Robot server delivers meals at east Edmonton restaurant
At Tambayan Ni Kabayan restaurant in east Edmonton, one server stands out from the rest. That’s because she stands on two wheels. Peanut is a robot, who rolls to the beat of her own tunes, and greets customers with a smile and a wink.
“They bring their kids and they want the robot, 'I want the robot to serve our food,' so they're really, really happy,” owner Joe Baddas told CTV News Edmonton.
“It's easy because the customer, after they grab their food, we just press OK and it will say, ‘Thank you, have a good meal,’ and it will go back to the kitchen.”
Baddas says the family-owned restaurant invested in Peanut to bring in new business.
“During pandemic time it's really slow, so we for a small business like us, we cannot afford to hire servers and everything like that,” he said.
“We wanted just to innovate and get more customer, especially for the teenagers, they are more on the social media.”
It was a big investment for the small business, but one that’s paying off.
“It’s really nice. It’s amazing,” one customer said. “My son, four years old really like it.”
Baddas says Peanut can be customized to deliver personal service.
“If they have birthdays or something like that we can customize.”
“We just press happy birthday and the robot will go, ‘Happy birthday, happy birthday,’ and keep on singing.”
Peanut the robot server.
Peanut doesn’t just sing and deliver food to the table, she can also take empty plates away.
“It’s like everything. The serving and bringing back all the plates and everything. So it really helps,” Baddas said.
KEENON Robotics, the company that makes Peanut, says it sold more than 100 robots in Canada in the past two years.
The company, which is Chinese but has distributors in Canada, expects to see sales climb with a labour shortage here.
In addition to server robots they sell cleaning robots, hospitality robots, and advertising robots.
Prices range from $25,000 to $40,000.
While Baddas is happy with Peanut and everything she brings to the business, he says he won’t be getting rid of his human servers any time soon.
“Some people, especially for the teenagers, they love the robot and the kids, but for the older people they want some interaction.”
With files from CTV News Edmonton's Nicole Weisberg.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'They needed people inside Air Canada:' Police announce arrests in Pearson gold heist
Police say one former and one current employee of Air Canada are among the nine suspects that are facing charges in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year.
House admonishes ArriveCan contractor in rare parliamentary show of power
MPs enacted an extraordinary, rarely used parliamentary power on Wednesday, summonsing an ArriveCan contractor to appear before the House of Commons where he was admonished publicly and forced to provide answers to the questions MPs said he'd previously evaded.
Leafs star Auston Matthews finishes season with 69 goals
Auston Matthews won't be joining the NHL's 70-goal club this season.
Trump lawyers say Stormy Daniels refused subpoena outside a Brooklyn bar, papers left 'at her feet'
Donald Trump's legal team says it tried serving Stormy Daniels a subpoena as she arrived for an event at a bar in Brooklyn last month, but the porn actor, who is expected to be a witness at the former president's criminal trial, refused to take it and walked away.
Why drivers in Eastern Canada could see big gas price spikes, and other Canadians won't
Drivers in Eastern Canada face a big increase in gas prices because of various factors, especially the higher cost of the summer blend, industry analysts say.
Doug Ford calls on Ontario Speaker to reverse Queen's Park keffiyeh ban
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is calling on Speaker Ted Arnott to reverse a ban on keffiyehs at Queen's Park, describing the move as “needlessly” divisive.
'A living nightmare': Winnipeg woman sentenced following campaign of harassment against man after online date
A Winnipeg woman was sentenced to house arrest after a single date with a man she met online culminated in her harassing him for years, and spurred false allegations which resulted in the innocent man being arrested three times.
Woman who pressured boyfriend to kill his ex in 2000s granted absences from prison
A woman who pressured her boyfriend into killing his teenage ex more than a decade ago will be allowed to leave prison for weeks at a time.
Customers disappointed after email listing $60K Tim Hortons prize sent in error
Several Tim Horton’s customers are feeling great disappointment after being told by the company that an email stating they won a boat worth nearly $60,000 was sent in error.