Revenge of the robots

I recently bought food from vending machines prepared by robots. They are quick, convenient, and do the job.

1) Yokai Express

Located at The Metreon in San Francisco, Yokai offers a number of different types of ramen. I settled for my favorite shoyu ramen with chashu pork. It came piping hot in under 3 minutes in a compostable bowl.

The bowl was on the smaller side and contained mostly ramen, two/three very thin slices of pork, corn, scallions, and naruto. The soup had little flavor. Vending machines aren't supposed to sell tasty menus but for a US company trying to penetrate the Asian market, this has a good shot. At $14.99, pricing is on the steep side since a fresh bowl of ramen costs about the same.

This will be a tough sell in food cities but has potential as a convenient quick bite that doesn't have the staleness taste of a protein bar. The overall rating is 7/10. Multiple locations in the US.

2) Creative Burger

Located in a strip mall, this robot whips up customizable burgers. It acts more of a kitchen helper in dispensing sauces and condiments, grills patties, and assembles burgers. Though human interaction is still needed in toasting the bun this does take a bit longer to make.

For those familiar with In-N-Out burgers, Creative Burger will taste like a cheap imitation. the beef is smaller than the bun but tasty. Best to eat hot as the bun tends to get hard. The burger costs under $8 which is not a bad deal for what it is but I came away hungry for more. The overall rating is 8/10. Address: 514 Westlake Ctr, Daly City, CA

3) Kura Sushi

It's hard to classify this as a robot since all it does is serve water and condiments but as robots already prepare sushi in Japan, this is a good startstart hishis robot is so cute, I named them "Sally the server." She plays cheerful music when she comes, pirouettes, then shows the tray. I don't know why I like this robot the best. Maybe because of the least expectation from the simplest task or the enormous potential of mobile robots that interact directly with customers.

The overall rating is 9/10. Multiple locations in the US.