Haidilao Plans to Open an Outlet in S’pore with Robots in 2019

By now, we should all have been to Haidilao right? If you haven’t, you’re living in a well.

I’m sure we are all familiar with the exceptional customer service provided by the staff at the steamboat restaurant. The prawn-peeling and the ramen-twirling are a part of what makes the HDL experience so great.

And as if the current service isn’t enough, HDL is planning for an “intelligent” restaurant in Singapore by 2019. Steamboat lovers, you can look forward to a personalised soup base that is catered to your tastes by keying in your taste preferences to the smart system.

Not a big fan of spiciness? No problem! Key that in and you no longer have to repeat your order when you revisit. The smart system will recall your preferences.

Just this month, HDL celebrated the opening of its first “intelligent” restaurant in Beijing.

Instead of the usual 2 legged human waiters, robots are now in charge of taking orders, preparing and serving food, as well as collecting payments.

HDL reports that this system allows it to cut back on 37% of its kitchen labour cost.

Upon entering the restaurant, you can expect to see the “automatic dish machine”, which dispenses pre-packaged dishes from the smart warehouse to the robot servers. The robot servers will then bring the dishes to you.

Please don’t stop spoiling me, Haidilao.

Clean or Not

Not sure if you still remember but I do, very vividly.

Last year, Haidilao had a series of scandals–operations were suspended due to unhygienic food handling practices. Like?

A HDL worker slicing a watermelon without gloves, resulting in the above response from the NEA.

And also, a serving of beancurd did not pass its hygiene tests. Wait, what?

Clearly, the NEA inspector was going:

So the first question that popped into my head when I heard that robots are replacing human waiters at HDL was, clean or not?

Just kidding.

You don’t have to worry. According to Gogo News, the smart restaurant enables temperature to be controlled and food items to be confined, so that food served will be kept fresh and clean.

Under the InSight Knowledge Management Systems (IKMS), HDL is able to track data with regards to its food, such as the expiry dates of ingredients. HDL also hopes to improve food safety level through the automation system.

Also, the warehouse (that’s the one in China) has a warehouse so cold, rats and cockroaches won’t be able to survive in there.

That’s right, HDL. That hygiene issue took you long enough.

But of course, we’re all wondering the same thing: HDL is popular for its service. Now that robots are taking over, what’s its unique selling point?

Watermelons?