If you dine at Cynthia’s Paradise in Newmarket, don't be surprised to have your food delivered to your table by an unusual server.
A robot "dressed" in a fancy suit may bring your food on trays to your table, smiling at you with a cat’s face on the digital screen. The robot chimes happily to announce the arrival of your food and asks you to receive it. When you take your food from the designated tray, it motors away to deliver food to the next table.
“It’s pretty unique and it’s a very good gimmick for the restaurant,” owner Andy Lam said. “So far, customers, they’re taking pictures, video.”
Robot servers have been making their way around the GTA in recent years. About 17 restaurants in York Region have started using the robot servers, including Cynthia’s Paradise and Swiss Chalet at Yonge-Greenlane in Newmarket and Boston Pizza in Aurora.
The servers come from a China-based robots company called Pudu, which features a range of robotic devices. The model that Cynthia’s Paradise and several other locations used is the BellaBot, which promises “superior human-robot interaction capabilities.”
“Featuring an innovative bionic design, cute appearance, multi-modal interaction, and many other new functions, BellaBot provides users with an unprecedented food delivery experience,” Pudu said on its website.
Lam said Cynthia’s Paradise has used the robot for more than two years now and it has been a success. When he saw it at other restaurants, Lam said he felt it would be good to adapt.
“The most important thing is people, they love it,” Lam said.
The robots can navigate through restaurants by themselves, going from table to table to deliver orders. But it requires instruction, with some human input to address which food is going where and what tables to visit.
“You still have to have people to watch the robot,” Lam said, adding that sometimes customers will grab the wrong tray. “It’s not 100 per cent. I would say, sort of saving labour, 50 per cent only.”
The robots are not close yet to replacing the need for human servers, he said.
“They are not armed for service,” he said. “If a customer asks for something else, I don’t think the robot can do it right now. This type of robot, it’s only delivering the food.”
But he added the technology is being worked on and will get better over time.
The robots come at a hefty price tag, about $30,000 each, though there is the possibility of a lease agreement, Lam said. For now, one is enough for his restaurant, Lam said.
And one is enough to bring joy to his customers, he said.
