Flying food tray set to prove a hit

A FLYING serving tray which is powered by Drone quadicopter technology and can bring food to diners at their restaurant table is to serve Scottish customers as early as next next year.

One of the six Yo!Sushi branches north of the Border – thought to be either in Glasgow or Edinburgh – is to take part in a pilot roll-out of the restaurant brand’s “iTray”: a remote controlled carbon fibre tray which will deliver burgers – made from sushi rice and traditional Japanese fillings – to customers.

The tray is currently undergoing trials at the sushi chain’s Soho restaurant in London, but is set to be extended to six stores UK-wide by the end of 2014.

A spokeswoman for Yo!Sushi confirmed that Scotland would be among the branches due to take part in the early roll-out. “We will be rolling out the tray to six stores next year and one of them will definitely be in Scotland,” she said.

Two built-in HD cameras allow Yo!Sushi kitchen staff to check that food is delivered on the tray – which boasts four propellers and is remote controlled through an on-board Wi-Fi system and iPad software - through a real-time video broadcast viewable on an iPad screen. The iTray has a range of up to 50 metres and a top speed of 11.11
metres per second.

The company’s chief executive, Robin Rowland, said the tray would complement the firm’s new burger menu.

“From the company that brought the famous kaiten conveyor belt to the UK and introduced interactive call buttons, speaking robot drinks trolleys, self-heating plates and video game toilets, we decided the iTray was just great fun and a very fitting way to deliver this revolutionary new product.”

Earlier this month, Domino’s Pizza released a video of what it called its “DomiCopter”, a pizza-delivering lightweight aircraft.