At a newly opened restaurant in Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi province, the kitchen is staffed not by human chefs, but by robots. The Weikong Robot Restaurant opened its doors on August 15. Covering an area of nearly 500 square meters, the venue is divided into a robot-operated restaurant and a Future Living Pavilion, marking a significant step in the integration of intelligent technology into everyday dining. The restaurant, a joint venture between the Wanbailin district government and Shanghai Xunlong Robot Technology Co, is the first in Shanxi to offer a highly automated dining experience. The establishment has automated the entire process from ordering to cooking, serving, and dish collection.
Zhang Pan, Chief Technical Engineer at Xunlong, said that most existing robot restaurants rely on fixed equipment and pre-programmed processes, which limit their flexibility. “Our wheel-based dual-arm robots are highly adaptable, mimicking human work patterns and operating independently of fixed equipment locations,” he said. The system is meticulously configured to ensure consistency in every dish by controlling cooking temperatures, the adding of ingredients, and seasoning quantities, he said. This technological precision guarantees that each meal meets the everyday dining needs of consumers. Customers can simply scan a QR code at their table to place an order, which is then automatically relayed to the backend system. The dual-arm robots spring into action, retrieving bowls, selecting ingredients from the refrigerated storage, and transporting them to the cooking station. The cooking robot then autonomously handles the entire cooking process, from electric heating to the sequential addition of ingredients and stir-frying.
One customer was impressed by the dining experience and said watching the entire process was fascinating. Another customer expressed excitement at the prospect of such robots entering home kitchens. The restaurant’s open kitchen, where robots handle food without human intervention, alleviates concerns about kitchen hygiene. The restaurant’s manager said that the system took over three years to develop, with the team overcoming significant technical challenges in robot cooking. Despite the high-level automation, human involvement remains essential. “Robots handle repetitive tasks like stir-frying and washing pots, but humans are still needed for initial ingredient preparation, equipment checks, and troubleshooting,” said Ma Xiaoli, an employee at the restaurant.
The Future Living Pavilion features a wellness robot area providing massage and health monitoring services, as well as a snack zone where visitors can watch robots make coffee, ice cream, and traditional pancakes. According to the recently released “2026 China Cooking Robot Industry Development White Paper”, the market for cooking robots in China reached CNY38.1 billion in 2025 and is expected to exceed CNY125 billion by 2030, highlighting the immense potential for growth in the smart dining sector. In the short term, cooking robots are not expected to replace human chefs, but they will drive a transformation in the culinary profession. “Chefs of the future will focus more on assessing dishes and ensuring that they meet taste standards,” Zhang Pan said, as reported by the China Daily.
