Food Guide: Satiate your hunger online!

BANGALORE, INDIA: All Work And No Play Makes Jack A Dull Boy - thus goes a saying. Well, All Work And No Food Makes Anyone Dull and Lifeless!- most of you will surely agree with this.

Those who do not carry food from home are at the mercy of eateries and hotels. Busy schedules often leave you with no time to satiate your hunger For those  working late hours, especially in the IT/BPO sector, might find it difficult to look for a decent food joint at that hour. Since this crowd is mostly from other cities, neither are they aware of good eateries around nor do they have the time to get back home and cook.

If you are one among those who has been staying hungry for reasons best known to you – then, worry not.  hungryzone.com helps you kill your hunger pangs by searching for a good hotel nearby and order what you want at the click of your mouse. 

The portal has a listing of around 500 hotels and restaurants in Bangalore. It allows you to place orders online and also book a table at the participating restaurants for free. Your order is 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.

Brain child of Ritesh Dwivedy and Priyanka, both IITians from Kharagpur, hungryzone.com was launched catering to Bangalore alone in July 2006. Today, it covers nine more cities – Bhopal, Chandigarh, Delhi, Goa , Indore, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Mumbai and Kolkota.

The initiative to start this portal came from their own experience. “I and Priyanka were working in a  start-up when we moved to Bangalore. Amidst busy work schedules, we found it difficult to go to a hotel and it was time consuming as well. Since we were new to the city, it was difficult to find a good hotel after work during late night. We would look for restaurants on the Internet to order food. But the choice was limited,” narrates Ritesh.

“This experience was shared by many  professionals like us who were away from home and were unable to cook. Thus we hit upon the idea to start this website,” he adds.

Initially, the duo shared the idea with their friends and did a small survey among the IT and MNC crowd. With an encouraging response to their idea, they contacted hotels and restaurants  in the city who were also supportive of their initiative. “We launched the website with 10 hotels in Bangalore. Today we have a huge listing of 500 hotels in Bangalore alone and close to 9,000 covering all the 10 cities,” he adds.

However, presently, orders can be placed for hotels and restaurants in Bangalore alone. The portal will offer online ordering in a few more cities from early 2009. The respective menu of each hotel and the pricing allows you to make the right choice while ordering your food.

In addition, hungryzone allows users to review the restaurants,  book a table and plan  a party too. It also  offers recipes and health tips. The website also gives information on food themes and parties during Christmas, New Year and other celebrations at various restaurants in the city.

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Wondering what this is! Well, this is the famous dabbawala concept of Mumbai. For those wishing to order food regularly, hungryzone helps  them in subscribing for daily deliveries.  “Though there are not many takers in Bangalore, it is slowly gaining popularity. We are receiving enquiries, especially from students,” says Ritesh. In all, the site gets around 8,000 hits per day. While 70 percent of the  orders happen online, especially from the IT crowd and students, 30 percent happen through the helpline which covers housewives and the general crowd.

“In all, it's been a very satisfying experience for us to get to do what we want to do. It has been a huge learning experience,” says Ritesh. Meanwhile, hungryzone.com is going for a total revamp in the New Year with a lot of new offerings and added features.

For those who cannot order food online, hungryzone also has a helpline – 41104993. Users can call up this number to place an order and also know the status of the order.