IT’S got an all-organic menu of Instagrammable wraps and salads, but there’s one thing missing from this hipster cafe.

Waiters are nowhere to be seen in what is being billed as Australia’s first fully-automated takeaway restaurant, where customers place their order via touchscreen — and receive them on a conveyor belt.

At Hey Zeus in Newcastle, health-conscious meals arrive from the kitchen in impersonal brown paper bags, in what founder Jacob Beye has dubbed “guilt-free fast food”.

“From the research I’ve done, there is nothing quite like it — it’s the first of its kind in Australia,” Mr Beye told news.com.au.

“McDonald’s has touchscreen ordering, but only to supplement their main offer. This is the first completely unmanned cafe.”

The American expat, who moved to Australia as a university student a decade ago, was inspired by fast food chains back home, where automation had turbocharged the speed of service at takeaway joints.

But, unlike most quick-serve outlets, Hey Zeus has a menu that is close to 100 per cent organic and locally sourced.

Every meal comes with rice — white or brown — mixed with 25 per cent quinoa, with fresh salads and meat or vegetarian options.

You build your own wrap or bowl on the iPad and, two or three minutes later, it arrives on the conveyor belt.

“My focus is on complex nutrition rather than ‘healthy’ or ‘diet’ food,” Mr Beye said.

The idea for the business came when, as a busy student, he struggled to find healthy takeaway food options.

“I was annoyed by how, when I just didn’t have much time, I’d usually have to choose food that’s pretty bad for you,” he recalled.

“It’s harder to get fresh, organic food down to those prices.”

Automating the ordering and food service processes at Hey Zeus didn’t necessarily cut down on the number of staff, he said, but it made the final product quicker and cheaper to deliver.

“I think we’d be able to do it with the same number of labour hours, but we’d be slower and our prices would have to go up,” he said.

Wraps and bowls are priced between $9.90 and $11.90, and there are eight staff including a full-time manager.

For those technophobes who struggle to operate a touchscreen, he said, “there is always someone around to help if you need it”.

dana.mccauley@news.com.au