Our first Foodpanda delivery experience

Dining in is the new dining out. Call us cyber-dinosaurs or worse, ‘swa koo‘, but we are usually the slowest to embrace new technology amongst our friends. Until now, we have not tried any of the new restaurant food delivery systems (our only online experience had been McDonalds’ Delivery). Two things prompted us to try out the Foodpanda delivery service. First, out of sheer curiosity as we see so many couriers on motorbikes zipping around us with food bag packs. Second – sheer laziness.  It was approaching 6 pm evening. There is no food at home, but we are lazy to change to go out.  So we decided to let the fingers do the cooking.

The first challenge was – which delivery service?  The two names that we know are Deliveroo and Foodpanda. We also remember a Sunday Times story that reviewed a group of delivery services and another company had emerged on top, beating these two.  But we could not recall the name of that winner. Feedback to food delivery companies- pick a catchy name, preferably one that brings to mind a cute animal.

We entered our postal code on the Deliveroo and Foodpanda websites. The latter won as the list of restaurants serving our area was three times longer than Deliveroo’s list. Out of the list of restaurants, we settled on Curry Gardenn. A quick registration with our delivery details and we had booked our first online restaurant food delivery, scheduled for 8 pm.

Amazingly around 8.01, the Foodpanda delivery guy arrived. We were super impressed.  We had read the blog by the daughter of a courier delivery man about the challenges of those in the delivery business so we had the exact cash ready and waited at the door for his arrival. He was a pleasant young man with  the bright orange Foodpanda shirt and matching helmet. ‘Good evening’ and ‘enjoy your dinner’. Words seldom heard in restaurants these days. Wow, the takeaway service standard is better than service standards commonly encountered in many restaurants.

We had ordered a chicken briyani rice set ($11) and a quarter tandoori chicken ($10). With GST added, the total cost was $22.47. There was no separate charge for delivery. The rice was packed in a styrofoam box. The other items were packed in appropriate sized tubs. Some turbulence during the trip can be expected and the internal tops of the tubs were splashed with the gravy that they contained. But there was no spillage. The items were not as hot as what we would imagine would be if dining at the restaurant, but still warm.

The food from Curry Gardenn was generally good. The best item was the tandoori chicken as it was cooked till tender with some smoky taste but not dry.  The downside was that the curries provided were too mild. The one containing the chicken cubes was sweet. The portion of rice was very large. There was more than enough food for two.

Overall, our first online food order experience with Foodpanda Delivery was a positive one.  No travelling to worry about and no service charge!