Has cooking food been a concern for you this season? Or worst still deciding on a menu and getting the right supplies? That is where the best food-ordering apps get you the meal you crave – to your dining table and fast.
These apps open up a new world of grub, with a list of restaurants in and around your area.
It just needs to know your location and the innumerable list of these restaurants just spring up with their offers all without you having to leave your couch or work station.
Bracing up with some of the most popular food ordering apps easily available.
UberEats
UberEats is a standalone delivery app available in most of the cities worldwide. It is an app owned by Uber, the car booking app. Similar features it shares with Uber are – estimated delivery time and cashless transactions.
When you place your order, you’ll see your delivery address, an estimated delivery time, and the total price, including tax and the booking fee. You can tap to seamlessly pay with your Uber account, or add a credit card. The order can be tracked in real-time as it heads your way.
The app is available globally, but its India operations has been taken over by Zomato through a stock deal, in January this year, leaving Uber with just 10% stake in the company.
Swiggy
The Swiggy app delivers orders from restaurants not just nearby but also from those far away, or even further away. They are extremely fast in their delivery, with the food arriving hot and fresh. They also offer live tracking of your order and take up even late-night orders.
There are freebies and cash back offers and discounts that come by a Swiggy meal and what is more delighting than getting amazing deals from a host of restaurants, banks, and wallet partners?
Payments can be made online through credit/debit cards, Mobikwick wallets, and Sodexo meal cards or can be paid for later using LazyPay, besides cash on delivery.
Foodpanda
Foodpanda is another popular online food delivery service app in India. The popularity is due to its huge database of restaurants in metropolises, cities, and major towns. They provide discounts and offers also.
They have a wide spectrum of cuisine to choose from. From a mix of North Indian, South Indian, Mexican, Chinese, Thai, Continental, and more with the 15000 restaurants online. They have round the clock delivery system and the delivery is done pretty fast.
The online food ordering app, as well as the website are both extremely convenient to use with speedy checkouts and deliveries. The payments can be done through all major wallets like, Paytm, Mobikwik, Freecharge, PhonePe, UPI or choose COD. The users can save money on exclusive deals, discounts, vouchers, and coupons that run all through the year.
The users have ranked this app as India’s most convenient online delivery platform.
Zomato
Zomato is another popular food ordering app that lets you search for and discover restaurants to eat out or order in from. It helps in browsing through menus, photos, user reviews and ratings to decide where you want to eat and uses the map feature to guide you there.
The features of this app include easy search for restaurants, cafes, and pubs by location, cuisine, and name.
The use of search filters help you locate the one that suits you best. It also lets you view menus, pictures, phone numbers, directions, user reviews, and all the other information you need to choose a restaurant for dining out, food delivery, nightlife, or take away.
There are theme-based curated lists to discover places for the best burgers, perfect rendezvous, or the top trending restaurants. You can rate and review restaurants you’ve been to, and share photos of your foodie moments – directly from the app.
You can maintain an easy reference list of your favourite outlets or list places you want to visit with bookmarks. Use the map view to explore restaurants around you, or draw a circle to search in a specific area. Find and follow your friends to see where they’re eating and what they like. Journal the restaurants you eat at, using your dine line.
The in-app table booking at select outlets lets you view and book yourself a table at all partner restaurants.
Faasos
The Fassos app holds a huge consumer base in the top cities of India. The app delivers easy navigation for consumers to select the best menu for order.
It has a simple new minimalist UI that enables you to place orders in seconds. The dynamic delivery estimated time will be based on where you are located.
The payment interface is simplified and done using the wallet to preload money and all the other usual payment modes.
You can refer your friends and earn cash to pay for your orders. Each order can be customised and your friends can be tagged with each order, so vegetarians should get only vegetarian. Though there had been problems with this feature before, it has now become an event of the past.
The Food Service
Maybe not every restaurant or cafe around the world would find it necessary to jump into offering immediate delivery but it wouldn’t be long before every restaurant will have to confront the effect of delivery in their industry.
Restaurants will have to start rethinking traditional ways of doing business, not only because of an increase in the number of delivery apps, but also because of the changing consumer habits, which are making heads for newer, more convenient dining options such as meal kits, food trucks, and fast-casual restaurants.
With people migrating to cities there’s an increase in demand for these apps as never before. The delivery system can help cultivate customer loyalty and aid in the expansion of new market segments. It has helped chains, with poor traffic garner new customers. Those in the food service industry who are not into the delivery system are certainly missing out on a mountain of opportunities.
All these apps are supported by a review and rating system, which ensures that only the best food, reaches the users’ table. By integrating a wide spectrum of restaurants, outlets, and takeaways, these apps don’t just bring the whole world on a platter but provide the opportunity to reflect, refer and earn freebie points in this dynamic ecosystem of consumerism.
These can be downloaded on Android and iOS with some apps like Foodpanda available on the Windows platform also.
By Shaibana Sherafudheen
Shaibana holds a Masters in Computer Applications and juggles the roles of a professional, wife, mum, homemaker and devoted friend to all, effortlessly. A marketing professional with more than 15 years’ experience, who enjoys reading, writing and a bit of gardening. She lives with her family in Kerala, in the vibrant city of Kochi, which provides ample scope for chasing one’s dreams.
