This May, a robotic restaurant is coming to Downtown Crossing as Spyce gears up to dish out grain bowls made in minutes. Founded by four MIT alums—Brady Knight, Michael Farid, Kale Rogers and Luke Schlueter—the original prototype for the kitchen contraption was created in a basement during the summer of 2015. Now, under executive chef Sam Benson and backed by chef Daniel Boulud, Spyce is marrying gastronomic creativity with the foursome’s engineering savvy to provide a healthy, affordable dining option. “Our whole goal is to raise expectations for fast food and what fast-casual restaurants can do,” Knight says. “We chose to do this because we thought that this was our way of providing really good food at a price that everyone can afford.”

The Spyce crew gives a step-by-step look at how the food will be made:

1. Base foods are loaded into hoppers and distributed using a portioning mechanism.

2. The portioned ingredients are dropped into the “runner,” an orange box with four cups for rice, chicken, vegetables or freekeh.

3. Moving back and forth, the “runner” places the ingredients into one of seven woks.

4. Using induction, the woks continuously rotate to evenly heat the food inside the
vessel.

5. After about two-and-a-half minutes, the wok pivots and places the food into a bowl, where one of the workers can grab it from the robot and add the finishing touches.

6. Once each wok finishes preparing the food, it turns over as nozzles underneath spray water inside and complete a wash cycle, allowing the machine to begin cooking the next meal within 5 to 6 seconds.