Maybe this cat-faced robot is the future of restaurant dining

Picture this. You’re having dinner at your favorite restaurant in Philly, anxiously waiting for your food to come out. The next thing you know, a robot named Bella with cute little cat ears and four shelves of food is dropping off your meal.

A future where robots are serving you dinner is not as far away as we think it is. It’s here, actually: EMei, a restaurant in Chinatown, recently introduced Bella the Bot as part of its staff.

Bella the Bot is a service robot manufactured by Chinese company Pudu. RiceVan, a Callowhill-based food distribution company that got its start in 2020, is the distributor of Bella the Bot in the Philly area. EMei, RiceVan’s sister company, got a Bella bot to test it out, according to Eric Rosenfeld, president and partner at RiceVan.

Bella the Bot includes features such as 3D sensors, an RGBD depth camera and light effect displays to communicate different settings. Bella’s new TikTok account shows her in action as she navigates this restaurant:

@bellathebots

#HavaianasLivreDeCliches

♬ BORN FOR THIS – Foxxi

Rosenfeld said there are still only a few Bella Bots in the Philly area, including another one in Montgomery County and one in Maryland.

Dystopian? Maybe. (Note the humans-are-over language on the Bella website touting the robots’ “personality traits” as “No co-worker drama” and “I never steal,” referring to a professional population devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic.)

But Rosenfeld said the goal is not to entirely replace restaurant staff with these robots, but rather, to act as a support system.

“It is a supplement and a way to fill labor shortages,” he told Technical.ly. EMei and other restaurants “have had huge hiring struggles over the past year and it’s not letting up.”

Service robots are also not just for the restaurant industry. You may have seen them in other fields where labor is short, such as hotels, casinos and nursing homes.

One of these days, Bella could be serving you your meal.

Sarah Huffman is a 2022-2024 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The Groundtruth Project that pairs young journalists with local newsrooms. This position is supported by the Lenfest Institute for Journalism.