{"id":222054,"date":"2026-03-26T21:40:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T21:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/222054\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T21:40:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T21:40:16","slug":"robotic-asian-eatery-continues-its-expansion-across-houston-into-the-bay-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/222054\/","title":{"rendered":"Robotic Asian eatery continues its expansion across Houston, into the Bay Area"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>iWok, an Asian fast-casual restaurant, is opening four locations across the Houston metro this year, with one on NASA Parkway, as <a href=\"https:\/\/communityimpact.com\/houston\/bellaire-meyerland-west-university\/dining\/2026\/01\/20\/new-asian-eatery-with-robotic-chef-to-debut-across-houston\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">previously reported<\/a> by Community Impact.<\/p>\n<p>How it works<\/p>\n<p>iWok uses a robotic chef system to serve fresh entrees, rice dishes and wok-seared bowls in minutes.<\/p>\n<p>The system was developed to cook each order individually and replicates the exact cooking techniques of Culinary Director Chef J.D. Yang.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Traditional wok cooking requires years of training and produces incredible results, but it&#8217;s been difficult to scale without compromising quality,&#8221; iWok&#8217;s Chief Executive Officer Michael Ma said. &#8220;We built iWok to preserve authentic technique and replicate chef-perfected recipes while making made-to-order possible and consistent across multiple locations.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A closer look<\/p>\n<p>Although the brand incorporates robotic technology, human employees prep the fresh ingredients and plate dishes before serving customers.<\/p>\n<p>Once staff members wash and portion ingredients into separate containers to refrigerate them, the automated system retrieves and delivers the items to a preheated wok.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s on the menu<\/p>\n<p>Made with fresh vegetables, proteins and house-made sauces, iWok\u2019s menu features dishes such as Kung Pao Chicken, Mapo Tofu, Mongolian Beef and Umami Wok Shrimp.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, the new locations will have a robotic boba tea machine with flavors such as berry and mango.<\/p>\n<p>Opening in April1400 E. NASA Parkway, Ste. F, Houston<a href=\"http:\/\/www.iwok.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">www.iwok.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;&gt;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"iWok, an Asian fast-casual restaurant, is opening four locations across the Houston metro this year, with one on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[18715,750,1604,7029,21770,56,58,57,1454,64724,354,56143,79246,1481,86421,86420],"class_list":["post-222054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-asian","tag-coming-soon","tag-community-impact","tag-dining-news","tag-eatery","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-near-me","tag-places-to-go","tag-restaurants","tag-robotic","tag-stir-fry","tag-trending","tag-where-to-try","tag-wok"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}