Foodtastic - Smart Food Court?
The Foodtastic food court at Choa Chu Kang Ave 1 was unveiled back in May. Despite staying nearby, I never got to visit it until now. Foodtastic is unlike most other food courts in Singapore. What is so special about it? Let's take a look.
Right at the entrance is the ordering station, where you interact with large touchscreens to place your order. You get the same variety of food as regular food court, from western food and Muslim food to sandwiches and dessert, and all of them can be ordered from one machine.
After ordering your meal, take a seat and wait for your food. There are a gazillion TVs around the food court, but they do not show any TV channels. Instead, they display the the food menu, as well as orders that are ready for collection.
When your food is ready, your order number will appear on the TVs. Just in case you are busy on your phone, a voice will also call out your order number. (It gets really annoying after a while) Proceed to one of the counters to collect your food.
Enough tech for now. How is the food? I tried the grilled fish with herbs and it was a little salty but pretty tasty, especially with the lemon butter sauce. All food is prepared in one kitchen, with the exception of Muslim food (cooked in a separate kitchen) and ready-to-eat food.
Once you are done with your food, you can return your tray at the tray return station. If you are eating Muslim food, you can also return the trays to an automatic tray return robots. Sadly, they were not in operation when I was there.
Before I left Foodtastic, I noticed something familiar. Remember the cute autonomous robot cleaners in my Changi Airport T4 visit? They are here too. Say hello to Elmo the robot cleaner!
Foodtastic gives us our first glimpse at the future of food courts, but they are not alone. Very recently, Koufu brought really cool-looking automatic tray return robot to a couple of their food courts. Looking forward to seeing more smart food courts in Singapore!
