Meals ready in 3 minutes, a cup of coffee in 30 seconds: AI chefs are taking over your dining table
Robotic arms stir-fry dishes, robots mix cocktails... In 2026, AI is rewriting the "wok hei" of Chinese cuisine.
In a restaurant in Yizhuang, Beijing, robots known as "silicon-based chefs" each perform their own duties, making burgers, pancakes, grilled skewers, coffee and milk tea with ease. Even band performances, serving tea and water, and bartending at the bar are all handled by robots.
In small community stores on the streets of Zhengzhou, Henan Province, 6 intelligent cooking machines are lined up in a row. One employee can operate 4 machines at the same time, and 4 meals can be served in 3 minutes.
(Source: Filmed by Dianchetong)
Such scenes are unfolding in more and more cities. Stepping into the back kitchen, standing behind the bar, taking over services... AI is fully penetrating the catering industry.
01. In 2026, a large number of AI restaurants are emerging in the catering industry
The catering industry in 2026 is beginning to advocate a "sense of the future".
Robot Flame Lab 2.0: Bringing sci-fi movies into reality
In Yizhuang, Beijing, Robot Flame Lab 2.0 was re-launched after completing an upgrade in April this year. When you walk into the restaurant, the humanoid robot "Xiaoqi" which masters multiple languages greets guests warmly. Ordering area, dining area, interactive experience area, cooking area... From the greeting at the entrance, to the service after sitting down, to the cleaning when leaving, robots take over all links. A diner wrote on a social platform: "It's like walking into a canteen in 2030."
Source: Netizen sharing
It is worth mentioning that this place has almost assembled the "full-category robot army" of the catering industry. There are all kinds of robots, including hot dog robots, ice cream robots, three-in-one coffee, milk tea and bartending robots, beer and cola robots, etc. From staple food to desserts, from soft drinks to spirits, all are freshly made by robots.
Source: Netizen sharing
After the meal is served, the food delivery robot equipped with a robotic arm and LiDAR delivers the food to the table accurately; after the meal, the wheeled dual-arm cleaning robot automatically completes the recovery of plates and wipes the tabletop without manual intervention.
On social platforms, the "full-sense experience" link frequently mentioned by netizens is the live performance of the robot band. The guitarist, bassist and drummer are all robots, playing classic tracks in real time with the rhythm. Some netizens even specially shared how to capture the "sense of the future": "The Grammy slow-motion shooting robot can generate movie-level blockbusters instantly".
Source: Netizen sharing
Guoquan Chinese Stir-fry: Transforming Chinese cooking skills into background data
Also in April this year, the world's first store of Guoquan Chinese Stir-fry opened on Fuyuan Road, Zhengzhou. Yang Mingchao, Chairman of Guoquan, defines it as a composite model of "supermarket-catering integration", where the store not only retails quick-cooking food packages and seasonings, but also provides fresh stir-fry services. And the "fresh stir-fry" here is handed over to robots.
Source: Dianping
In the open open-kitchen, 6 intelligent cooking machines are arranged, which can cook complex Chinese dishes such as Geleshan spicy chicken, chopped pepper fish head, and big plate chicken. The serving time is concentrated in 1-3 minutes, and one employee can operate 4 machines at the same time.
Source: Dianping
The ultimate serving efficiency brought by intelligent cooking, superimposed on the supply chain advantages of Guoquan, has brought the per capita consumption of Guoquan Chinese Stir-fry to around 21 yuan. According to Dianping, Guoquan Chinese Stir-fry has opened three stores in Zhengzhou.
Source: Dianping
Emergence of smart canteens: AI is taking over group dining kitchens in batches
In addition to smart theme restaurants, a number of smart canteens have been rolled out across the country in 2026.
The Beijing Xinfadi Digital Smart Community Canteen, which opened in June this year, receives more than 600 person-times per day on average. The AI dietary system will automatically pop up dietary prompts according to the diners' allergens and dietary restrictions.
Source: Internet
In the Xixiang AI Smart Canteen of Shanghai Minhang Vocational Technical College, the robotic arm automatically cooks noodles, adds soup, adds toppings, and serves the food, the whole process takes two minutes, realizing unmanned back kitchen.
Source: Internet
Xixi Subdistrict Qiuzhi Community Future Canteen in Hangzhou, Jingkai Canteen of OPC Artificial Intelligence Industrial Park in Wuzhong District, Suzhou, Liuyuan Restaurant of Huanggang Normal University, Government Canteen of Jiang'an District in Wuhan, Longgang Hongmeng Smart Canteen in Shenzhen... From universities to communities, from industrial parks to government agencies, the reduction of labor costs brought by AI and the stable realization of standardized product quality have become a new direction that group catering, fast food and other enterprises are competing to layout.
Source: Internet
Head brands follow up: collectively access AI applications
A clearer signal for AI catering in 2026 comes from the collective follow-up of head brands.
In February, KFC launched the AI intelligent ordering Agent "Xiao K", which is built based on Alibaba's Tongyi Qianwen large model, users can complete ordering and payment through voice; in June, KFC further accessed the Tongyi Qianwen APP, becoming the first catering brand to access it. Mixue Bingcheng followed up soon after.
Source: KFC APP
Also in June, Yum China debuted the "full-chain AI + robot operation system" at the Blockchain Expo. Aiming at the manual pain points in the supply chain sector, in this system, robots replace manual labor to carry out "goods-to-person" picking operations in a cold storage at minus 18 degrees Celsius.
In July, the AI Lucky Agent created by Luckin Coffee made its debut at the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference. It connects the super application ecosystems such as Tongyi Qianwen, WeChat and Alipay, consumers do not need to manually browse the menu, and can complete all operations including product selection, taste customization, payment and order placement in one stop through voice interaction.
Xiao Caiyuan exerts efforts on the back kitchen side. As of April this year, more than 660 stores have been equipped with intelligent cooking equipment, with a total of about 3000 units put into use.
From ordering to supply chain, from front-end experience to back-end operation, head brands are pushing AI from "single-point efficiency improvement" to "full-link collaboration". In 2026, the starting gun of this competition has already sounded.
02. Behind the bustle ahead, there are a group of invisible "promoters"
AI restaurants are blooming everywhere, and head brands are following up one after another. When we see dining tables changed by AI, undercurrents have long been surging behind the scenes.
1. Capital is rushing into the market
Capital has always had a keen sense of smell.
Just recently, Zhigu Tianchu, an intelligent cooking robot enterprise, officially announced the completion of a strategic financing of nearly 100 million yuan. This round of financing is led by China Merchants Venture Capital, followed by Transition Capital, and old shareholders including Yunqi Capital and Qifu Capital have over-subscribed for additional investment.
Source: Zhigu Tianchu
Prior to this, Zhigu Tianchu has completed multiple rounds of financing. Including the seed round financing in 2019, the angel round and angel+ round in 2022, the Pre-A round and A round in 2025, and the A+ round financing in May 2026.
Behind this is that Zhigu Tianchu has achieved profitability with a set of "cooking robot hardware + AI digital cuisine large model". At present, Zhigu Tianchu is one of the few cooking robot enterprises in the industry with revenue exceeding 100 million yuan and achieving profitability.
Tracing back further, in April, another huge financing of 300 million yuan was completed in the cooking robot field.
Deerobot, the world's first enterprise to complete AI recipe generation and large-scale promotion, announced on April 1 that it had completed 300 million yuan in financing, led by the Industrial Upgrading Fund managed by Yizhuang State Investment, followed by Amber, Jiu'an and Haitang. This is also after Deerobot received investments from well-known