Restaurant robots: which ones work in real kitchens

The restaurant robots with the best public record do one narrow job: frying, building bowls or carrying plates. Miso's Flippy fries at White Castle and Jack in the Box. Sweetgreen's Infinite Kitchen builds bowls in more than 20 of its stores. Robots built to make a whole pizza or run a whole store have a weaker record, and several of their makers have shut down.

The table below lists named robots, who used them and what happened, with a dated source for each. After it: what a fry robot costs by the hour, which projects stopped, and what to ask before you lease one.

Which restaurant robots are working today?

Robot	Job	Who deployed it	Status	Source
Flippy Fry Station (Miso)	Fries baskets of food	White Castle, Jack in the Box	13 restaurants across both brands in early 2025; Miso said it runs in seven states by June 2026	Restaurant Dive, NRN
Infinite Kitchen (Spyce)	Builds bowls and salads	Sweetgreen	More than 20 Sweetgreen locations; Spyce sold to Wonder in December 2025	Sweetgreen release
Infinite Makeline	Builds bowls for six restaurant brands	Wonder, Midtown East, Manhattan	Opened September 2026; expansion planned for 2027	NRN
Autocado (with Vebu)	Cuts, cores and peels avocados	Chipotle, Huntington Beach, Calif.	In-store test since September 2024; no update on the April 2026 earnings call	Chipotle release, Restaurant Dive
Augmented Makeline (with Hyphen)	Builds bowls and salads for digital orders	Chipotle, Corona del Mar, Calif.	In-store test since September 2024	Chipotle release
Servi (Bear Robotics)	Runs food and busses tables	Sold in the U.S., South Korea and Japan; no chains named	On sale; LG took a controlling stake in January 2025	Bear Robotics
BellaBot (Pudu)	Delivers orders and greets guests	Pizza Hut, KFC and Jollibee, per Pudu	On sale since 2019; Pro version launched April 2024	Pudu release
Autonomous pizza store (Agápe Automation, Appetronix)	Makes, bakes and cuts pizza, then loads a pickup locker	Donatos, Columbus airport	Opened June 2025; staff restock and clean it	NRN
Pizza Station (Picnic)	Adds sauce, cheese and toppings	Aramark, Chartwells, Compass Group, Moto Pizza	Company shut down in May 2026	NRN

Which robots have the strongest record?

Fry and bowl robots. Each works one station that repeats the same steps all day, next to staff who can take over.

Miso launched a smaller Flippy in January 2025. Miso says it is half the size of the old model, installs overnight and handles more than 100 baskets an hour. White Castle began piloting it in late 2024.

The rollout has been slower than the early plans. White Castle said in 2022 it would put Flippy in 100 restaurants, yet a Miso filing showed 13 installs across White Castle and Jack in the Box in early 2025, Restaurant Dive reported. In June 2026 Miso declined to say how many were running.

Sweetgreen built the Infinite Kitchen through Spyce, which it bought in 2021. It agreed in November 2025 to sell Spyce to Wonder for $186.4 million, with licensing and supply deals that let it keep adding Infinite Kitchens. Wonder then opened its own version in Manhattan in September 2026. It holds up to 68 ingredients, and workers add finishing touches at the end.

What does a fry robot cost per hour?

Miso's January 2025 release prices the new Flippy at $5,400 per month, with no upfront cost. The base package includes 24/7 support, a warranty and preventive maintenance; POS integration is an add-on.

The hourly cost depends on how long the station runs. Assuming a 30-day month and the $5,400 monthly price, the robot costs $15.00 per hour at 12 hours a day, $10.00 at 18 hours and $7.50 at 24 hours. Compare that with the staff hours the fry station takes today, and remember that someone still loads, cleans and watches it.

What about robots that carry plates?

Serving robots follow a mapped route from the kitchen to a table and back. Bear Robotics says its Servi carries up to 66 pounds, works a 12-hour shift on a 4-hour charge and is NSF-certified. Pudu says BellaBot has been used by Pizza Hut, KFC and Jollibee to deliver orders and greet guests.

A serving robot's job is carrying plates and dirty dishes, which gives servers more time at the table. Test it in your real aisles at full seating before you commit.

Which robot projects stopped?

• Picnic handed its assets to a liquidator in May 2026, NRN reported. Its Pizza Station launched in August 2021 at prices starting at $3,500 a month.
• Zume shut down in 2023. Miso bought its technology and patents in June 2026 and plans a pizza robot.
• Piestro, Basil Street and Chowbotics are also defunct, according to the same NRN report on Picnic.
• Sweetgreen sold Spyce, the business that makes its robots, in December 2025. It still uses the machines in its own stores.

What should you ask before leasing a robot?

1. What is the monthly price, the contract length and the cost to end early and remove the machine?
2. What does the price include: support hours, parts, preventive maintenance, software updates, POS integration?
3. What does install need: floor space, power, ventilation, fire-code review, permits?
4. How long does daily cleaning take, and who does it?
5. What uptime and repair response does the vendor put in writing?
6. How does the crew run the station by hand when the robot stops mid-rush?
7. How are menu changes loaded, and how long do they take?
8. Can we visit a restaurant with our volume that has run it for six months or more?

Where can you see a robot restaurant?

Sweetgreen runs Infinite Kitchens in more than 20 locations, Wonder runs its Infinite Makeline at Midtown East in Manhattan, and Donatos runs its autonomous store in Concourse B at John Glenn Columbus International Airport. Check each brand's site for current locations before you go.

Maple makes voice ordering software. Its phone, drive-thru and kiosk products write orders into POS systems listed on its integrations page, the same systems a kitchen robot may need to read from.

Published by Maple. This AI-assisted guide combines company press releases, vendor pages and trade news reports into a dated list of restaurant robots. The hourly cost uses labeled assumptions. We did not test these machines, and the guide does not promise any result from them.