Hungry Bangalore - online ordering service

Their website reads, "hungrybangalore.com, the premier on-line restaurant ordering service for the hungry web surfer in Bangalore, allows you to place orders online, make reservation online at participating restaurants for free. Your order is then immediately sent to the restaurant where it is prepared accurately and made available to you at the time and date you specify. You may choose to pick up your order for carry out, have it delivered, or to have it ready at your specified time to dine in depending on your preference and the services of the restaurant."

The main options available off the site, are

• Order Meal - lets you pick from a list of 150+ restaurants across the city, which can be chosen by browsing through location categories, or by doing a search
• Book Table - lets you grab a table for dinner reservations
• Plan a party - appears to assist with party planning
• Subscribe to Tiffin - lets you enter your location and check for dabbawallas available

Lazing at home this evening, we decided to try out the site and order food in. We browsed through the locations to pick a restaurant we liked, and then entered the quantities of the items from the menu. Once we had chosen our starters, curries and naans, we proceeded to place the order. Interestingly, the site did not require any registration - just an email address was needed, which was convenient. Soon after we placed the order, I promptly got an email from them:

Dear Aravind Krishnaswamy,

Thank you for registering with HungryBangalore.com. We take great pleasure in welcoming you to our family and are very committed to making sure you are provided an excellent service experience.

Your account information is as follows:

UserName: xxxxx@gmail.com

Password: xxxxx (Please login to hungrybangalore and change the password)

Please use this to login to hungrybangalore. As a welcome gift we offer you 10 redeemable points which you can use to redeem free gifts from hungrybangalore. If you have any questions, comments or concerns, please do not hesitate to email us at support@hungrybangalore.com or call our customer care and we'll be honored to assist you.
We look forward to serve you with your favorite food for a delicious cause.

Sincerely yours,
HungryBangalore Team.

Minutes later, I got a follow on email confirming the order:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
Date: Jan 6, 2008 8:14 PM
Subject: Order details for Sigri (Order #13891nu)
To: xxxxx@gmail.com

* We will confirm your order by mail. You need not call up the restaurant for the same.

Home Delivery Order Details Order Code : 13891nu Name: Aravind Krishnaswamy Address: xxxxxxxx , Airport Road Domlur Diamond District E Block Phone Number: Ext: Mobile: xxxxxxxxxx Delivery Date/Time: As soon as possible. Instructions: Serial # Item Name Quantity Price Per Plate Final Price 1 Tomato Soup (V) 1 45 45 2 Yellow Dal Tadka (V) 1 50 50 3 Egg Masala (NV) 1 65 65 4 Zeera Rice (V) 1 45 45 5 Romali Roti (V) 2 12 24 Total: 229 Tax: 0 Final Total: 229

* Gather HB points by ordering online and redeem them with cool gifts and voucher. Join now and earn 10 bonus points.

Important info for Home Delivery Orders: In case you food is not delivered within the time specified in the return email, please mail us back at hungrybangalore@gmail.com or call us at 9945844442 to check the status of your order.

It's particularly worth mentioning that they clearly indicate '* We will confirm your order by mail. You need not call up the restaurant for the same. ' since I was on the verge of calling the restaurant just to be on the safe side.

A few minutes later, I got this note indicating the order had been passed on to the restaurant.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: hungry bangalore
Date: Jan 6, 2008 8:18 PM
Subject: Re: Order details for Sigri (Order #13891nu)
To: orders@hungrybangalore.com
Cc: xxxxxx@gmail.com

Dear Arvind,

Thank you for using hungrybangalore.com. Your order has been passed on to the restaurant.The process of delivery would approximately take around on 45 minutes. Please feel free to call us at 99458-44442 or mail us at this id in case the order is not delivered within this time.

Hope you have a great day. We will look forward to your suggestions and feedbacks to help us serve you better.

Warm Regards,
HungryBangalore Team

------------------------------------------------------

Just about 45 minutes later, we tried calling their hotline (99458-44442) to indicate the the order had not arrived, but the line was constantly busy. I was about to email them when the doorbell rang and the food arrived.

Overall, the experience was ok. Getting through to place the order was a breeze, and it was good to get clear confirmation messages. However, a few things that would help would be improved navigation on the site, which is still quite clunky and the navigation is all over the place, with text in different fonts - almost as if they have been trying to do way too much with the site (food delivery, events, reviews, dabba). It was also unclear if all items on the menu would be available. At some point, it might help to provide an online chat based service for assistance to supplement the hotline. It would also be interesting to see if they can tie up with Sodexho and offer a way to redeem coupons online.

Its great that such online services are now available in Bangalore, and will go a long way in helping make our lives easier.

Cost: Free service
Quality: Good
Service: Good
Bottomline: A neat site for placing home delivery orders in Bangalore quickly. It's not quite waitersonwheels yet though.