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Hot pots galore served by robots land at the Grand Canal Shoppes this winter when X Pot opens near SushiSamba. The restaurant, previously called Xiang Hot Pot, brings robot servers, 360-degree projections in high-def, interactive light shows, and themed sounds to accompany the thousand-year-old hotpot tradition of Sichuan hot pots.
Founders Haibin Yang and David Zhao of Chubby Cattle fame in Chinatown bring the restaurant with its Asian fusion dishes, complete with A5 Wagyu beef and certified Kobe beef dry-aged for 100 days in a case in the dining room. Customers then can select the quality and level of meat, based on how long the beef has been aged.
Diners also select and cook their own ingredients, ranging from meat and seafood to vegetables, and cook them at communal tables.
The X Pot’s smart-robot technology delivers each dish to the table in conjunction with human servers. Even the menus come in Chinese, English, and Spanish.
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