FreshMenu: The new Food-ball player in town
Food-Tech startup ruling over in Bangalore
Food Industry as whole:
Before talking about Food, its tastings and innovation involved in it, let’s once see how serious the industry is. Food, has become a major player in business industries from very long time. Especially the food chain restaurants and fast-food joints brought up a significant change in the style of food culture all over the world. New players, new menus, new cuisines, a lot of differential change has happened in food industry over decades. The current era has grown towards a new trend, Food Delivery. Isn’t it great if you can get the food you love, gets delivered to your doorstep? It’s amazing. It made people amaze and as well doubt about the freshness. Then later, new players saw this as a challenge. Many companies came forward with same basic idea, “Amazing food, fresh and hot, at your door step, from your favorite restaurant”
Later the newbies thought, why pick it up from a restaurant and deliver? Why not make it our own franchise food and deliver that? This idea kicked up the food industry in vertical direction. Now we got lot of start-ups kick starting the food industry with their own franchise and delivery. Few of them went only for delivery while few wanted their generation of money in any way possible and stayed as offline joints also. Naming few who picked their own franchise, here in Bangalore are, Faasos, Box8, Meal Dairies, FreshMenu, InnerChef etc. Few of them are spread across the country and few growing their industry strong in Bangalore. One amazing thing with Bangalore is, people here give a chance for newbies. Maybe that’s why it’s called ‘Start-up hub’.
Experiences with Food Delivery Services:
When I first came to Bangalore I used to stay at Indira Nagar with my friend. New job, new place and new food. I always have this fetish towards delicacy and ambiance of food. I also love consistency of a place or restaurant. Maybe that’s why you love all small joints in the city than big restaurants. They give that homely taste and bang of flavor every time you eat it. Not that big restaurants don’t give you that, but it would burn you a hole in your wallet if you visit the place like a food joint. Obviously, that’s why they are called food joints. Some people care about the hygiene, while some care about the taste vs money. So they newbies in town, thought of why not a cheap and amazing street food for home delivery. That just clicked and it happened to be a great success. A great menu, constant, but amazing home-made like dishes roll out to your doorstep at a fair and average prices. Now this player grew great, went to other cities and rocked. Until, another newbie came up with, ‘what if we change the menu daily, like a cycle over the week, which eliminates the constant boring menu’. Now the competition has begun. As there are very wide range of choices they can cycle the menu, they narrowed it down to few specific cuisines, allowing lot of other players to pick up great stuff which other player thought they don’t do it. Like that now we have lot of ‘Home delivery food services operating on their own franchise’.
In this process, I came across a place called ‘Meal Dairies’. They are great, amazing food. I almost ordered every dinner from this place. They have a rotating menu with amazing combinations of food. They have food in terms of combos. Super quality, consistent, great delivery, awesome experience. I loved their food, everybody I’ve asked to try loved them. Then I had to shift to a new house as my friend left to US. I moved out of Indira Nagar and came to BTM. I didn’t have delivery from these at my new house. I felt bad. Meanwhile I tried many other similar services. Box8, is one among them, who also have great service. They deliver fast and food is good. It’s good, not great. But they have very good desi-khaana. Then I came across this hotshot called ‘FreshMenu’.
New Player in Town:
FreshMenu has great app, to start with. They have amazing menu. Rotating but, picking up one of the most indulging dishes. I love these guys for their cheesecakes and the flavors they introduce along with it. When I first started ordering from these guys, I used Swiggy, the savior app of any bachelor in city. Later I checked their app through their website. I felt great, not only cause the app looks great, but also that they don’t charge any delivery charges through their portals. So a 30 bucks saved is a 30 bucks saved. So I started using their app. Good interface, easy and sleek. May be a little tweaks here and there in design perspective will make it even great. I became so addicted to these guys that I actually started ordering every time I see a new dessert coming up in their menu. I almost ordered every jar dessert they have in their menu so far. They also have amazing pizzas. Their Chicken Chipotle is off the charts. I love most of their starters and salads taste great if you are a ‘salad type of foodie’.
And now their jars are pretty useful in kitchen. I once heard that, it’s safe to use glass, than plastic and steel, to store things in your kitchen. Though risky, they actually make your kitchen look professional and great, while you are cooking.