Located on Dien Bien Phu Street, the Blooms and Brews by Ellum Saigon café has introduced a robotic barista system that allows customers to watch their drinks being prepared by machines.
Upon entering the café in Ho Chi Minh City, customers select drinks on a touchscreen located near the robot station. After paying via QR code, the system sends instructions for the robots to begin preparing the order.
Two robotic arms, developed by a team of Vietnamese engineers, handle the entire process from grinding and tamping coffee beans to extracting espresso, frothing milk and pouring the drink into a cup. Each beverage is completed in about two minutes, with the entire process visible to customers.
The café’s menu is relatively simple, featuring familiar drinks such as Vietnamese iced coffee, Americano and cappuccino priced at around VND 50,000 to VND 60,000 (about USD 2 to USD 2.40).
According to the café’s operators, the limited menu reflects the time needed to “train” the robotic arms to prepare different beverages.
For many visitors, however, the attraction lies less in the drink itself than in watching the robots carefully prepare each cup.
“You can’t chat with a robot and the drink choices are more limited, but it’s an experience you rarely find elsewhere,” said a customer named Gia Vi.
Another visitor said the flavour of the coffee was good, but the most enjoyable part was watching what felt like a “robot barista performance”.
Since the café has only been operating for about a month, staff members remain on site to assist customers unfamiliar with the ordering system or needing help during the process.
The AI-powered system and robots have been programmed to receive orders and carry out the brewing process consistently, though developers plan to expand the system to handle a wider range of drinks in the future.
Customers can also choose fresh flowers and create their own bouquets with suggestions from an AI assistant.
Staff assist customers with flower arrangements (Photo: Moc Khai).
Ngoc Diep, one of the founders of the café-and-flower shop concept, said the initial investment in robotics and technology was substantial, particularly the development of software and artificial intelligence.
“We see this as a passion project,” Diep said. “Once the technology platform is complete, it can be reused and expanded in future stores.”
She added that while the robots are programmed to perform tasks with high precision, they sometimes require adjustments during the early stages of operation to adapt to different beverages.
From the initial idea to the café’s opening, the project took about 10 months to complete. Behind the small shop is a technical team of around five robotics engineers, three mechanical and electrical specialists and six software developers.
The robots that brew coffee, the flower recognition system and the AI bouquet suggestion tools were all developed by the team.
Ngoc Diep hopes this model will make buying flowers a more familiar part of daily life (Photo: Moc Khai).
Diep said the goal of the concept is not only to sell coffee or flowers but also to make buying flowers part of everyday life.
“On the way home from work, people might simply stop by to buy a flower for their mother, a loved one or even just for themselves,” she said.