So, my food journey continues! In fact, it’s been a while since I visited Eatsa, so it might be nothing new to many people. Anyways, I would still like to briefly write about my experience there and some thoughts that I have after my visit.
Eatsa is known as the new robot restaurant located in the financial district in SF. Yes, that being said, you don’t have to talk to anyone at this place. Everything is automated, from ordering to picking up the food.
I went to Eatsa about an hour before it closed, so there weren’t too many people. The store has a sleek design, which fits right in the financial district. As soon as I walked in, I saw a number of iPads for food ordering and payment, and there were a few seats (about 8–10) for people to dine in, so most people probably just come here for takeouts. Well, this is nothing new, as many of us might have seen it at Specialty’s and some other restaurants. It usually starts with swiping your credit/debit cards on the machine, and then it will take you to the menu page.
The user interface of the app is certainly nice and simple (I apologize for the quality of the images). You can easily choose among bowls, sides, drinks and other items in the side bar. And of course, you can be creative and build your own bowl if you would like to, and you can always tab the last option in the sidebar (i.e. Angel’s bowls) to see what you have selected for your bowl.
The drinks are extraordinarily cheap, which makes me wonder whether it tastes good or not (unfortunately I didn’t order it).
Lastly, I just have to confirm payment to complete the order.
Picking up the food is even simpler. Basically, you just wait till your name to pop up on one of the screens (there are about 30 of them), and you can walk over, tap the screen and then pick up your delicious food.
Voila, this is what my bowl looks like! I built my own bowl, and yes, my friend thought it was an absolutely weird (I think she wanted to say terrible) combination. But, it tasted good, and the whole waiting time only took about 3–5 minutes (during non busy hours).
Food for thought
As the customer
The price of the food wasn’t too ridiculous. Every bowl starts at $6.95 and you have the option to add more sides. And as I mentioned earlier, even drinks are just $0.95 each. It is really not surprising that Eatsa is able to attract a lot of customers since it’s located in financial district. As a customer, I was very satisfied with my less than $8 order for the amount of food I got.
The food was decent as well. As a girl, I have allegedly been on diet forever. Getting food at Eatsa has certainly made me feel I am being healthy, because I was eating Quinoa instead of carbs. You can even learn how much protein and calories each bowl has when you order. This is definitely another reason that the place is able to attract many customers, because it perfectly fits San Franciscans’ healthy lifestyle.
Some people might say they don’t like the automated experience at Eatsa, because it lacks of a human touch. However, this is not necessarily a problem for me. If we think about it, how many times do we really enjoy or care about talking to the cashier when we order at a fast food restaurant nowadays? Especially during lunchtime, most of us might really just try to swallow our food as quickly as possible and go back to work. With the automated experience, I don’t have to worry about if the cashier hears me right and places a right order; I don’t have to worry about whether I have the right amount of change; I don’t have to worry about not hearing my name and missing my food. This might make more sense because Eatsa is located in financial district where everyone’s in a rush to take lunch and silicon valley where everyone embraces automation.
As the restaurant
Well, as a business, it’s not too hard to imagine the ultimate goal is to lower the cost, attract as many customers as possible and general profits.
Without reading Eatsa’s financial statements, I can’t really tell you the whether they are doing well or not, although my friend asked me a good question. She said, “What do you think of the price? Do you think it’s worth it? It’s just quinoa really”. While this is true, the first thing that occurred to me was that this is only $7.84 and we are eating in financial district in SF! She definitely has a valid point, but I think the relatively low price has certainly given Eatsa an advantage and stand out in the area, which will help them to expand its customer base significantly.
However, when I was at Eatsa, I noticed the automated restaurant wasn’t entirely automated. There were about at least 3 staff members around to clean up the place before it’s closed for the day. As a matter of fact, they didn’t seem very busy, which made me wonder is Eatsa really able to lower the cost on hiring? Based on the store size, it probably needs 2 cashiers to take orders and 1 staff member to call on the customer when the food is ready. Since there are not too many seats in the restaurant, they probably just need 1 more person to maintain the place during lunch hours, so 1 person less.
Of course, this is just my guess. However, it is not difficult to imagine why Eatsa should have some staff members around before it goes fully automated; for example, if a customer fails to get his or her food after placing the order, a staff member in the store can solve this issue right away. Furthermore, before we have a full developed robot to clean the place, a restaurant will still need people to clean the tables and take out the trash, etc.
While Eatsa is working on to truly lower the cost and generate more profits as a business, a bigger goal for the company could be to become the leader or pioneer in the automated restaurant industry.
Final thoughts
At the end of the day, we shouldn’t be surprised that the fast food ordering experience will become fully automated in the future. When I was doing research for this blog post, I came across a Time’s article on Eatsa and they mentioned the Automat which came out in the early 20th century. I bet this looks familiar right (hint: scroll all the way up)? Back in the day, people could get fresh and healthy food from these machines at Grand Central. The low price and the convenience had significantly attracted a lot of customers at that time and it was once considered a new method of “Lunching”. However, Automat didn’t work out because of the inflation at the time and the decreasing demand for fast food.
Over the past few years, we have witnessed many changes in the restaurant industry. Right now, we can check ratings of restaurants on websites like Yelp and Foursquare, reserve a table on OpenTable, reserve and pay on Reserve and so on. Down the road, we might be seeing more and more automated restaurants come out every year, and we can expect to see these restaurants eventually achieve full automation. Nevertheless, it’s critical for these new automated restaurants to understand what didn’t work in the past and how they can do better to disrupt the future.
