Hong Kong to check out a new restaurant that we've blogged about recently. It's called the Robot Kitchen and is based in Park Central, a shopping centre in Tseung Kwan O.
We'd heard that the restaurant is staffed by robots, which take your order, serve the food and entertain the guests. Sounds like a fascinating idea, but does it really work? We went along to find out for ourselves.
We found the restaurant pretty easily. The shopping centre, Park Central, is just 100m from the metro ( Tseung Kwan O MTR exit B2) and the restaurant is on the food court level (1st floor) at the opposite end from the MTR.
As we approached the restaurant, there was what looked like one of the robots in the doorway. But it had a rather simple covering of shiny paper and was standing still, so I assumed it was just a cardboard cut-out model. I was surprised to learn later that it was in fact one of the main robots on show. Not sure what I expected it to be doing, though, and I guess it makes sense for them to tempt people in by positioning 'Robot One', as they call him, at the door.
Soon after we sat down (a human showed us to our table), a guy came up to us to take our order. It said on the menu to let the staff know if you want to order with the robot, so we did. It felt a bit strange saying "We'd like to speak to the Robot"! But the guy said the Robot only speaks Chinese!
Our food arrived, delivered by a human. We didn't ask why! I think we must have conveyed some disappointment, because the staff then produced the dancing robot. It was pretty impressive, doing cartwheels, bird impressions, press ups and even standing on its head. Every now and then it stopped to bow. We'll post a video soon, but here's a photo for now.
Then I think one of the staff spoke to the robot at the door because it slowly circled the cafe and headed straight for us. I think the waiter might have spoken the table number to the robot.
We had a chat to one of the staff and found out that just have to say the number and letter of the menu item. We could just about do that, so we might try ordering from the robot next time we visit.
Then the lady spoke in Chinese into the robot's mic and sent it back to the door. On the way it managed to avoid all the chairs out in the aisle using its sensors. It has a couple on the front, as well as cylindrical things with transmitters on the walls to help it get its bearings. Looked impressive but an easy task for most humans. The robots won't be taking over just yet.
There was a girl in the restaurant talking to the robot, and it was responding to her. 'Lei ho' (hello), she said, and it responded with the same. And when she said 'Happy birthday' in Chinese, the robot started singing! It also said 'bye bye', and it even understood me when I said it, and repeated it back to me. It helped that the expression is the same in English and Chinese.
They also had a dog like animal that Helen thinks is a T rex.
The food tasted pretty good, which is always a good thing in a restaurant, however cool the waiters are. We had pasta & pizza.
So, the Robot Kitchen comes highly recommended for a bit of fun, but don't expect ground-breaking technology. We'll be back. |
posted by Mike & Helen @ 10:55 PM   |
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| 2 Comments: |
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Yay -- thanks for posting about this! I can't wait to go there for myself and give my order to the Cantonese-speaking robot!
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I think it's time to head back to robot heaven and test out my cantonese...
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Yay -- thanks for posting about this! I can't wait to go there for myself and give my order to the Cantonese-speaking robot!