Hi there. In this short technology & food based post, I cover the topic of conveyor belt hot pot restaurants.
The motivation of this post was from this Vlog Video where the Indian Youtuber, her husband and child are dining in Shanghai, China at a hotpot restaurant. The restaurant is called Crazy ShuanBa. You can find the hotpot section of the video is from 4:59 to 11:28. Diners are seated side by side with a conveyor belt in front of where you are seated. Every diner has their own personal cooker with a hotpot bowl. The conveyor belt contains a wide variety of bowls of ingredients that you can use for eating or for cooking in your own hotpot bowl.
Youtube screenshots are included in this post.
No Waiting With A Conveyor Belt
This conveyor belt is nice as there is no need to call for a waiter to order ingredients. The food is right there in front of you and it is up to you if you want to try it or not. I do like seeing food before deciding to try it out at buffets, cafeterias and cart service dimsum places.
The video also shows that there is a section in the restaurant. where you can go to for adding sauces, herbs and spices to the personal hotpot bowl.
There are no waiters shown in the video but there are cleaners. It is not fully automated.
Other Places Doing Conveyor Belt Hot Pot Restaurants
After some research, there are other places that are doing hot pot restaurants with a conveyor belt. It is kind of crazy how I am finding out about this now as this conveyor belt restaurant idea has been around for a few years.
Here are the links. All of them are Youtube videos except the last one.
This article below mentions that this conveyor belt hot pot restaurant is in Toronto. It is actually located in the city of Markham which is just north of Toronto. Technically, it is not in Toronto. I guess the writer wanted more clicks or something.
Not Just Hotpot & Conveyor Belts
While I do feature hot pot restaurants with a conveyor belt system, the system can be used along with sushi, dimsum and even cheese. Here are some more Youtube videos that adopt the conveyor belt system.
Sushi Conveyor Belt Restaurant
CONVEYOR BELT SUSHI in JAPAN // $1 SUSHI ALL YOU CAN EAT!!!
INCREDIBLE Conveyor Belt SUSHI Experience at Kurazushi | Kyoto, Japan
World's first cheese conveyor belt restaurant is every foodie's dream come true | GMA Digital
Beef & BBQ Conveyor Belt Restaurant (in Japan) || 回転焼肉松坂牛
I do like the conveyor belt restaurant idea. Once seated, the food is out there for you choose and eat. Some natural concerns I do have would be pricing structure, waiting times before being seated and of course food quality. I can see this type of restaurant be more of a trend. How big would this be? I wouldn't know.