Haidilao Robot Knocks Items Off Table, Staff Intervene at Bay Area Location

A humanoid service robot performing a promotional dance routine at a Haidilao hot pot restaurant in Cupertino, California, got too close to a dining table and started smashing plates and sending dishware and chopsticks everywhere before restaurant employees stepped in and physically restrained it, according to a video posted to the Chinese social network Xiaohongshu by a user named Meooow.

The video, which circulated widely online and was picked up by multiple outlets, shows the robot mid-routine before the collision with the table sends dinnerware scattering across the floor. Staff can be seen intervening to pull the robot back. No injuries were reported in any of the source accounts of the incident.

Haidilao pushed back on characterizations of the episode as a malfunction. In a statement to NBC News, the Chinese hot pot chain said the robot had been moved closer to the table at a diner's request, a position outside its standard operating range. "In this case, the robot was brought closer to a dining table at a guest's request, which is not its typical operating setting," the company said. "The limited space affected its movement during the performance."

The robot was being used for entertainment purposes rather than food service. That distinction matters in a hot pot environment, where the tables hold pots of actively boiling broth. A robot losing directional control near that kind of setup is not a hypothetical safety concern: spilled bone broth at serving temperature could seriously burn a diner, and the physical force of an unsteady humanoid frame carries its own risk to anyone seated nearby.

The incident adds friction to what Haidilao has presented as a considered push into automation. The chain has previously operated a "smart restaurant" in Beijing using robotic servers and broth-mixing machines, positioning the technology as a feature of its dining experience rather than a back-of-house workaround. Deploying a humanoid robot tableside for a dance performance, however, is a different use case than the controlled logistics of a purpose-built smart kitchen.

TechCrunch reported that it reached out to AgiBot for comment and did not receive an immediate response. It remains unclear from available reporting whether AgiBot supplied or manufactured the robot involved in the incident, or what the specific model was.

For the servers and kitchen staff who work the floor at high-volume hot pot chains, robots in the dining room present a different kind of challenge than the automation debates happening in back-of-house: a malfunctioning humanoid in a crowded dining room during a dinner rush is their problem to solve, physically, in real time. At this Cupertino location, that is exactly what happened.