Published: August 5, 2025
Publisher: Tordotcom
Series: N/A
Genre: Science Fiction
Pages: 168 (Kindle)
My Rating: 4 Stars
Synopsis:
You don’t have to eat food to know the way to a city’s heart is through its stomach. So when a group of deactivated robots come back online in an abandoned ghost kitchen, they decide to make their own way doing what they making food—the tastiest hand-pulled noodles around—for the humans of San Francisco, who are recovering from a devastating war.
But when their robot-run business starts causing a stir, a targeted wave of one-star reviews threatens to boil over into a crisis. To keep their doors open, they’ll have to call on their customers, their community, and each other—and find a way to survive and thrive in a world that wasn’t built for them.
This book caught my eye when I was putting together a list of 2025 book releases and kept lurking on the edges of my TBR. The title, for one, is unique and memorable and the cover with its neon colors was the perfect antithesis to a January day. I also don’t think I’ve read a book with a non-human protagonist since the last Murderbot book I read.
Automatic Noodle follows a group of intelligent robots, called human equivalent embodied intelligence (HEEI), who have just awoken in the now abandoned restaurant they had been working at. Rather than go on to find a new job or default on their contracts, they decide to do a little subterfuge and re-open the restaurant as a subsidiary and serve biang biang noodles, which sound absolutely delicious. This book is probably the reason I’ve been craving actual good Chinese food. The group of friends deal with numerous trials, from review bombs by anti-robot propagandists, to concerns over their legality, to healing from traumatic pasts.
Automatic Noodle is set in a world where California seceded from the United States and it’s now several years after the war. Staybehind is a former military robot who has chosen to be the fixer, Cayenne worked in search and rescue and as a result can taste things with their tentacle arms, Sweetie is the most human looking of the group and does most of their supply chain work, and Hands is the one passionate about food and the one acting as chef thanks to all their hands. I enjoyed the slow uncovering of each of their pasts and I liked their interactions with one another AND with the humans visiting their restaurant. The setting was quite memorable, mostly because I’ve never considered a post-war California and I love how that made the story so much more than it would have been in a straightforward futuristic setting.
Overall, I thought this was a unique story that left me craving both noodles and more stories outside my usual genres. Automatic Noodle is cozy-ish, but deals with serious themes that are most definitely not cozy. Ultimately, this is a story about following a group of friends following their dream and supporting one another, so it was actually a really wonderful read to start the new year. Plus, I love food so I’m down for detailed food descriptions!
Powder & Page 
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