Cat robots are serving guests at these Myrtle Beach area restaurants. We’re not kidding
Cheerful Latin music plays as a pair of cat-faced robots deliver steaming plates of fajitas to wide-eyed diners at Adela’s Mexican Kitchen in North Myrtle Beach.
“Hello your food is here,” a feminine voice purrs from it’s speakers as the robotic server, pointed ears glowing blue and red, approaches the table.
Reach out and touch one of those glowing ears, and “Bella” or “Bobby,” the names given to these feline androids will respond with a wink of the eye on the whiskered display. “Don’t touch my ears, just pet my head.” The friendly bot emits a little giggle to let you know it’s just joking.
The robotic “food runners” are closely followed by human restaurant staff members who carefully move the meals from the bots four shelves and distribute the food to the customers.
The two Bellabots developed by the ToDo Robotics company have recently arrived on the Myrtle Beach dining scene, where they are making a big impression on visitors, according to Adela’s manager Alejandro Navarrete.
“We have had a big response.” he said, “Kids love it and they keep bringing families back.”
How do the robots work?
Adela’s Mexican Kitchen first introduced the robots at their Lancaster, South Carolina location and now have them in all three restaurants including North Myrtle Beach, and Waxhaw, North Carolina.
According to the ToDo Robotics website, the Bellabots use 10 cameras and lidar to navigate their way around busy restaurants, their sensors helping them avoid collisions and find their way to programmed tables.
Using artificial intelligence, the robots can interact with customers with hundreds of vocal responses and graphic facial expressions.
Navarrete says that in addition to their entertainment value, the robots provide for additional safety for his staff by carrying hot plates that may burn human hands. The bots also make his staff’s job easier by carrying eight plates at time reducing their number of trips in and out of the kitchen.
While response to the cat bots have been mainly positive, Navarrete says he has seen some social media posts concerned that automation could replace server positions.
Navarrete insists that is not what is happening in his restaurant. “It’s another tool for my crew,” he said.
Where else can you visit with a Bellabot?
Stars and Strikes Getaway-n-Play, an entertainment complex that opened last year at the Coastal Grand Mall is also using new technology to entertain and serve.
The high-tech facility reportedly costs $10M and features laser tag, arcade games, bowling, and ax throwing, allowing visitors to make food selections via large touch screens in their entertainment areas.
The refreshments are then delivered to the table or bowling lane by their own pair of feline Bellabots.
In addition to Adela’s and Stars and Strikes, a recent TikTok video shows Dumpling and Seafood in Myrtle Beach using one of their Bellabots to deliver food and the restaurant staff confirms that they have single robot server on duty at their location in the Galleria Shopping Center off Lake Arrowhead Road.
Myrtle Beach foodies can look forward to a new-style restaurant.
The Mura Restaurant, Bar & Cafe, will serve Korean-inspired small plates, along with teas and cocktails via a conveyor belt that runs around a central bar.
Diners will pick small plates of Asian favorites right off the moving conveyor as it passes. Their plates, ranging from $4 to $11 a piece, are then tallied and added to a tab.
Chun said the concept was “just for people to have fun, like, you don’t know 100% what’s to be expected.”
