Cost pressures force closure of UK's first 'robot-themed' restaurant
The restaurant, which launched in Milton Keynes’ Theatre District in August 2020, blamed a combination of ‘steeply rising prices’ and ‘declining revenue’ as being behind the closure.
A statement posted to the restaurant's website said: “Robotazia’s days have come to an end, and the company and its venue are forced to close.”
Robotazia was billed as ‘the UK’s first Sci-Fi robot themed restaurant’ with customers served by a fleet of robot waiters and waitresses designed to take orders, discuss the menu and bring food to tables.
The menu featured an eclectic assortment of dishes including slow-cooked beef curry; salmon in coconut sauce; and a small range of 12” pizzas.
“Having battled through the pandemic of 2020 and 2021 and absorbed many losses from Covid lockdowns, we are faced once again with new ‘significant challenges’ driven by steeply rising costs, principally food and utilities, recruitment and retention issues, and a decline in revenue as a result of the current cost-of-living crisis,” the restaurant’s statement continues.
“We have explored a number of options to safeguard the future of Robotazia, it’s staff and the robots, as our popularity and love has grown greatly since opening. We had begun improvements which had to be halted as our forecast increase in utilities became insurmountable.”
