SoftBank Robotics opened a new cafe called Pepper Parlor on the fifth floor of Tokyu Plaza Shibuya where customers will have the unique experience of being able to interact with the robot Pepper. The cafe provides a space to experience humans and robots co-existing together.

The cafe has a space of 420 square meters and 162 seats. In addition to serving waffles supervised by Executive Chef Fumio Yonezawa of The Burn and premium blended coffee by coffee creator Ryota Nakagawa, the cafe also sells original Pepper-branded goods.

The order/reception counter features five Pepper robots that take orders via a tablet. Pepper will suggest the recommended waffles depending on a person’s mood that day.

On a sofa sits the humanoid robot “Nao,” who announces the time every 15 minutes and dances every hour. After the cafe closes, various robots come to life, such as the vacuum cleaning robot, “Whiz,” to clean the store.

In the seating area, Pepper will entertain customers with games, fortune-telling, and other apps, and will make conversations more exciting. The cafe plans to have four to five Peppers active in this role. SoftBank Robotics is also thinking about introducing new robots in the future.

SoftBank Robotics Executive Vice President, Kazutaka Hasumi, says, “The robots serve customers, but they are not the main attraction of the cafe. I want to make a cafe where people and robots really can coexist and are naturally a part of things.”