There was a time when you had no option than to physically go to your favorite restaurant to have your favorite food. Often, one had to travel from one place to another in heavy Kathmandu traffic to find the food they wanted. But nowadays, things have become much easier due to the advent of technology. You just need a computer or a smart phone with internet access, and food comes to your doorsteps. There are a number of entrepreneurs that are working tirelessly to satisfy your culinary needs. For those who cannot prepare food themselves or are so busy at work, these entrepreneurs have provided online platforms for ordering food. Thanks to them, you can just click or press a button and pay on delivery when the food comes to your place. Here, we have featured the services of three online food portals of Kathmandu.
Foodmario
Foodmario was established seven months ago to create a platform that connected household cooks with customers and delivered the creation of these cooks. With Foodmario, anyone can cook food from their own home kitchen and create a market for themselves. In Foodmario you can cook food if you have a clean kitchen and agree to follow certain protocols (like using good quality ingredients, using gloves while cooking and so on). And similarly anyone can order good, healthy home-cooked food from any home-chef. This delivery service delivers food within one to one and half hour after receiving the order. The unique features of this online portal are that they don’t have any minimum orders and they serve only home cooked food directly from the kitchen of the cook.
One downside of Foodmario is that they are limited inside the ring roads. However, they are looking to expand their businesses outside the ring road. Currently there are 15 home cooks associated with Foodmario who cook different cuisine, from typical Newari cuisines to continental foods.
Know your inner self
The CEO and Founder of Foodmario, Rohit Tiwari, said, “Foodmario was established with vision to provide equal opportunity to everyone who have the passion and skill to cook food.”
“We are also planning to launch mobile app in less than two weeks that will enable anyone to sign-up easily and sell as well as buy home-cooked food online”, he added. To know whether home cooks are following protocols or not, kitchens of home cook are investigated in every 15 days by Foodmario.
Foodmario delivers food in bikes to ensure timely delivery. They use aluminum boxes to keep food hot and fresh. This online portal is also planning to create its own brand of packaging within a month.
BhokLagyo
BhokLagyo was established in January 2017. Initially, it provided services at night from 8 pm till 4 am but they have expands this time and now they provide service from 11 am to 4 am (17 hours a day). This online portal doesn't have app so customers can order food by calling their landline number or through other social media like such as Whatsapp, Viber, Instagram DM, and Facebook messenger. Co-founder and Marketing Director of BhokLagyo, Shejey Agyitsang said, “We have established this online portal for food delivery by recognizing the problem that people faced due to the unavailability of restaurants and security during night time which is a very new concept in Nepal, But now our operations runs for 17 hours a day and we are getting good response from the costumers.” BhokLagyo serves different ranges of cuisines and flavors including momo, burger, desserts, drinks, and so on.
There are 15 staff members associated with BhokLagyo. Foods served by BhokLagyo are cooked at its own kitchen which is located at Panipokhari, Kathmandu. Currently BhokLagyo provides services inside the ring road only. But after celebrating the first anniversary, the founders are looking forward to expand their business. The best part of this online portal is that costumers should not explain direction and location once costumer service gets the exact location of the costumers through social networking site (using GP ) they send this location pin to the delivery staff and the seam wafting delicious food will be at your door steps.
BhokLagyo delivers their food perfectly packed inside special food delivery bags within 45 minutes to one hour. Costumers should pay cash on delivery but the founders are also looking forward to introduce online payment.
Bhoj
Bhoj (previously Bhojdeals) is a mobile app established in October 2015 with an aim of providing the people of Kathmandu an easy to use, simple, and smart platform for ordering food. Using the app, people can explore and enjoy their favorite food wherever they like -- at work or at the comfort of their house. Users can order food by using the app or by calling the customer care center of Bhoj. Bhoj delivers everywhere inside the ring road. If its delivery team is available, it delivers food outside ring road also.
Bhoj uses insulated thermal bags to keep food fresh and hot. It encourages users to order from nearby restaurants to minimize delivery time and avoid delays due to heavy traffic. The app of Bhoj has two main sections -- deals and delivery. In deals sections, users can search for restaurants based on the name, cuisines and rating or locations and grab free deals. When they visit the restaurant and show the deal in the app, they get discount at the restaurant. In delivery section, users can search for restaurants and items and add items in their cart to place their order. The app automatically detects users' location based on integrated Google map. Once the order is placed, users can see real time status of their order. All restaurants in the app have menu and user ratings so users can browse these also before ordering or going to a restaurant.
There is no delivery charge for those people who order food of more than Rs 1,000 and Rs 50 for those who order less than Rs 1,000. Bhoj team are getting good feedback from costumers. They are rated 4/5 on Google Play Store by 250 users which speaks for the positive feedback that they have been receiving.
