A restaurant in the city of Changchun, Jilin province, is getting a lot of curious responses from children when they see who’s providing the service.

The restaurant, at a corner of the Guilin and Lixin St intersection, spent a sizeable amount–more than 100,000 yuan–just to get two new helpers to deal with the personnel shortage. Too much you say? Well, hardly, since they’re robots.

A robot waiter in Changchun-based restaurant holding a tray back to the restaurant’s kitchen.[Photo provided to ejilin.gov.cn]

Zhangchao, manager of the restaurant, explains, "I was finding it really hard recruiting experienced waiters when I opened the restaurant," then adds that her "curiosity about new things" got her to thinking about hiring robots.

Zhang says she’s quite proud of her decision since two meter-high waiters have impeccable behavior towards customers, as she gazed blue and red helpers holding trays and shuttling back and forth between tables.

In their work, the special helpers follow a circular track towards assigned seats after seat numbers are given on a remote control and the time it takes to serve can be adjusted if the customer’s in a hurry.

When they arrive at a specific seat, the robots turn to the customer and greet the person politely with, "Hello! Here’s your order, and please enjoy yourself."

Then, after the guests get their food from the tray, the machines say, "Please touch my head if you don’t need anything else."

When the customer gives a pat on their heads, the robots automatically head for another guest.

What about the cost for that? In spite of the high cost, Zhangchao says she thinks they’re totally worthwhile.

"It seems to me that robots can work for more than 10 years, so they’re cheaper in the long run–and a lot more loyal. And generally, they can work from 9:00 am to 10:00 pm and need to be re-charged only every two or three days."

The Changchun restaurant has even asked its customers, especially kids, to come up with a name for the two robot waiters to give it some publicity.