Located in Kunshan, eastern China, the restaurant relies on over a dozen machines for tasks such as greeting customers, waiting on tables and cooking basic meals. The eatery becomes the third café in the world to rely on the use of robot employees, potentially giving a glimpse into how future businesses could operate. Speaking to a local newspaper, owner Song Jugang explained that the robots cost around £4000 (≈6600 USD) – the same as the yearly pay for a human employee. There are drawbacks to using the robots which is why Mr Jugang still relies on humans, hiring a handful to work in the kitchen and cook dishes too complex for their mechanical countrparts. The futuristic machines have a limited vocabulary and take two hours to charge enough to complete a five hour shift but give an insight into how far robot technology has come.

This photo taken on August 13, 2014, shows a robot carrying food to customers in a restaurant in Kunshan. It’s more teatime than Terminator – a restaurant in China is electrifying customers by using more than a dozen robots to cook and deliver food. (Photo by Johannes Eisele/AFP Photo)
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