West Lakes Food Co — Restaurant in Orlando

SHORT REVIEW: WLFCo offers food from a tremendous number of different restaurants, all cooked on site. Incredibly fast and efficient. A vision of the future, with a TREMENDOUS variety of menu choices. This system is only steps away from Star Trek's food replicator. In the best way possible! Super great, fantastic, all good, no worries! 👍👍👍

LONG REVIEW: WLFCo is The Jetsons future type of fast food. By fast food I don't mean just the normal drive-thru burger-joint type. It's just that orders are cooked and delivered super fast and efficiently.

I had never been to West Lakes Food Co before. So I didn't really know what to expect. I noticed that it was very busy around the building with cars driving to a pickup window to pick up meals. Most of these were likely Uber eats type of food delivery pickups.

This place is one building that contains 35 kitchens. So there can be 35 different restaurants to order from here.

When I walked in, it took me a moment to acclimate myself and figure out the process. To the right, there is a grid of large "food lockers" on the wall. The Lockers are where pick up orders are placed after an order is completed.

There is a counter in the middle, manned by a human being, and there is an order-placement touch-screen to the right of the counter. To the far left, there is a kiosk containing another order-placement touch-screen.

You use the touch-screen to order your food. Similar to what McDonald's, Taco Bell, and other restaurants currently use.

Once I figured this out, and started using the order screen, my mind almost exploded when I realized that to begin with I had the choice of at least 20 different restaurants to order from. First I scanned through pages of restaurants. Once I picked a restaurant, then I could see the entire detailed menu for the restaurant I chose... along with photos of most of the items you could order.

Another incredibly cool fact is that you can order and combine any menu items from ANY (or all!) of the 20 plus restaurants as part of a single order!!! 😵‍💫

After I completed placing my order, my order receipt spit out of the machine, and then I sat on a bench and waited for my food. There were a couple of other guys there waiting on the bench, like me. Apparently few people just walk up in order. Most orders come mainly online, and most likely from food delivery services. When you select your restaurant on the order screen, it also gives you a time estimate of how long your order will take to be completed. As we sat there on the bench, and chit-chatted with the girl at the desk, she told us about the whole system of the place. As she spoke to us, robot carts were rolling back and forth behind her, bringing completed orders from the kitchens to the girl at the desk to deliver to people like us who sat in the lobby. The robots also went about their business bringing food to the drive-thru pickup window and also putting it in the pickup lockers. The robots are the reason I compare the Food Co. to The Jetsons.

One note is that there is no place to sit and eat food at the West Lakes Food Co. So plan ahead to eat in your car, go find a bench in a park, or take your foo home or anywhere else to...

I truly debated on giving this place a 2 ⭐... With It being my first time going my experiences just wasn't up to par. First I tried ordering online and the website gets you all the way to pay even providing a code for 20% off your first order and all I got was errors. Even just tried to do the order without the code and it wouldn't work. I still go and I let the young lady know something wrong with the site. She was understanding but I doubt it she went to inform someone of the issue she only tells me to check and make sure my card wasn't processed. I proceed to place an order on the tablet with no issues. While placing my order another customer comes in saying the same thing about the site not working. As I'm waiting I get a call to inform me the item I ordered they no longer sell and he didn't know why the menu wasn't updated. I ask for my options of either something else or a refund. Which the guy tells me they have no control on refunds and I'll have to call some number on the tablet and speak to someone there. At this point I'm getting upset because you can't even process a refund and I have to call some other company nor does he have the number to help resolve. All questions i ask was responded by it's nothing I can do or it's not on them. No true customer service to resolve the matter. I had to ask if I could get something else he then says yes which we could've avoided all this if he started with that. I end up changing the meat to shrimp but the thing is they ended up putting the balsamic glaze on it which was initially for the beef... It just threw the whole taste off. Overall the food was ok NOTHING to brag about. I love the concept but definitely room for improvement. I'm on the fence on returning and giving this place...

Amazing gem, a bunch of restaurants under one roof. When you walk in you can order in a table if walking in. And wait for your food in the waiting area. When your food is ready it comes out in a robot food carrier but the employs behind the counter, hands you your food by calling your name. However, if you food is ready and your not around it's place in a locker. Pro tip make sure to open you food and make sure it is what you order. Mistakes happens and you could take someone else food home. Clean place inside and out and it, the bathroom was spacious just need to let the cleaners know to pick it the trash when i walk in it was a bit of a mess. Food is great I order from Ez eats Afro food, I order a nice plate of food. However, why is the cornbread the size of the whole platter??? It really was good but it got soggy, and takes half of the plate space cutting the other portions been place on top in half. For a $26 plate the cornbread should have gone outside of the plate separated. MY THOUGHTS. HOPE IT HELPS SOMEONE ELSE ORDER GREAT FOOD NEVER THE LESS, KEEPING IT REAL. Excellent food and great taste. I Wish I could try the other restaurants...