Love Chinese hot pot, but always wished there were fewer real people around and more robots? You’re in luck, as The X Pot plans to move into the Roosevelt Collection Shops (150 W. Roosevelt Road) in the South Loop. According to founder David Zhao, opening is set for May or June of 2020.
Zhao and co-founder Haibin Yang are not kidding about the robots. “We’ll have robots that are similar to Roombas going around the restaurant to make the experience smoother,” says Zhao. “They’ll be the food runners, and any empty dishes we’ll also put on the robots.”
This is not the first time Zhao has integrated technology into a restaurant concept. He’s also the co-founder of Chubby Cattle, another hot pot restaurant chain that has a refrigerated conveyor belt that delivers all the ingredients.
But he’s aiming even higher with The X Pot. Along with the aforementioned robots, he’s billing this place as the “second interactive dining 5D projection experience in the United States,” after the first location of The X Pot opens in Las Vegas later this year. What does that mean? Zhao says that the restaurant will feature “groundbreaking technology to add to the immersive dining experience” which will appeal to all your senses. “There will be music playing, visual projects on the walls and on the tables, interactive ingredients that you touch, and obviously smell and taste coming from the food.”
This is a pretty ambitious concept and while we're super skeptical of gimmick restaurants - we're hoping the food is as good as the tech.
Curious to see where this comes in at Roosevelt Collection. Does anyone know?
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