Shin Starr’s robotic food truck kitchen will serve up Korean BBQ at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025

when Shin Star Set out to build an autonomous kitchen, the company knew the gimmick of robotic cooking wouldn’t carry the business. What will Shin Star do? OLHSO Korean BBQ Food Truck Successful if it can cook and deliver a hot, fresh, tasty meal at a reasonable price.

“At the end of the day, customers don’t care about the kind of rocket science you have in your truck or in your kitchen,” Kish Shin, co-founder and CEO of Shin Star, told TechCrunch. “They care about the value they’re getting.”

Han Sungil, a chef with more than 18 restaurants in Korea, came to the United States to lead Shin Star’s culinary operations, including a Brick and mortar restaurant In San Mateo – therefore, there are high expectations for food. We can’t tell from experience if the food is a hit, but we’ll definitely taste-test some Wagyu Galbi and Teokbokki when the food truck rolls up. TechCrunch Disrupt 2025Where Shin Starr is part of Startup Battlefield 200.

There are companies like DoorDash to test With autonomous delivery robots, Shin Star is doing the opposite: A human drives the truck, but the vehicle’s body is equipped with the company’s “Autowalk,” a modular, AI-powered robotics system that automates cooking, serving and cleaning. Once Han prepares the ingredients, OttoWak handles the rest.

While driving on the highway, Shin Star’s robotic system retrieves prepared, fresh ingredients from a refrigerator, then places them on a conveyor belt. They are then dropped into a tilted cylindrical canister, which, like a wok, rises to high heat and rotates to cook the food. After the food is cooked and tipped into its packaging, the system can clean and sterilize the canister and return it to the flow for cooking.

“It was designed to be able to serve food and cook on the go,” Shin said. “So, if you ordered a wagyu beef meal from your location, let’s say the truck was 15 minutes away. It takes us eight minutes to cook the wagyu beef. [so it] Your food won’t start cooking until seven minutes closer to your location, so that when you get your food, your food is literally freshly cooked.”

Other robotic kitchen startups have struggled to find product-market fit, but Shin Star thinks it can find its niche in airports. Soon, the company will open an OLHSO micro restaurant at a leading California airport, and if it goes well, the company’s other airports are interested in implementing the technology.

Since their airport micro restaurant does not require human staffing, it can operate at any time of the day.

“At 11 p.m., all restaurants close. There’s no food for the next eight hours, and yet, 10% of people in the U.S. fly during these hours, from 11 p.m. to 7 p.m.,” said Shin Star CMO Tord Olav Danum. “This thing will finally give you a fresh, high-quality restaurant-type meal, not buying a Snickers bar or a dry sandwich from a vending machine.”

Shin Star poached Gower Smith as CPO, a wise hiring decision, as there are few people in the world who know as much about high-tech auto retail as Smith. He is a serial entrepreneur in the space and recently led Swiftwhich partners with companies like Best Buy and CVS to create luxury vending machines in places like train stations and airports. This allows brands to set up shop without committing to human labor or a significant physical footprint

Smith said the automated nature of micro restaurants makes it easier for customers to predict how long it will take to cook them; This is useful in a setting like an airport, where people may be rushing to catch a flight. The micro-restaurant requires periodic intervention by a human worker to restock the fridge and prepare ingredients, but otherwise, it should be able to run smoothly on its own.

“Airports are where we’ll start, but we’ll go to hotels; people are hungry at 2 a.m. when they come in from a trip and they want a high-quality meal,” Smith told TechCrunch. “If it’s in a hospital, or on a college campus at 2 a.m. … there are so many environments where we can bring this type of experience.”

If you want to learn more about Shin Starr from the company — plus check out dozens more, hear their pitches and listen to guest speakers on four different stages — join us at Disrupt, October 27 to 29 in San Francisco. Learn more here.