Waiters Are Changed Into Robot in Germany

Germany has given the world many great inventions: the aspirin, the airship, the diesel engine. But surely it’s never produced anything as weird as this. From Nuremberg comes the automated eatery.

The restaurant I’m in has no waiters serving the tables. Instead there are metal tracks crisscrossing the cafe, like a giant helter skelter and using gravity to bring food direct from the kitchen in the roof to your table. I can see bottles of wine whizzing down from above, supersonic sausages speeding along, too. This is ‘fast food’ - German style.

There, that’s the sound of a pork schnitzel arriving at our table. The ordering process is fully automated, too. There are no waiters hanging around with paper and pencil. You use computer touch screens to browse the menu and select the dishes.

But what’s the point? Well, the German inventor who came up with the concept says cutting out the waiters makes the restaurant more efficient. Thinking about it, I suppose it works out cheaper for the customers, too. After all, in this restaurant, there’s no one to tip!