TabSquare bridges AI with self ordering kiosks at Hokkaido Ya Restaurant at Vivocity

TabSquare bridges AI with self ordering kiosks at Hokkaido Ya Restaurant at Vivocity
OCWORKBENCH 24 Jul 2018

Everyday when we turn on the TV or radio, we heard about Artificial Intelligence. If you are into AI, you would probably know by now AI is invading the everyday life with AI e.g. Netflix which can somewhat recommend you movie titles based on your previous watched titles.

Self ordering kiosks are getting very common in Singapore and we see it at places like burger chains or restaurants. To make the experience even better, TabSquare, a leading front-end automated solutions provider for the F&B industry have officially unveiled the brand new AI-Powered Kiosks at the Hokkaido-Ya Restaurant in VivoCity, Singapore. This is the first ever kiosk that is powered by TabSquare’s advanced artificial intelligence engine, Aiden.

So what has AI got to do with ordering the food ? Basically, the system will be able to remember guest behavior, their likes and thus be able to make recommendations. The AI Engine enhances the guests’ dining journey by constantly learning and building their taste profiles and preferences.

The kiosk restaurant, Hokkaido-Ya, offers customers excellent quality Japanese fare at wallet-friendly prices. The passionate F&B team thoughtfully crafts each dish and meticulously sourced for premium and authentic ingredients such as: Hokkaido scallops (hotate), Japanese salmon roe (ikura), Hokkaido ramen noodles, and fresh Norwegian salmon.

I tested the system tagging my profile to my mobile number. For non English readers, there is an option of Japanese and can be the system can be customised for more languages. You can choose the Bento, Noddles, side dishes through the touch screen. After completion of the order, I scanned the buzzer at the top of the kiosk (queue number is written on the buzzer) and a receipt is generated upon payment via VISA Paywave or NETs.

Although it was lunch hour, I was quite surprised that the waiting time was around 8 minutes. It was a good experience and the Japanese food served are wallet friendly. I ordered a Aburi Salmon Mental Don and it only costs S$10.90. It is delicious and the portion was huge for the price.

The lower price and larger serving could be attributed to lower man power costs savings. The ordering system is also streamlined and add value to the restaurant as they will generate more sales due to a more efficient ordering system and AI recommended selections.

The 3 Founders. (From Left to Right – Chirag Tejuja, Sankaran Sreeraman, Anshul Gupta)

TabSquare provides AI-Powered In-Restaurant solutions to the F&B industry that leverage rich consumer data and deep learning algorithms to provide an engaging dining experience for restaurants’ diners and helps to double restaurants’ profitability. TabSquare’s solutions currently collect over 30 million customer interaction data points on monthly basis. With a unique data-driven approach to restaurant management and customer engagement, Tabsquare helps partner restaurants drive higher sales, seamless operations, and provide a better customer experience. A Market Leader in Singapore with customers in Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand. TabSquare serves over 75 brands in over 300 locations including well-known F&B brands like Sushi Tei, Minor Food Group, Japan Food Holdings, Creative Eateries, Paradise Group, Far East Hospitality, Zingrill Holdings, Tadcaster Hospitality, and Hilton.

Hokkaido-Ya, which translates to Hokkaido-shop, is a must visit destination for Hokkaido-inspired dishes and Japanese favorites.

The restaurant is owned and managed by reputed Japanese restaurant chain Sushi Tei; a restaurant chain trusted for its fresh, top quality food and exemplary customer service with currently over 81 outlets in 9 countries that span across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, Myanmar, Brunei, Cambodia, Vietnam and Bangladesh.

Opened on 14 th June 2018 at VivoCity, Singapore, the speedy, casual, self-service restaurant serves up signature crowd pleasers such as Truffle Salmon Don, Aburi Mentai Bara Chirashi Don, Hokkaido Butter Corn Hotate Ramen, and a range of white curry dishes – a specialty rarely seen in Singapore.

The 60-seater diner is decked out in light pine wood furniture that emotes a cozy atmosphere. Customers will also be thrilled with the friendly Ezo – Hokkaido-Ya’s mascot who welcomes guests at the entrance in the form of a fiberglass sculpture.