JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Have you ever had a robot deliver food to your table at a restaurant?
Jacksonville's Yi Liu Hot Pot is taking eating to the future! Get your stomach ready for their Chinese hot pot, Korean BBQ and sushi.
Yi Liu Hot Pot is located at 12777 Atlantic Boulevard. From the moment you walk in you can tell you're in for an experience. Tables have space for cooking and burners on them.
"This is like a different type of restaurant," said Manager Mandy Yang.
First, you pick out your meats at the buffet for the Korean BBQ.
"You can get whatever you want from the buffet table to cook yourself," Yang explained.
Hot pots of broths will be on burners on your table. You can grab noodle and vegetable add-ins from a conveyor belt bringing around individually wrapped bowls.
"Whatever you want you just cook yourself," Yang said.
Do not be intimidated; if you can plop stuff in the water, you can do it.
"'Cooking for myself? No way!'" Yang said about what some customers say when they first come in. "But when they sit down they say, 'oh that's fun!' They know how to cook it. It's very easy. Try to think about it, 'is this spice working?' or 'this spice taste good?' Different people, they will cook different ways."
Yang says "Yi Liu" means "excellent," which is why the logo is a thumbs up. First Coast Foodies definitely gives them a thumbs up too!