SUSHI lovers could be in for a shock when they next spend a penny at a pioneering Oxford restaurant.

The ancient art of sushi-making will be given a futuristic shake-up when Yo! Sushi unveils ultramodern features, including bottom-cleaning toilets and touchscreen windows.

Customers only have to wait one week to get a taste of the high-tech tweaks, which will also include a robotic ‘waiter’ and are being trialled solely in the city's George Street branch.

Assistant manager Rob Veiga said: “It’s quite cool, I’ve never seen anything like this around Oxford. I feel really excited - all of us have been waiting for a long time for this. Now it’s happening we can’t wait to see people’s reactions.

“I think it will be great for Oxford to get something like this, it’s a different level of dining experience.”

The 24-year-old said the ‘awesome’ toilets were his ‘favourite feature’, and said the Japanese models can spray cleansing water jets when customers are sat on the seat.

Current service on the restaurant’s conveyor belts will continue, but with an additional belt for a robotic plate which will be loaded with food in the kitchen.

It will be programmed to travel along the belt and deliver the dish to the table which ordered it.

The glass window pane at the front of the restaurant will be fitted with touchscreen technology so passers-by can flip through the menu at the flick of a finger, while a 60-inch screen will be installed inside.

The restaurant will close on Sunday for four days, before reopening with the new features on Friday.

Mr Veiga suggested the branch, which opened in 2008 and employs about 20 people, had been at risk of closure.

He said: “I think it was struggling a little bit before - they needed new staff and management - but now it’s better, they decided not to close it and to spend some money doing the refurbishment.

“There’s big competition so we need to highlight our name. We get a lot of people in Oxford who are Japanese or Chinese, especially tourists during summer. Two years ago people here didn’t speak about sushi but nowadays you’ve got Itsu, a Wasabi coming and smaller specialist shops.”