Robots are serving customers at these Indianapolis restaurants
Who would have thought the latest in food service tech would be found in an old Bob Evans restaurant?
But at the new Tian Fu Asian Bistro, 7525 E. Washington St. –— a converted Bob Evans structure — diners are being served Japanese, Chinese and Thai food via robot.
Actually, the robot glides through the restaurant delivering food to tables after human servers have taken the orders.
In some cases, the diners pull their own dishes from the tiers of trays the robot carries, being warned about plates being hot. In other cases human servers remove the dishes and place them before customers.
Tian Fu Irvington’s robot, standing at about 4 feet with cat ears and a digital cat face, made its debut with the June 22 opening of the eatery. But another robot had already been put to work at the original Tian Fu at Pyramid Place Shopping Center, 3508 W. 86th St., for the past five months.
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A third machine soon will be added to the mix — all manufactured by China-based Pudu Robotics — said Tian Fu owner Liming Shi.
The rationale is two-fold.
There’s the whimsy of having tech deliver food.
“A lot of kids like it. Kids love them because it’s a robot,” said Shi’s son Jonathan Chen.
And then there’s the more pragmatic aspect of addressing staffing challenges in a tight labor market. It can save servers trips back and forth to the kitchen, Shi said.
“Right now it's really hard to hire employees. The robots can help make the job easier,” she said. “During busy times, they can spend more time with the customers.”
Although slow to be adopted in the Indy area, more establishments are turning to robotic servers.
Chick-fil-A is using them at some U.S. locations, and Chili's tried a robot server at restaurants in 2020 but did away with the last year.
K-Town Korean BBQ & Hot Pot, which opened in March 2023 at 9350 Michigan Road in Indianapolis, has a robot server, primarily for drinks.
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Tian Fu’s robot in Irvington uses vision sensors to bring food to tables on tiered trays.
The robot rolls to the table, announces its arrival and waits as its delivery is removed, before bidding the table adieu and gliding back into the kitchen area to await another order.
Some diners say and wave "goodbye" to the machine.
Merle and Marilyn Tomkins enjoyed the novelty of a robot bringing their food order to the table; something they hadn’t expected when they decided to stop in for lunch Monday.
“It's different,” Marilyn Tompkins said. “When I saw it bring out somebody else's food, I thought, ‘Oh, that’s cute!’”
Diner Nathaniel Zorich though said he’d seen some older customers less than enamored with the gizmo.
“There was one man who, after it came and he got the food off of there, the robot had paused a little bit,” Zorich said. “And he’s like, ‘OK, you're done. Get out of here!'”
Contact the reporter at 317-444-6264.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indianapolis restaurant robots delivering food to diners at these spots
