Sit, Click, Receive: Order food online, eat at restaurant
A viral tweet gave people a new hack — that you can order food on a delivery app while sitting inside a café and avail a nice discount
Twitter user Sandeep Mall’s recent tweet, which revealed a money-saving secret for diners at restaurants, has captured the attention of foodies across Chandigarh. “Zomato keeps giving these discounts, so they had this deal for the weekend at Starbucks. I ordered from Zomato instead of Starbucks and had it delivered to the same location (Mall purchased a coffee worth ₹400 for a mere ₹190). This was my first time trying this hack, and it saved me so much. I’m sure people try this hack,” he shared.
To test the hype, HT City tried this at three eateries in the city — and guess what, it worked!
Some eateries are aware of the hack and allow their customers to order via food delivery apps, others look the other way while officially maintaining that they don’t encourage customers for the same.
At Il Forno Magico, an order of tomato and olive bruschetta, mocha cold coffee and Luicy Juicy chicken burger, came at ₹721, thanks to the food delivery app, which would have otherwise cost ₹959, had the order been placed at the restaurant. Priya, the outlook manager at Il Forno Magico, says, “These offers have proved to be beneficial for us as they are a good way to promote and market your restaurant. Tables get booked and new customers keep coming in due to this, so we don’t mind this trend.”
A 10-inch tandoori chicken pizza with cheesy garlic bread, a brownie sundae, and a Torroncino hot chocolate, cost us ₹743, which would have otherwise cost a hefty ₹1,140. Ranjeet, a staffer at The Chocolate Room, says, “We offer huge discounts at our outlets anyways, so people ordering via food delivery apps and having the meal on our premises doesn’t really affect business.”
A combination of DD chicken steamed dimsums and spicy fish butter pan fried dimsums cost us ₹469. The actual order would have cost ₹741, at Damn Son! Dim Sums. Pawan, a staffer at the outlet, says, “We are aware of these discounts offered on Zomato. But we do not encourage customers ordering online and dining inside the restaurant. We treat such orders as takeaway.”
Delivery agents confirm the rising popularity of this trend. “It has become quite common for people to order on Zomato and have the meal inside the restaurant,” says delivery agent Satvir Singh.