Chinese food lovers have an extra option in downtown Springfield. But be prepared to have your lunch cooked by smart robots.
Rice & Dumpling, located 431 S. Jefferson Ave. Ste. 100-104, hosted a soft opening Feb. 9 and will host a grand opening in early March, said owner Daling Xu. The new restaurant, located next to Craft Axe Throwing, is powered by two smart robots that can cook most dishes in about four minutes.
The downtown location is just the first step in a Chinese food empire that Xu hopes to build in the Queen City. His company, Dream Foods, will open two additional restaurants in 2024 and is also planning to open four dining carts in the future.
“Our dream is to present the beautiful Chinese food to all consumers at the fastest speed and the cheapest fares,” Xu said. Xu spoke Mandarin, so he used a transcription service on his phone for the duration of an interview with a Hauxeda reporter.
Rice & Dumpling features traditional Chinese dishes, with the most popular being dumplings, fried rice served in a half of a pineapple and clay pot rice, Xu said.
Chinese food as affordable and fast as McDonald's
Xu wants traditional Chinese plates to be as affordable and accessible as a hamburger at McDonald's, and he plans to accomplish that by automating as much of the cooking process as possible, he said.
“We think that through intelligence robots, through today's technological development, we can present the most complex cooking methods into the simplest methods to these dishes,” Xu said. “I think for the future, Chinese food, like McDonald's and KFC, will become very accessible. So I think for everyone, it's all a beautiful thing.”
It doesn't come cheap. Each robot costs about $80,000, Xu said. One machine is capable of making 20,000 dumplings in an hour, Rice & Dumpling general manager Chris Smith said.
The restaurant, which will aim to employ about 18 people, is open every day of the week from 10:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m., Smith said.
Dream Foods' next restaurant is already in the works. The company has signed a lease on the building that previously housed Bair's Sports Grill at 631 S. Kimbrough Ave., Smith said. There is no timeline for Dream Foods to open the second restaurant at this time, he said.
