There is a new restaurant in Nuremberg, Germany that does not have any waiters. Instead, the restaurant is fully automated with a "rail" system that brings food to each table via a network of steel rails from the kitchen.
"Dishes like "organic beef in buttermilk" and "sausage en croute" glide along the rails to customers, propelled by gravity.
For the magic to work at all, Mack had to install the kitchen directly beneath the roof of the multistory restaurant. Customers order their meals using a touch-screen system that is placed at each table, and the entire restaurant is networked via a computer system.
Customers' orders are registered upstairs in the kitchen and a computer in the cellar keeps track of supply stocks. The system also calculates the likely delivery times for drinks and meals at every table and keeps customers informed.
The setup is more reminiscent of a post office sorting room than a traditional restaurant, which might offend some gourmets. But Mack believes there is a global market for his new invention. His gravity feed rail system is patented in Germany and he is seeking protection for the invention internationally so that he can license it to restaurants abroad."
Only down-side I can think of is what if I don't want my meal too spicy or I dont want gherkins in my burger? How do you tell a computer that?
Words and Images from Spluch.