Robot Restaurant in China Handles Cooking, Serving, and Cleaning

Walk into a restaurant in Hangzhou right now, and you might not see a chef shouting orders or servers rushing plates. Instead, you’ll find robotic arms cooking noodles, machines pouring coffee, and delivery bots gliding between tables.

Hangzhou’s first “AI robot restaurant” has officially begun trial operations, offering diners a glimpse of what a fully automated dining experience could look like. The venue, called the “24 Solar Terms AI Robot Restaurant,” began trial operations on Jan. 13 in Sandun Town, West Lake District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province.

The restaurant spans two floors and is designed to be run mostly by AI-powered robots. According to reports from People’s Daily and CGTN, robots handle nearly every part of the dining process — from cooking to cleaning.

Robots cook, serve, and even clean

Inside the restaurant, multiple types of robots work together in sync. A noodle-cooking robot lifts ordered noodles, boils them, and places them into bowls. Nearby, a coffee-making robot pours drinks with smooth, programmed precision.

A noodle-cooking robot. Credit: CGTN

The dining area stays busy with floor-cleaning robots and food-delivery machines moving between customers.

Restaurant manager Cai Haitang explained just how much work the machines take on. He noted that they have a total of eight robots that handle the entire process, from taking orders to cooking, serving, and cleaning up, according to People’s Daily.

Haitang added that robots now cover more than 60% of the restaurant’s operations, leaving only a few humans on staff for accounting and preparation.

Taste still matters, even in a robot kitchen. One highlight is the stir-frying robot, which adds ingredients and sauces step by step before controlling the wok with precision. The system has been trained using chef movement data and has undergone extensive testing.

A coffee-making robot. Credit: CGTN

The goal is to ensure consistency and speed while maintaining flavors that are close to traditional Hangzhou cuisine, renowned for its light, delicate flavors.

Local resident Li Zexin seemed convinced after sampling the stir-fried greens and shiitake mushrooms. “It’s quite delicious,” he told the outlet. “It feels like it was properly stir-fried in a pot. It’s chef-level flavor.”

A sign of China’s growing robot dining trend

This Hangzhou restaurant is part of a growing shift toward automated dining in China, driven by labor shortages and a push for efficiency. With about 10 robots already operating in the trial phase, the restaurant is being seen as both a dining spot and a showcase for Hangzhou’s growing robotics industry.

Similar concepts have appeared in cities like Shenzhen and Beijing. It also echoes a global experiment. As noted in a report by the Houston Chronicle, a robotic Asian-fusion restaurant called iWok is set to open in Houston, Texas, this month, using automated woks to cook dishes like orange chicken to order.

Back in Hangzhou, the trial run seems to be proving a point: robots can work together to run a busy kitchen. The food delivery robot even adds a personal touch to the automated experience: “Sorry to keep you waiting!”

Also read: Humanoid’s HMND 01 Alpha shows how quickly robots are moving from trade-show spectacle to real industrial work.