Service and cleaning robots for cafes and restaurants

The honest figure is about one and a half waiters, not the five in distributors' advertising. The robot takes the legwork with dishes and dirty crockery, but it will not change a tablecloth, brush away crumbs or talk to a guest. It relieves the shift of routine, while service stays with people. Promising to replace five staff is a route to disappointment after the purchase.

Saving on the service team makes sense at high footfall — food courts, office building canteens, cafes in malls with 300-400 guests a day. At low footfall a robot is more of a marketing magnet than a saving. Tell us your footfall and format and we will run the numbers for your case: where this is about money and where it is about publicity.

Not necessarily, and that has to be checked in advance. A threshold, steps, narrow gaps between tables, an old lift, weak Wi-Fi — any of these will stop a robot. That is why we survey the venue before delivery. So you do not buy a robot that gets stuck on the first threshold.

There are hidden items and we do not hide them: the tray and brushes need regular cleaning, real working time is up to about 13 hours a day, and the charging dock is often sold separately. That is the honest cost of ownership, which buyers usually do not expect. We show it on the product page before the deal so there are no surprises in operation.

On sharp manoeuvres, acceleration and braking a robot can spill full glasses and soups — that is a real limitation, not a detail. So for full service involving liquids a robot is a worse fit than for running covered dishes and clearing crockery. We pick the scenario for your format honestly rather than promising it will carry anything.