Fully automated restaurant opens in Germany
By Conrad Quilty-Harper 
posted August 27th 2007 5:02AM
posted August 27th 2007 5:02AM
[Via The Raw Feed]
posted August 27th 2007 5:02AM
A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
I'm sorry, but this has got to be the dumbest idea I've ever seen. How are you gonna tell a machine hold the mayo? But on the bright side some hacker will find a way to get into the machine and dispense free beer.
Maybe it's got a chat function built in which could also be the way a hacker could get shell access?
I imagine you would uncheck the "Mayo" option.
And what if it does not taste right? How are you going to explain to the chef, "It doesn't taste right" "Waiter theirs lead solder in my soup..."
Damn Robot wasn't wearing a hair-net.
C'mon folks. At McD you also cannot tell the chef 'IT does not taste right', or ask for more mayo.
You sure as hell can ask for more mayo at McD, as well as say to a person it doesn't taste right. (and with any luck get a million from a jury of your peers)
Not that those remarks aren't stupid of course, if you want human interaction you goto another place.
@Raven - there's still a kitchen staffed with humans.
Also, maybe it's just me, but "Garcon" is NOT something you'd yell in the middle of a German restaurant. Ever.
Right, you also won't yell at your "ordinateur" - I think someone mixes France and Germany here... ;-)
("Garcon" = "Ober" and "Ordinateur" = "Computer" in German)
also an "ordinateur" certainly is not a commonly used device in
german-speaking countries ;-)
Something tells me that the "garcon" comment is actually alluding to Pulp Fiction rather than the country the restaurant is in. According to my recollection Pulp Fiction was also set in the USA - not the most common country to hear "garcon" in a restaurant either.
Interesting, but the idea is not completely new.
In Japan, there are some sushi restaurants that have automated.... don't know how to call it. Something like moving tracks for sushi plates.
Tables are set on both sides of the tracks, and you can order everything you need on individual touchpads that are set on each table. Or you can just pick something interesting that is moving along the track. (orders are marked to avoid people getting it)
After you finish eating, you just insert the dishes on a special slot that will calculate the price of your meal, and will use another track to take 'em back to the kitchen.
I've been eating there and I have to say the system is far from perfect. The cooking pots, which are supposed to slide to your table, often get stuck somewhere on the rail system which sucks. The girls (that are constantly all over the place to collect the TONS of dishes generated by the customers) have to take sticks to push the pots further down the slide. When the pot arrives at the table, it usually does so at the wrong end where people you don't know have to play the dispatch-game.
At least the IT-System is funny: When you put - let's say - 500 Cokes into your shopping cart, the rest of the place can't order any coke anymore.. until your cart times out. We also managed to crash the Application and surf the internet thanks to the Windows XP Onscreen Keyboard ;-) I'm almost certain you could log onto you neighbors machine via RDP or even reroute the cardreaders...
Dude... seriously... messing with computers is one thing, but messing with someone's hunger is another.
I do believe if I was eating there and my food got put on hold because some kid found a way to play doom on the menu... well... I'd probably have a fat-guy-fit and start killing people.
=(
Link to their website:
http://www.sbaggers.de/main-ger/?sid=home&lang=en
And videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M9eiZ_wSfI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6O18Qd1TD0
Some pubs in Japan have touch screen menus on each table, however, the food and drink is still delivered the old fashion way. I'd rather have the cute waitress bring me my beer than it arrive via some chute.
It's more fun to compute
I've been wanting to do this since I started working in restaurants in high school. I figured I would make a bunch of money in the dot-com era and pump it into a techno restaurant. Yeah, that never happened.
Is this a response to Germany's extremely high labor costs or a garish novelty? I'd prefer to get my lazy butt out of a chair for a nice buffet or (upscale food) cafeteria style meal.
mhh... why is everyone reporting about this now.
the restaurant opened nearly 5 months ago. (Unfortunatelly I wasn't there until now... I'm living about 20 km away from it)
They've had automatic restaurants as far back as the 50's.
No humans to serve food, No tips :)
Reminds me of Automats, which, of course, aren't quite as sophisticated.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automat
Microsoft should open one of these in Seattle (or anywhere) to show off the power of their Surface computer.
It looks like the Cafe 80's, where its always morning in America, even in the afternoon! Wheres a virtual Ronnie Regan (or since we are in Germany, a virtual Helmut Kohl) to serve me Pepsi.
Garcon means boy.
Why go to Germany, when there's a Wawa around the corner? Their system works pretty well, and you can customize a sandwich the way you want.
This is so Cafe'80s
Anyone remember the Denver airport automated baggage handling fiasco? Lets hope this works better than that one did...
Hopefully it won't randomly toss food off the tracks!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denver_International_Airport#Automated_baggage_system
It's not completely automated, but Fritz' Railroad Restaurant in KC (no website, but see here for a nice description) has been doing something like this since the 1970s, and human interaction is pretty limited. You order via telephone, and the food is delivered via a funky overhead rail system called the Skat Cat. Actual humans bring the drinks, which you'll appreciate once you've seen the Skat cat in operation. You pay an actual human at the register. Less geeky, but undoubtedly more fun in a retro way. Plus, this German abomination doesn't have the Gen Dare (a burger topped with hash browns, grilled onions, and cheese).
oops. Left out the link:
http://tevis.net/home/story/fritzs-railroad-restaurant/
And since this place is in Nuremberg, I bet their equivalent of the BSOD says "I was only following orders!"
Seriously, though, I think I would go in the restaurant to take a picture and then leave and eat somewhere else. I like the idea of the advanced sushi bar XSportSeeker mentioned, though.
It's just a giant, eat-in vending machine.
Actually it's "Garçon"
Kinda reminds me of a Horn and Hardart Automat. They still have this kind of dining in Germany.
Looks a lot like the Cafe 80's from Back to the Future 2