Foodie.lk is an online food review and delivery site that operates in Colombo. We heard some buzz about the site and heard it was a solid option for office lunch time delivery. The site is clean and pretty easy to use, and their delivery is efficient. It does take a while, but we wouldn’t say it’s vastly slower than any other delivery service.
User Experience
It took us a little bit of maneouvering to figure out the website on the first go, but after that it was really easy. Logging in is mandatory but not painful, the site seamlessly connects to your Facebook account and doesn’t ask for any weird privacy permissions and doesn’t post on your behalf. If you’re a first or second time user, a little log in icon pops up below your FB name and photo, calling you a noobie. That simultaneously made me laugh and hurt my feelings. So in some ways, an apt metaphor for life.
For some reason, the thumbnails on the site refused to appear, so it was a little tough blindly ordering stuff. We ordered a burger from Mitsy’s and some chicken from Calorie Counter, which was a little tricky because you need to check them out individually. Basically, the site doesn’t support multiple orders from different restaurants yet. It was a 4 step process, the usual address-order-check out-confirm that you’d expect. You also have to verify your identity with a pin code that will be texted to your phone.
The whole process took about 5 minutes, tops (barring the time it took to choose the food). It was way faster the second time around. So that’s about the same time it would take for you to call and order from a place, but minus the hassle of making a call during work.
Delivery
Despite the site not accepting multiple orders from different restaurants, our orders all arrived together, which was convenient. Unfortunately, you get charged Rs. 150 for each restaurant you order from, which is annoying. It took about 1 hour and 35 minutes from the time of delivery confirmation, which is really long, but unfortunately pretty much the average time for delivery in Colombo (barring pizza delivery).
You also have to wait for the restaurant’s individual opening times, which for most places is 12 PM. This means you can only really expect your lunch to arrive around 1:45 PM, which is super late for the average office lunch break.
We appreciated that the delivery guy didn’t call and ask for directions, and had plenty of change. There isn’t really much more to say, except that we wish it could be quicker.
