alexander...
First, let me say that I've enjoyed some of your own
answers, particularly the one to "Geo-location of IP
addresses".
This question really attracted my interest, and was
a pleasure to research.
I found a restaurant in Las Vegas, that seems to match
your description, called the "China Grill Cafe and Zen
Sum", at the Mandalay Bay Hotel. Here's the description
by Columnist Muriel Stevens of the Las Vegas Sun:
"This veritable paean to the electronic age has a large
counter with conveyer belts that pass dim sum on
colorful plates (a la sushi bars in Japan). The server
totes up the tab by the color of the plate."
"Camera-toting robot carts carry plates of dim sum around
the dining room, stopping when a diner approaches.
Dally too long when choosing and the "server" will spur
you to act by offering such proverbs as 'The road in
life has many choices ... please step aside so that I
may follow this one.'"
'China Grill Cafe calls itself a "futuristic brasserie."
In addition to the dim sum there are more than 60
moderately priced specialties, including those
succulent barbecued lamb ribs -- appetizers, satays,
grilled pizzas, salads, noodles, wok dishes and
grilled and roasted items."
"Video monitors throughout Zen Sum serve up financial
news, fashion, advice on foreign culture, live videos
of world events, and even vignettes of Zen philosophy."
"This late night dumpling haven is open from 11 a.m. to
midnight Sunday through Wednesday; 11 a.m. to 1 a.m.
Thursday through Saturday. Dress is casual."
http://www.lasvegassun.com/dossier/gaming/mandalay/restaurants.html
Another automated restaurant is in Philadelphia, PA.
Stephen Starr reports on it in the PodRestaurant site:
"At the oval, 34-seat white sushi bar, a conveyor belt
delivers fresh sushi directly from the kitchen. Above
the sushi bar, a large, 60-inch video screen shows
non-stop Japanese animation that includes a full-range
of action from the 1960s classic Speed Racer to a
robot making sushi."
http://www.podrestaurant.citysearch.com/5.html
The latter restaurant does not seem to have the
qualifying 'wandering robot' serving appetizers,
as does the China Grill Cafe.
Searches done, via Google:
restaurant entrees robot
://www.google.com/search?num=50&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=restaurant+entrees+robot&btnG=Google+Search
If there's some way I can improve on this answer,
please feel free to request a clarification prior
to rating the answer.
sublime1-ga |
Request for Answer Clarification by
alexander-ga
on
07 Dec 2002 14:48 PST
sublime,
I'm pretty sure that the China Grill Cafe / Zen Sum is indeed what I
was thinking about as far as the robots, so know that you've already
got a five star answer.
I think I might have been confusing more than one restaurant, though,
so I'm still in need of more information. $10 tip for you if you can
find a restaurant (again, SF area? but maybe not) that serves a
variety of appetizer-sized portions in the sushi/dim sum style of
"take what you like and we'll charge you later according to how many
plates you took", but with the food not being primarily Asian in
origin. Again, the intent is to make an entire meal out of several of
these dishes, so serving regular entrees is not the main focus, if
even an option at all.
|
Clarification of Answer by
sublime1-ga
on
07 Dec 2002 17:29 PST
alexander...
The Yank Sing restaurant, while using carts vs conveyor
belts, is one of the highest-rated dim sum restaurants
in San Francisco, per the reviews found here:
http://www.yanksing.com/about-reviews.htm
The ordering process is described here, specifying
that they have no formal menu:
"Yank Sing has over 100 varieties of deem sum (with
some 60 varieties served daily). Unlike most
restaurants Yank Sing has no formal menu. Food
servers go through the restaurant with carts
carrying freshly cooked deem sum. To order,
simply point to the particular item you desire on
the cart passing by your table and the food server
will transfer the plate of deem sum from the cart
to your table. You can sample shrimp, scallop,
duck, chicken, beef, pork, and vegetable dishes
all in one sitting. If you want a specific item
that is not on the carts, the food server or your
waiter will be more than happy to bring it out to
you."
http://www.yanksing.com/our-ordering-by-cart.htm
The selections do seem to be primarily Asian in
origin, however, as sampled here:
http://www.yanksing.com/our-menu-sample.htm
And I have to add this glowing review by Jacqueline
M. Newman, editor-in-chief of Flavor and Fortune:
http://www.flavorandfortune.com/dataaccess/article.cfm?ID=58
...and this one, on CitySpin.com:
http://www.cityspin.com/sanfrancisco/dining/edits/e801Yan0.htm
According to the Japan-US Business Report, the
chain called GENKI SUSHI is making its debut in
the USA with a conveyor-belt sushi bar in New York:
"A restaurant chain whose trademark is a conveyor belt
that displays and delivers sushi to diners seated at
a counter has opened its first U.S. outlet. The New
York City location is the first of what GENKI SUSHI,
which has 120 outlets in Japan, expects to be a broad
expansion into the American market. Genki's "beltway"
is stocked and restocked with two dozen varieties of
sushi as it passes through the kitchen. Customers
make their selection as the belt passes them every
two minutes, with their bill determined by the number
of empty color-coded plates."
http://www.jei.org/Archive/BR97/333x/333.html
But, according to Tim Ruel, of the Honolulu Star
Bulletin (as of July 2001), they are still scouting
locations in San Francisco.
http://starbulletin.com/2001/07/03/business/story2.html
Without the "conveyor belt" phrase to narrow things
down, a search for [restaurant "dim sum" "San Francisco"]
returned 5,520 results! So I narrowed it down by adding
the phrase "no menu". This resulted in several more reviews
for Yank Sing, which I added above, and little else that
was useful.
Then, I tried:
[restaurant "dim sum style" "San Francisco" "no menu"]
and got 0 hits.
Finally, I tried:
[restaurant "dim sum style" "no menu"]
and only got 1 hit, for a restaurant in Vancouver.
I'm out of ideas, but now I'm dying to eat at
Yank Sing! It sounds wonderful!
Searches done, via Google:
restaurant dim sum "conveyor belt" "San Francisco"
://www.google.com/search?num=50&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=restaurant+dim+sum+%22conveyor+belt%22+%22San+Francisco%22
"GENKI SUSHI" "San Francisco"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22GENKI+SUSHI%22+%22San+Francisco%22&btnG=Google+Search
restaurant "dim sum" "San Francisco"
://www.google.com/search?num=50&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=restaurant+%22dim+sum%22+%22San+Francisco%22
restaurant "dim sum" "San Francisco" "no menu"
://www.google.com/search?num=50&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=restaurant+%22dim+sum%22+%22San+Francisco%22+%22no+menu%22
restaurant "dim sum style" "San Francisco" "no menu"
://www.google.com/search?num=50&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=restaurant+%22dim+sum+style%22+%22San+Francisco%22+%22no+menu%22&btnG=Google+Search
restaurant "dim sum style" "no menu"
://www.google.com/search?num=50&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=restaurant+%22dim+sum+style%22+%22San+Francisco%22+%22no+menu%22&btnG=Google+Search
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