How Café de Coral Uses Service Robots for Smarter Dish Collection in Hong Kong
For busy restaurants, introducing a service robot is only part of the solution.
The bigger challenge is making sure the robot fits naturally into the way frontline staff already work — especially during peak hours, when every extra step matters.
At various Café de Coral branches in Hong Kong, Novelte’s waiter system is used to support dish collection by creating a clearer and more practical way for staff and delivery robots to work together.
The Challenge: Making Robots Work with Frontline Staff
Restaurant service robots can help with repetitive transport tasks, but real restaurant environments are constantly changing.
Tables become ready for collection at different times. Staff are serving customers, clearing dishes and responding to requests. During busy periods, they need a quick way to call a robot to where it is actually needed.
Without a clear workflow between people and robots, automation can create additional steps instead of removing them.
For Novelte, the challenge was therefore not simply to deploy a restaurant robot.
It was to make the robot easier for frontline staff to use as part of their daily dish-collection workflow.
The Solution: A Simple Waiter Calling System
Novelte developed a waiter system that connects frontline staff with the service robot through beeper machines and NFC technology.
When dish collection is required, a staff member can place the beeper at the designated location to call the robot.
This creates a simple interaction between staff and robot without requiring employees to repeatedly operate a control interface or manually manage the robot’s movement.
The result is a clearer division of work: staff can focus on the tasks that require people, while the robot supports repetitive transportation within the restaurant.
Designed Around the Restaurant Workflow
The important part of restaurant automation is not simply choosing a robot with the right specifications.
The solution also needs to consider how the restaurant actually operates.
Where should the robot be called?
How should staff interact with it during busy periods?
Where are the main collection points?
How can the robot become part of the existing workflow without making frontline operations more complicated?
This is why Novelte approaches robotic projects as an operational solution rather than simply supplying a machine.
By combining robotics with a practical calling system, the Café de Coral application demonstrates how relatively simple workflow customisation can make robotic automation more usable in a real F&B environment.
What Does This Mean for F&B Operators?
For restaurants considering service robots, the objective should not be to automate for the sake of automation.
The real question is whether robotics can remove repetitive work and help staff operate more effectively.
A well-designed restaurant robotic solution can support areas such as:
Dish collection and return
Meal delivery
Movement of items between service points
Front-of-house support
Repetitive transportation during peak periods
The exact workflow will depend on the restaurant layout, operating model and requirements.
That is why Novelte starts by understanding how the operation works before determining how robotics should be introduced.
More Than a Restaurant Robot
A service robot becomes much more useful when it fits into the surrounding operation.
Novelte works with businesses to plan robotic workflows, configure the solution, deploy and manage the system, and evaluate how robotics can support operational objectives.
For F&B operators, this means moving beyond the question:
“Which robot should we buy?”
And starting with a more useful question:
“Which part of our operation should we improve?”
Considering Restaurant Automation in Hong Kong?
If your restaurant is exploring service robots, dish-collection automation or other ways to reduce repetitive frontline work, Novelte can help assess your existing workflow and identify where robotics can create practical value.
Talk to Novelte about your restaurant workflow.
