While you may not be in the age of the “Foodarackacycle” quite yet (though you still have time to catch up to the Jetsons), a new Los Angeles restaurant is revolutionizing how you indulge in traditional Chinese cuisine—with automated wok cooking machines.
Coming to you from veteran restaurateurs Tomas Su and Kelvin Wang, Tigawok is Los Angeles’ first-ever robot-powered Chinese restaurant, which debuted in Sawtelle Japantown on May 31. Su brings over 15 years of experience in the restaurant industry, including at the hot pot chain Boiling Point, as a co-founder of the popular boba chain Sunright Tea Studio, and at the stylish Orange County tea spot Omomo Tea. The other Tigawok-founding member, Wang, is the owner of Beijing Tasty House in San Gabriel and has gathered 20 years of experience in the industry.
With robot chefs that prepare dishes within minutes, Su described the future-thinking restaurant as “if Panda Express and Chipotle had a baby, but offered more traditional Chinese cuisine.”
Su further shared Tigawok’s goal to offer more traditional Chinese cuisine options, stating, “We enjoy Panda Express and P.F. Chang’s, but we don’t consider it Chinese food. We consider it American food… They’re Chinese in concept, but the flavor is designed for the American palate. We think it’s time to popularize more traditional Chinese dishes and educate the mainstream on what Chinese food tastes like to us.”
On a mission to highlight more traditional Chinese dishes, Tigawok customers take a tray and head down the cafeteria-style line, previewing 15–18 Chinese staples that are presented up front in small bowls. Customers can select from options such as braised pork rice, mapo tofu, sweet tomato with scrambled eggs, kung pao chicken, Hunan pepper pork, cola chicken, and xiao long bao. While eight to ten menu options will remain fixed at Tigawok, the other eight or so options will rotate and change seasonally.
Helping Tigawok bring you traditional Chinese cuisine is a team of robots that prepare your food. Tigawok’s wok machines are less introductory than versions seen in the U.S. previously, yet have similarities to the technology used in various other San Gabriel Valley restaurants for cooking simple stir-fried foods. However, the new L.A. restaurant sets itself apart from competitors by bringing more sophisticated technology in terms of sauce programming and cleaning in between dishes.
Tigawok’s sophisticated chef-robots, which are designed and built in China but acquired through a U.S. distributor with FDA certification, allow users to upload recipes and instantly send them to other connected devices, ensuring consistency across all dishes. Of particular value to Tigawok is the robots’ ability to mimic “wok hei,” an important quality of Chinese cooking that refers to the distinct, smoky flavor given by high-heat cooking in a well-seasoned wok. Able to stir-fry, stew, boil, and simmer with heat control of up to 600 degrees Fahrenheit, these robots help provide flavorful dishes, adding up to 16 kinds of seasonings in a single dish.
“We are very proud of our innovative chef robots, but the technology is just a means that allows us to make our dishes efficiently,” says Su.
Despite the chef-robots playing a key figure in the restaurant’s running, they are almost hidden entirely from sight. Human workers are still integral parts of Tigawok, learning to guide the robot chef’s activity within 30 minutes and prepping ingredients in a central kitchen in L.A.
Located in One Westside Plaza, Tigawok’s 1,500-square-foot storefront replaces the former Flaming Hot Pot on Sawtelle Boulevard just south of Olympic. Entrees cost between $2.99 and $5.99 each—a cost the restaurant can offer customers due to its robotic-cooking team.
