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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

ramen

Take a Peek at TechMagic’s Robot Ramen Restaurant in the Heart of Shibuya

Last year when I visited Tokyo, I ate at a fully robotic pasta restaurant called E Vino Spaghetti. from a Japanese startup called TechMagic.

Built by a Japanese startup TechMagic, the restaurant’s pasta robot was able to make a plate of pasta in less than two minutes from the time an order was sent in via the digital order kiosk. The robot prepped the sauces and toppings, heated the noodles (which are pre-cooked and frozen, standard for noodle and pasta restaurants), combined it all in a spinner, and then delivered the meal down along a conveyor belt to the plating station where a human added final garnishes and did a final quality check. The machine also cleaned the prep bowls when it was done.

Building an almost entirely automated restaurant that pumped out a place of pasta in less than two minutes was an impressive trick for a young startup for TechMagic, so much so that I suggested that maybe when I returned to Japan this year for Smart Kitchen Summit Japan, the company may have another robot restaurant in Tokyo to show off.

And lo and behold, they did! The latest restaurant powered by a TechMagic is called Oh My Dot, an automated ramen noodle restaurant in the Shibuya district. The way it works is you order your ramen via a touch screen, choosing from a variety of different flavors ranging from sesame to spicy hot soup to curry. Once your order is entered, the robotic arm starts picking up the flavor modules and dropping them into the ramen cup. From there, the broth and noodles are added, and the last stop for the cup of hot ramen is with the human server to add garnishes and make a final quality check before it’s handed over to the customer.

You can watch it all below in a video shot by The Spoon’s Smart Kitchen Summit Japan partner, Hiro Tanaka:

As I wrote last year, the idea to build food robots first came to TechMagic founder Yuji Shiraki when he visited his 90+-year-old grandmother. Shiraki saw she could not cook for herself and so started to think about how a home cooking robot might help her. However, he soon realized that Japanese kitchens were too small to build the type of robot he envisioned, and he started thinking about building robots for restaurants. It wasn’t long before he quit his job as a management consultant and founded TechMagic.

That was five years ago. Since then, the company has raised $23 million in funding (including a $15 million Series B last September), received a patent for its pasta-making robot, and plans to create its own chain of robot-powered franchise restaurants.

In addition to the ramen robot restaurant, the company also was showing off a new stir fry robot, which you can see below (also shot by Tanaka).

Yo-Kai To Debut Desktop Ramen Robot For Space-Constrained Retail Formats at CES 2023

Yo-Kai Express, a startup that makes autonomous ramen robots, will debut its latest model at CES, a desktop ramen-making machine targeted at small-format retailers such as gas stations and co-working spaces.

The new machine, called the YKE Desktop, is a semi-automatic cooking machine that makes a bowl of ramen in 90 seconds. The machine is paired with an RFID-enabled freezer that holds up to 24 bowls of ramen.

“We are pleased to debut our new product : Yo-Kai Desktop, the new terminal with a smaller form factor, which can be installed anywhere – remote office, gas station, convenience stores, co-working space,” said Andy Lin, founder and CEO of Yo-Kai Express. “It’s a semi-automated machine that provides our customers more flexibility.”

In addition to showing off its newest model at CES, the company will demo a new app that enables customers to order ramen remotely. The app, which will be released to the public in the spring, allows customers to earn loyalty points, discounts, and rewards.

The news follows a busy fall for Yo-Kai, in which they expanded throughout Japan, raised additional funding, and partnered with the Japanese robotics giant Softbank to enable an integration with server robot Pepper.

For those interested in checking out the new Yo-Kai machine, they will be in the Food Tech Pavilion at CES at booth 53114.

Autonomous Restaurant Startup Yo-Kai Express Expands in Japan, Announces New Investors

This spring, Yo-Kai Express ramen vending machines showed up at Tokyo Station, Haneda Airport, and Shibaura Parking Area. During its Japanese debut, the company worked with Ippudo to sell bowls of the hugely popular ramen chain’s noodles through its automated mini-restaurants.

And sell noodles they did. According to Yo-Kai CEO Andy Lin, during the first week, the Tokyo station machine sold a hundred bowls of ramen per day. That strong demand apparently impressed Ippudo enough to not only greenlight more Yo-Kai machines distributing their ramen in the near future, but to also invest in the company.

The news of the expanded relationship was shared as part of a press conference and on-stage session at SKS Japan on Friday in Tokyo. In addition to the news of Ippudo’s investment (through its parent company Chikaranomoto Holdings), Yo-Kai also shared that Japan Tobacco (JT) would be participating in the funding round. JT has a significant processed food business, and Yo-Kai will begin selling the company’s TableMark udon noodles through its vending machines. The total capital invested by the two companies via the Series A round was not disclosed.

According to Yo-Kai CEO Andy Lin, both companies see Yo-Kai as a way to connect to new customers in places where they might not otherwise reach.

“We are their extension,” Lin said. “They don’t need to spend the capital. We are their micro-store.”

Yo-Kai’s Japan country manager Keiji Tsuchiya told me that CPG brands like the idea of using Yo-Kai to trial new food concepts. He said while established food companies with well-known brands might be slow to launch a new product through traditional channels, they can trial new products much more quickly and easily with Yo-Kai. Some, said Tsuchiya, even launch a “virtual” brand concept on Yo-Kai to see how consumers respond.

“For a Japanese food company, selling products with their own name brand is a long process,” Tsuchiya said. “They need to get board approval to start something. It takes one to two years. But with a virtual brand, it’s much easier.”

According to Lin, Yo-Kai plans to expand its Japan vending machine footprint from the current total of three to ten in the near future. They also plan to continue to expand in the US and are talking with other large brands in places such as Korea about entering their market.

Get Ramen Delivered to Your Door, Courtesy of Yo-Kai Express’ New Meal Kits

Yo-Kai Express, makers of the automated ramen vending machines, launched a new ramen meal kit delivery service today.

Sadly, the new service is only available in San Francisco, Alameda, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. So if you don’t live in these parts of the Bay Area — no ramen soup for you!

Menu items include Japanese Black Garlic Tonkatsu Ramen, Japanese Asari Ramen, and Korean Spicy Seafood Jjamppong Ramen with most meals costing $10.99 and $11.99. Yo-Kai is also selling add-ons like tea and coffee drinks as well.

Yo-Kai’s menu was actually created by a Michelin-star chef (if you have the chance to try their vending machine, I highly recommend). With the mail order kit, Yo-Kai will send you the pre-portioned ingredients and provides you with the instructions for making the meal.

According to the Yo-Kai store’s website, there is free shipping on orders over $60 and meals ordered before 5 p.m. will deliver the next day between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Meals ordered after 5 p.m. will be delivered in two days.

This is an interesting move for Yo-Kai, given the current state of the world. The company had placed vending machines in high-traffic areas like the SFO airport, the Metreon in downtown San Francisco and other corporate campuses. But given California’s shelter in place order, those locations aren’t so high-traffic any more, and who knows when things will return to the normal level of activity.

Adding a mail order kit option gives Yo-Kai and entirely new line of business catering to people who have to stay at home. They are also carving out a nice lane for themselves by focusing on ramen. It’s like getting a restaurant meal delivered, without paying exorbitant delivery fees (though you do have to cook it).

A Yo-Kai is a Japanese spirit that can appear anywhere. With these new meal kits, Yo-Kais ramen can now magically appear at your doorstep.