Let's Zomato It !!

When I arrived in Delhi, the primary aim was to obtain an engineering degree with added perks of a national capital (basically a metro city).I still wonder what life would have been if I had not changed my mind and went to Kanpur instead. Apart from other n issues, Zomato still does not have a Kanpur section and even if it did, I don’t think there would be much to boast about at least when compared to Delhi.

My blog’s title very easily conveys the voracious eater I am so the hunt for new places to try started right from the first week of college. The year is 2009.We did not have laptops in the first semester and we(Bihari manus-Anurag,Rohit and I) have never been to McD,KFC or Pizza Hut so the easiest way to start was go to Connaught Place and try what we saw on TV advertisements from finger looking good to I’m loving it.

Laptop was needed badly so I could search restaurants online and decide beforehand, unaware of the fact that for doing so there has to be someone who will have to put all the data online for you. I could not imagine where this must not have been done; it’s like man’s basic need(at least for a man like me). Come October, the shiny black Dell came into my possession and I discovered it already existed in the name of Foodiebay. Hearing so much about ebay in news I thought Foodiebay was a part of it, only to realize later it was owned by someone from IITD,I was like ah great minds do think alike, all hail the founder!

Boy was I happy! Either we had to go out or get some food delivered, no choice was made without Foodiebay. Maybe being an IITian startup made us more loyal to it. And it kept getting better and better. They changed the name to Zomato for the good (Foodiebay was lame) and they started tailoring it like I wanted it. Everytime I wished this Y feature should also be there and bang a few days or weeks later it was there.

The year is 2012.I was very sure I wanted a Windows phone though I did check before buying one if Zomato had a Windows app and guess what I have a Windows phone now.(people need to learn that all Lumia phones are Windows phone but all Windows phone are not Lumia!) .

Back to business.Lets list a few things which I like about Zomato and things which will enhance this feeling( things I do for incentives) For obvious reasons I won’t provide any supporting screenshots for the stuff I like. (the secondary reason might be laziness)

Why Zomato is the foodie magnet:

• The best thing about Zomato is that it houses the smallest of the eateries to the most lavish ones. Never thought even Chutney D’Lite would be on the list even though their tawa chicken is delicious. The vast repository and still so fast and desirable results has to be applauded.
• The second thing is the cost and rating based sorting along with location and cuisine filters which saves a lot of trouble for a cheap and lazy person like me trying to optimize my food bill and travel distance.
• The last but surely not the least (this phrase never fits a situation except this time) the mobile app. I love Zomato on Windows phone and more so the shake to discover feature. The map integration on the app as well as on the website is awesome. Sad part, the whole new Zomato social network is not on WP7, Zomato people please work on that or just give me an Galaxy SIII so I have an access to that too.

Well there are several other things to mention like the foodie rating, reviews,events section etc but I only listed the ones which makes me go back to Zomato again and again.

Extra firepower Zomato needs to become invincible:

• The biggest change Zomato should or could incorporate is something like Snapdeal/Crazeal. Once I found a place on Zomato (Yoko sizzlers) only to discover later that Snapdeal was offering huge 40% discount at Yoko sizzlers, same was the story about Spice Market(30%) and The Joint(eat all you can for 200 bucks!!) .I wish Zomato has this feature too; until then I will keep my Snapdeal and Crazeal tabs open alongside.
• The other change which will make me happy would giving some more importance to chefs/restaurants so when I am visit a place I don’t have to see the clueless waiter’s face on asking “what do you suggest?”There has to be some way for restaurants to shout that out what they are best at or whats new on the menu to boast about. It is always 'feel good thing' when you hear from professionals.
• This might be far fetched but there is no service charge on dreaming. Like twitter founder recently said social network needs a better metric than number of followers on particular website . Rating foodies based on some parameters based on number of visits to restaurants will be better than rating them based on their followers on Zomato. Maybe cheap NFC phones in future may assist this by easy check-ins but hey foursquare is surviving without it till now. Tools for becoming the google+facebook of food. (I know people hate such comparisons but I couldn't stop myself)

screenshot from homepage showing chinese food

• Bonus : I never could explain to myself why it is there(refer to the picture on the right) Why not just show something more relevant like a particular food festival is going on at XYZ or this is kabab week at PQR or a chef section.When I visit a homepage I wish to see nothing or something which is useful and I would never missed the anniversary discount at Golconda Bowl. 

 My passion for food ( implying passion for  Zomato) can think of several other stuff right now but let’s save a few things for the next post(will probably try to reason why I don't write reviews on Zomato).

Cheers.