Dinner at a popular Cupertino, California hot pot restaurant took a wild turn in March 2026 when a humanoid robot’s dance performance went sideways. Instead of entertaining guests at the Haidilao location, the machine started swinging its arms into a dining table, smashing plates, scattering chopsticks, and sending condiments flying everywhere. Staff scrambled to stop it, and the whole thing was caught on video that quickly went viral across social media.

• A humanoid robot believed to be an AgiBot X2 went out of control during a preprogrammed dance routine at a Haidilao hot pot restaurant in Cupertino, California.
• At least three employees struggled to physically restrain the robot while one staffer attempted to shut it down using a phone app.
• Haidilao denied the robot malfunctioned, blaming the incident on a guest’s request to bring the machine too close to a dining table.

What Happened at the Haidilao Restaurant

According to a video shared by a user named Meooow on the Chinese social platform Xiaohongshu, the dancing robot suddenly veered too close to diners while performing. The robot was wearing a bib reading “I’m good” while throwing its mechanical arms in the air. Within seconds, things got ugly. The robot began swinging its arms uncontrollably, smashing plates and sending chopsticks and dishware flying across the table. At least three staff members rushed in to stop the machine, struggling to restrain it as it continued moving erratically.

One Haidilao employee seems to have been looking at her phone, perhaps in an attempt to toggle something on an app controlling the robot. The robot appears to be an AgiBot X2, which was featured at the CES conference in January. It may have had a kill switch, but employees on the scene didn’t seem to know how to use it. Eventually, the robot froze as the dining staff appeared to get it under control.

The video quickly spread to platforms like X (formerly Twitter), where it racked up millions of views and sparked a mix of humor and genuine concern among viewers.

Haidilao’s Official Response

The restaurant chain said in a statement to NBC News that the robot “was not malfunctioning or out of control.” Haidilao said that the movements performed by the robot in Cupertino are preprogrammed, but were taking place in “a closer-than-usual setting.” “In this case, the robot was brought closer to a dining table at a guest’s request, which is not its typical operating setting,” the company said. “The limited space affected its movement during the performance.”

So the robot danced exactly as it was told to. It just had no awareness of its surroundings. An employee also explained that someone had “pressed the ‘crazy dance’ in a tight space,” calling it straightforward human error. Despite the clash of dinnerware audible on the video, damage was reportedly limited to “a few spilled sauces.”

The guest who captured the footage indicated that she had returned to the restaurant on a different day, but the dancing robot wasn’t performing.

Why This Incident Raised Real Safety Concerns

This wasn’t a story about a killer robot. It was funny, honestly. But the reaction online pointed to some real worries. Hot pot dining involves very hot pots of soup. If the robot had knocked piping bowls of bone broth over, it wouldn’t have been a culinary disaster alone. It might have seriously burned someone.

Viewers were quick to call out the lack of a visible emergency stop button. One user argued there should be “a big red power off button on its back” rather than requiring an app to shut it down. Others raised bigger questions about the trend overall. Watching three grown adults wrestle a flailing robot into submission raises obvious questions about what happens when these machines get bigger, stronger, and more common. Anyone who’s ever attended a mechanic school or taken apart a machine knows that the ability to shut something down fast is one of the first things you learn.

It remains unclear whether the robot had an accessible emergency shutdown mechanism or if staff were trained to use it. That gap between owning the technology and knowing how to safely manage it stood out to many people watching the clip.

Robots in Restaurants Are Growing Fast

Haidilao is no stranger to automation. The chain previously operated a “smart restaurant” in Beijing equipped with robotic servers and automated broth-mixing machines. At this Cupertino location, the robot was reportedly used only for entertainment, not for serving food.

This event comes as dozens of startups work to automate restaurant kitchens and service. Companies like Pudu Robotics use wheeled, limbless robots like the BellaBot for food delivery and customer guidance. Others, like Shin Starr, are developing fully autonomous kitchen systems.

The restaurant industry has been slowly adding robotic helpers over the past few years, from simple delivery bots to full humanoid entertainers. But the Haidilao incident is a reminder that putting an advanced machine into a crowded, unpredictable space like a restaurant dining room takes a lot more planning than plugging it in and hitting play.

Are We Ready for Robots This Close to Our Dinner?

Nobody got hurt this time. The damage was minor, and the video honestly gave millions of people a good laugh. But the message landed with a thud. The Haidilao incident is a wake-up call about safety protocols and controlled environments when putting humanoid robots in public spaces. Restaurants are loud, cramped, and full of hot liquids and breakable things. Toss a dancing robot into that mix without proper safeguards, and you get exactly what happened in Cupertino.

As humanoid robots become cheaper and more available, expect to see them pop up in more restaurants, malls, and public venues. The technology is impressive, and the entertainment value is clear. But businesses rolling them out need to do the boring work first: train their staff, install physical kill switches, and keep the machines a safe distance from diners. Otherwise, the next viral robot video might not end with spilled sauces and laughter.