I tried the San Francisco restaurant that serves quinoa delivered via robot cubbies and it's totally awesome

A new restaurant just opened in San Francisco on Monday, but it's not your typical fast-food joint. 

Eatsa, located at 121 Spear Street, has a menu that revolves around the grain quinoa ("keen-wah") and eliminates employees and time spent waiting in lines by taking orders through tablets and serving food from robotic cubbies. 

The goal of the resturant is two-fold: Create a lightening-fast food experience on-the-cheap by automating the service process as much as possible - workers' salaries make up about 30% of the restaurant industry's costs - and to promote a healthy food that's efficient to produce. Eatsa says that substituting quinoa for meat as a protein is better for the planet because it requires 1/30th of the energy. 

The concept attracted some snark on Twitter:

 

 

 

But my coworker Melia Robinson and I tried it out today and it was a great experience - the quinoa was the perfect vessel for other tasty toppings and the serving process was both quick and enjoyable. 

Because it was opening day, the place was packed and there were actually a bunch of Eatsa employees hanging around to explain the concept to hungry patrons. Eventually, Eatsa plans to only have one or two people working the front and a small kitchen staff behind the scenes:

Inside, the atmosphere is sleek and modern, and you're ushered towards one of the handful of available tablets, where you place your order.

First things first, you swipe your credit card - no cash transactions here - which allows the system to input your name (it also keeps track of your favorite orders if you become a repeat customer).

You can build your own bowl by choosing from a variety of toppings for your quinoa or pick one of the suggested "Chef's Bowls," each of which provides full nutritional information: 

Then you wait in front of a wall of translucent cubbies. There's a digital screen over head that lists each customer's first name and last intial. When your food is ready, you'll be directed to a cubby number: 

Even though the place was packed, our meals "magically" appeared in their respective cubbies less than ten minutes after we placed our orders. 

Eatsa promises that all its meals are nutritious and relatively healthy.

I ordered the burrito bowl, which was loaded with guac, salsa, cheese, portabello mushrooms, corn, tortilla chips, beans, and, of course, quinoa.

Although it had the most calories of any of the Chef's Choice options - 646 per meal compared to many options that only hit the high-400s - it packed a lot fewer calories than a veggie bowl from Chipotle, which has around 1,300 calories.

Overall, I loved the experience and the food was delicious (and filling - I saved a big portion of my meal for the next day's lunch). 

Sometimes the noisiness of a place like Chipotle where you have to scream to the server as they try to rapid-fire shuffle people through the line stresses me out, so I appreciated the ease of ordering through a tablet and watching my food appear.