Lawson expands the territory of its robo chefs as they expand their menus.

You can get plenty of hot meals at convenience stores in Japan, but they usually have a cold start. Head on over to the refrigerated shelves, and you’ll find an array of pre-made bento boxes, rice bowls, and noodle sets. Pick one out and take it up to the register, and after you’ve paid for it, it can be heated up in the store’s microwave.

But things are different now at certain branches of Japanese convenience store Lawson, where as of this month, you can get freshly stir-fried yakisoba noodles…that are cooked by a robot.

Tokyo-based tech company TechMagic’s I-Robo 2 has actually been cooking up meals at Lawson since the summer of last year, when it started out with fried rice and mixed vegetable stir-fry. It’s since expanded its repertoire, though and now can whip up yakisoba with pork, carrots, and cabbage.

▼ Lawson’s robo-cooked yakisoba

Because the machine can cook at higher temperatures than would be safe for a human chef (it stir-fries its fried rice at over 300 degrees Celsius [572 degrees Fahrenheit], for example), the cooking process is very speedy, taking only around 90 to 150 seconds.

And to be clear, this isn’t simply reheating or finishing off an already partially cooked dish. After you place your order, either via the in-store terminal, your phone, or directly at the register, a Lawson employee loads up the robot with the necessary ingredients for what you’ve selected, then packages your meal up for you when it’s ready.

Counting all the variations (with or without pork, regular or double-sized, and with or without fried chicken as topping for the fried rice), Lawson’s robo cook can prepare a total of 13 different dishes. Prices range from 499 to 1,099 yen (US$3.29 to US$7), a little on the high end compared to pre-made convenience store fare, but not bad for something freshly cooked to order.

The first Lawson with an I-Robo 2 cook was the Kita Otsuka Icchome branch in Tokyo’s Toshima Ward. The second was the Ebina Chuo branch in the town of Ebina, Kanagawa Prefecture, whose cooking robot was installed on August 6. The Yokohama Tarumachi Sanchome (Yokohama, Kanagawa) and Koto Shiomi Icchome (Tokyo) branches will be getting theirs on August 27 and September 17, and if they prove popular, expansion to even more branches will likely follow.

Source: Lawson via Impress Watch
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