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Foster City fans of Korean cuisine – and the convenience of delivery – take note: OLHSO Korean BBQ & Seafood launched its delivery service in the city at the end of May. The plan? Using robotic kitchens to offer gourmet Korean meals freshly prepared en route to customers, with an emphasis on precision and consistency (Olhso translates to “that’s right”).
With typical delivery services, “if you place an order for delivery, it still takes 20 minutes for the driver to pick it up and then get the food to you. It’s not at the optimal quality at that point when you receive it,” Charles Kim, the chief operating officer of OLHSO’s parent company Shin Starr Presents, said of the problem the company is aiming to tackle. “When an order gets dispatched to one of our trucks, it determines the distance and time it takes to get to the customer; it cooks en route to the customer so the customer is always receiving fresh and hot quality food, again and again.”
Shin Starr Presents is headquartered in South Korea and was founded in 2019 by Kish and Jay Shin (not brothers, just friends, Kim noted) as a food tech company focused on the design and manufacturing of automated cooking equipment. The company developed a machine called an auto-wok that can cook “any stir-fry recipe,” Kim said.
The company currently has two food trucks that exclusively deliver to Foster City so far. “We did a lot of research to find the most optimal place,” he said. “We thought Foster City…would be the perfect kind of pilot location for us.”
The city was chosen for its demographics, its manageable size (with the trucks able to get to most locations in about 15 minutes) and for its space and terrain that can accommodate the trucks’ large size.
“We’re able to operate within this radius first,” Kim said. “Our plan is to expand as we get more comfortable and stable.”
Though much of the process is automated, there are still a few people involved with OLHSO’s food trucks. At an off-site space, kitchen staff prep all the ingredients for each meal option. The meals are stored in individual steel canisters, which are loaded onto the trucks’ automated refrigeration units. When an order is placed, it’s dispatched to one of the two trucks.
“What happens then is the robot will grab the appropriate canister in the refrigeration unit; it’ll hand it off to another robot that takes it to one of the four auto-woks, transfers the contents of the canister – the ingredients – into the auto-wok and then it cooks,” Kim explained. “Simultaneously, another robot takes an empty bowl and puts it in front of the auto-wok so once the food is cooked it gets transferred.”
The time and distance is calculated based on location, and upon arrival, the (human) driver gives the food to the customer.
“After the auto-wok cooks a meal, it goes into self-cleaning mode,” Kim added.
The system is powered by a generator and the auto-woks are electric, cooking via induction.
“The reason why our auto-wok is all induction-based is because we can be more precise and accurate with temperature control,” he said.
OLHSO currently offers four meal choices: the wagyu galbi meal (boneless wagyu short ribs in a sweet soy glaze with vegetables); the OLHSO dak galbi meal (stir-fried chicken in a gochujang-based spicy sauce served with rice cakes and vegetables); the Seoul food meal (stir-fried kimchi, pork belly, shrimp and traditional Korean soybean paste); and a vegetarian option, the japchae meal (glass noodles, mushrooms and vegetables stir fried in a sweet and savory “secret” sauce).
Kim said his personal favorite is the chicken meal since he’s a big fan of the rice cakes, but added the short ribs are also a popular choice, in part thanks to the tasty veggies that come with it.
“We have a lot of different assorted vegetables – Brussels sprouts, lotus roots, scallions – that are usually not in a short rib dish,” he said.
The meat dishes cost $45–$55 and serve two to three people, while the vegetarian japchae serves one to two people and costs $25. All meals come with sides of Korean rice, kimchi, seaweed and pickles, and the spiciness level can be customized.
Chef Sungil Han is OLHSO’s culinary director and is something of a star in South Korea, Kim said, owning and operating four brands across the country with multiple locations nationwide. The robotic kitchens make sure his recipes are cooked exactly as intended, according to the company’s website.
The company has been working on its plan for a while.
“From concept to launch, it took us a good four years,” Kim said. After developing the system that can operate under cook-en-route conditions, “the biggest challenge was getting the certification for sanitation and safety for this specific concept,” Kim said. “There isn’t really an exact code or standard for this type of operation because it’s so new; getting the permitting, that aspect was pretty challenging.”
It was a challenge the company anticipated though, and Kim said that the San Mateo County Health Department, along with the other government agencies involved, have been helpful and supportive – albeit slightly confused by the concept at first.
All orders must be placed through OLHSO’s app, which customers can find a link for on OLHSO’s website. Kim said the company does not charge any delivery or service fees (but customers are able to tip the drivers if they wish).
You don’t have to be a Foster City resident to order from OLHSO – the trucks will deliver to any location within the city limits.
“You can be at a park, you could be at a CVS and just use that delivery address to order the food and the truck drives just to that location,” Kim said. (The company also does private events and catering around the Bay Area.)
Soon, downtown San Mateo will be home to a more traditional venture from the company – a brick-and-mortar OLHSO restaurant with a more extensive menu of seafood and barbecue options, also led by chef Han.
Kim acknowledged that there are other companies also trying to utilize the automated mobile kitchen model, and that some have tried and failed (remember Zume Pizza?). He said OLHSO’s commitment to both gourmet-quality food and cutting-edge technology sets it apart.
“Everyone’s extremely fascinated and interested by the concepts,” Kim said. “At the end of the day, novelty wears off and it’s the food that brings customers back.”
OLHSO, Instagram: @olhsotruck. Open daily 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5-9 p.m.
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