When the robots eventually come for us, and they certainly will, they might not look like the fearsome exoskeletal, shiny-chrome killing machines from the Terminator films. They might be more like the robot waiting staff at Sakura, the Japanese all-you-can-eat restaurant on Cheetham Hill Road.
They seem fine when you arrive. Playful even. “Here I am!” they announce chirpily, when they turn up with dishes at your table, their cute, animated faces and painted on duds intended to make them fun and non-threatening, which they are. To start with.
It was a greeting which, during my brief time there this week, I soon began to dread. For some context, last week Observer food critic Jay Rayner arrived in town and nearly came to eat here by accident.
