Hong Kong's Restaurant Queues, Handled

Fig. 01 · line under observation

A ReplaceYouBot humanoid unit standing in line

Most jobs need a mind. This one just needs a humanoid robot that won't quit.

Queuing costs you an hour of your Saturday. Take it back and spend it on people instead. See your friends. Ring your parents. Your kids would quite like to know what you look like. Meanwhile a humanoid robot stands on the hot pavement in your place, and it couldn't care less. No feet to ache, no phone to go flat, no view on the humidity. It waits exactly where you left it until your table's ready.

Book a robot I run a restaurant

Never bored

Ninety minutes outside a tea house on a Saturday is a long time to be standing about. The unit hasn't noticed.

Never distracted

It won't nip off for a coffee and come back to find the group behind it has closed the gap.

Never needs a break

It stands where you left it, in the heat and the rain, until the table is yours.

How it works

Sequence · four steps

Tell us where

Name the restaurant and the time you want to sit down. Central, Sham Shui Po, or a shop with no sign on it. All the same to us.

A unit takes the spot

A humanoid arrives ahead of the rush, joins the line, and takes a ticket if the shop hands them out.

It holds, you don't

Our queue-holding models keep the unit in position and moving up with the line. You get a message when you're close.

You swap in

Walk up, take the place, sit down. The unit steps out of the line and goes to hold the next one.

Where it works

Dim sum & tea houses

The queue starts before the shutters go up on a Sunday. A unit can be out there at six, holding a paper number while you sleep.

Roast meat & noodle shops

Eleven seats and a line that moves in bursts. There is nothing to it but standing on a narrow pavement and paying attention, which suits us.

New openings & hyped kitchens

Opening week is everyone in the city having the same idea on the same morning. Send a unit at ten and turn up when it is your turn.

Anywhere else a line forms

Egg tarts, a pop-up in a car park, a stall with one wok. If there's a line, there's a place to hold.

Questions people actually ask

Answered · four questions

Is it actually a robot?

Yes. There's no person standing in for it and no driver hidden nearby. The unit in the queue is running on ReplaceYouBot's own automated queue-holding models, the same one in the photos above.

How much does it cost?

We haven't set a price yet. This is a live pilot, and the booking form asks what you'd consider a fair hourly rate rather than quoting one. Nothing is charged today.

What happens once the line moves?

The unit reads the queue and moves up with it like anyone else waiting. Once your table is close, you get a message and walk over to take the place.

Do I have to stand there myself?

No, that's the whole point. Book a unit, name where and when, and go spend the hour on something better. It holds your position until you walk back.

Which one are you?

Two ways in. Pick the side that sounds like you, fill that one, and ignore the other.