It’s a bustling Friday night at Spirit of Punjab in Halls Gaps, a village located in the heart of Grampians National Park, Victoria, Australia.
The 240-seater Indian restaurant is packed with international tourists and locals enjoying fiery plates of Paneer and Chicken Tikka, Kadhai Murg Masala and Garlic Naan.
Bella deftly makes her way around the crowd. She stops at Table #19 and waits patiently until the plates are offloaded. Her face lights up with a smile and she beeps out a thank you. Then she glides across the floor and waits in a corner until her next assignment.
Bella is a robot waiter and there are two like her at Spirit of Punjab, both introduced during the pandemic in 2021 to ease the pressure on the staff.
“We are the first restaurant in Australia to introduce robot [waiters]. When Covid hit, the staff was hesitant to come into work. So, when a robot company approached us for a trial run of the robots, we decided to try it out. It was a huge success and we were covered widely by the local media,” says owner Gurdeep Singh.
At first, Singh was sceptical, lest the country people objected to jobs being taken by robots. But when it was received positively, the robots stayed on.
Owner Gurdeep Singh manages the restaurant with his wife Navjot Kaur Karo Christine Kumar
“We get tourists from all over the world, including Indian diners on public and school holidays, and a few Bollywood celebrities who prefer to stay under the radar,” adds the entrepreneur, who studied hotel management in Chandigarh.
There’s more to the Indian connection at Spirit of Punjab. All phone orders go to a call centre in India, most of the human staff are Indians who are provided accommodation, and some of the ingredients are shipped from home as well. The robots, though, are made in China by an Altona, Australia-based company, and the fresh produce comes from Melbourne.
Spirit of Punjab serves almost 100 Indian dishes, including north Indian favourites Courtesy Spirit of Punjab
The space occupied by Spirit of Punjab used to be a local brewery until Singh was requested by the North Grampians council to bring his Indian restaurant in nearby Ararat to The Grampians. “When we opened in 2010, there were only two pubs and no international cuisine available in the region. Attraction points like the waterfalls were shut to tourists because of the floods, except Venus Bath and Lake Bellfield. A few Chinese restaurants set up shop, but they closed down too. The delivery costs of supplies didn’t make sense for many. We got support from our restaurant in Ararat (Royal Saffron, which was later sold) and the local farmers so we managed,” explains Singh.
The view from the restaurant’s outdoor seating @spirit.of.punjab/Instagram
Managed by him and his wife Navjot Kaur, Spirit of Punjab serves more than 90 Indian dishes, including pure vegetarian and vegan fare. The meal we had — Dakshini Jhinga E Alam, Daal Makhani and Garlic Naan — was just as good as any Indian restaurant back home.
The robots, though, are the star attraction and diners have their camera phones ready as Bella glides over to the table to capture the experience.
Robot Bella waits a table Karo Christine Kumar
“We get diners from New York, families with children as well as local elderly care homes, who come to see the technology. The two robots are synced to communicate with each other, so they don’t get in each other’s way. We’ve also had quite a few interesting diners who visit the nearby ghost hospital for its paranormal activity,” says Singh.
Between spirits and Spirit of Punjab, we reckon sticking to the latter.
Spirit of Punjab 161-163 Grampians Road, Victoria 3381
03 5356 4234 (Takeaway); 03 5356 4658 (Reservation)
