The future is here: At this new Pineville restaurant, you’ll find robots serving the food

Heidi Finley
·2 min read
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Yiding Hot Pot has quietly opened in The Centrum shopping center in Pineville with a big surprise: robot wait staff.

Yes, you read that right. A pair of robots named Wall-E and Eve — stacked with four shelves each — move the food from the kitchen directly to your table. The shift to robotic servers is part of a growing trend aimed at filling labor shortage gaps that have been plaguing the restaurant industry in recent years, CBS News recently reported.

Yiding Hot Pot owner Wenda Wang told CharlotteFive that the robots are “very helpful to the restaurant to reduce the labor,” and he thinks customers will be interested to see the Chinese technology at work. Wall-E and Eve are Keenon Dinerbots that use an AI-based pathway system develop routes through restaurants.

At Yiding Hot Pot, you pick a broth, then load your meal up with ingredients such as noodles, fresh veggies and seafood. When your order is ready, a robot built with shelving moves the plates to your table so you can begin cooking it all together.
At Yiding Hot Pot, you pick a broth, then load your meal up with ingredients such as noodles, fresh veggies and seafood. When your order is ready, a robot built with shelving moves the plates to your table so you can begin cooking it all together.

Yiding Hot Pot’s food

At the new Pineville restaurant, you can order a base broth — such mildly spicy Yiding Mala, extra spicy Classic Mala or Yiding Mushroom — then select the meat, seafood or vegetables you want in your hot pot.

The broth comes out first, and you’ll crank up the heat on your table to bring it to a boil. While you’re waiting for your hot pot ingredients to arrive, you can browse the sauce and toppings bar, where you can grab a few extras to help craft your creation. Among the 20-some options include crushed peanuts, scallions, oyster sauce, soy sauce and cilantro. Edemame and seaweed salad are available on the bar, as well.

Wall-E delivers tableside service at Yiding Hot Pot.
Wall-E delivers tableside service at Yiding Hot Pot.

Soon after, Wall-E or Eve will glide through the restaurant and deliver your meal, along with the help of human wait staff, who move the dishes from the robot to your table.

Sodas, Asian drinks such as Wong Lo Kat and Snow Pear Juice, and beer are on the menu to help wash it down.

The atmosphere

Clean and crisp modern decor sets the tone for the family-friendly restaurant, which is accentuated with blue LED lighting along the seating banks, and pop music plays at a comfortable volume in the background.

The dining room at Yiding Hot Pot.
The dining room at Yiding Hot Pot.

Shelving sits along each table to help clear your dining space of the many plates that can stack up with hot pot orders.

Karaoke is available with a private room reservation, which you can make online or by calling 704-919-0420. Walk-ins are welcome for dine-in service, but reservations are also available.

Yiding Hot Pot

Location: 10610 Centrum Pkwy, Pineville, NC 28134

Menu

Cuisine: Asian, Chinese, hot pot

Instagram: @yiding_hotpot