To all of the introverts among us who avoid crowds like the plague, cringe at the thought of speaking to a stranger on the phone and feel claustrophobic in jam-packed restaurants, there's a new, somewhat antisocial way to order your food. On Saturday, December 19, Eatsa—LA's first automated cafe—will open at The Village at Westfield Topanga, offering shoppers a chance to grab a quick lunch without ever uttering a word to another human being.
Fast, healthy fare at a decent price point is Eatsa's MO, where quinoa bowls are swiftly prepared with nary a person around (a small back-of-house staff prepares each order). Our friends at Time Out San Francisco wrote about the company's first location in SF's FiDi neighborhood, and the concept seems simple enough: order from an iPad, swipe a card and wait for your highlighted name to appear on a mounted screen, which will then direct you to a numbered cubby where your quinoa bowl sits ready for pick-up.
Quinoa bowls are, in fact, Eatsa's main menu item, along with a couple of salads. The bowls encompass a number of cuisines, all with a quinoa base: a Mexican burrito bowl, a Japanese bento bowl, a stuffing bowl that seems to emulate what happens when you put all of your Thanksgiving leftovers into one Tupperware container. You can also customize your own meal; at $6.95, Eatsa is one of the mall's most accessible and affordable options for fueling up between shops.
Is this the future of fast casual restaurants? We're not sure, but for lunch under $10, we can certainly afford to find out.
Eatsa will open on Saturday at 11am at The Village at Westfield Topanga (6600 Topanga Canyon Blvd, Canoga Park). Will you be checking it out? Let us know in the comments below!