Jackpot Express opens new robot-powered restaurants

A burgeoning Brisbane restaurant company is opening entirely contactless eateries where robots cook your food

The future of food is here with new robot-powered restaurants to open in Brisbane.

From the team behind popular Brisbane-based Asian eateries Jackpot Dining comes Jackpot Express, an Australian-first culinary concept combining technology with convenience.

New Asian restaurant to move into iconic Brisbane CBD site

Best of Brisbane 2020: Top 10 vegan restaurants revealed

The Gold Coast cafe with 32k Instagram followers and a 30-minute wait

The new eateries operate as a unique takeaway concept, doing away with qualified chefs and cooks and instead producing everything from dim sims and spring rolls to fried rice and laksa using custom-built, robotic kitchen equipment.

The new Jackpot Express in Buranda, which will use robotic kitchen equipment.

Designed by the Jackpot operators, the machines precisely cook each dish based on temperature and time, delivering consistent results almost every time.

To ensure everything operates smoothly and address any mishaps, however, a human supervisor is on hand.

Making the concept even more extraordinary is the ordering and collection process.

Diners either order via an app on their phone or at an on-site kiosk and are given a QR code, which unlocks a locker where their food awaits.

The kitchen inside the new Jackpot Express where robotic kitchen equipment cooks the food ready to be put inside a locker where the customer then uses a QR code to open it and collect their order.

“We kind of got the idea from the Australia Post parcel pick-up lockers and we thought maybe we can combine that idea with food,” said director David Wang.

Costing almost $500,000 to create, the concept will be rolled out to 10 locations across Brisbane by the end of next year, with an operation in Fortitude Valley to open before Christmas and another to open in Buranda, in Brisbane’s south, in January. A trial store has already opened in Brisbane City’s Post Office Square and serves a whopping 200 meals in just three hours a day.

The restaurants feature lockers for food collection and an electronic kiosk where you can order.

With the entire concept contactless and using QR codes, Mr Wang said it should prove particularly popular with COVID.

“COVID actually helped us to promote the idea because people don’t need to be taught how to use QR codes or the app because everyone is using apps and it’s contactless so it’s safe,” he said.

Mr Wang said if the 10 Queensland stores did well, he hoped to take the idea into Sydney and Melbourne, with big shopping centres to be their main focus.

As well as the new Jackpot Express Outlets, more Jackpot Dining venues are also planned, with full-service restaurants in Newmarket and Carindale to open before Christmas serving the same menu as the Toombul venture and with a similar fit-out.

The new Jackpot Dining in Carindale.