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A new approach in food services: Foodcourt.pk

October 22, 2008 10:49 am 9 comments

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Foodcourt.pk is a new service which can be easily termed as a one stop shop for food lovers. The portal not just offers a complete database of major eateries in Karachi but also gives you the option to order online. Yeah, they are taking online orders for delivery and takeaway. There is no need to search for the contact numbers of restaurants and then look for the specialities – everything is available online. You just have to search for your favorite restaurant/cuisine/price range, make an online order and then wait for the delivery.

The takeaway services are aligned on the similar lines. They are also planning to arrange online dine-in reservations in near future. Some other services on offer include free SMS and SMS Wall posts (You have to register for that). The restaurants listings are currently limited to Karachi but the man behind the project, Mr. Ayaz Shah, told me that he is planning to start listings for Lahore in 3-4 weeks.

It was proverbial “Mother of Inventions”, It was Saturday evening, I had terrible flu/fever, I wanted that soup from China Town, I was aware that they have delivery service, I didn’t have the number, been a while that I have used PTCL directory service, I called and got the number; either they gave me the wrong number or I noted it wrong, anyway, it was very frustrating, I finally googled China Town got the number and got through after 4-5 attempt (busy Saturday nights) and got my soup.

Next day (Sunday) being MCS, I designed data flow chat for online ordering system interface and sent to Eyes to Fingers (a Developers Consortium) for endorsement. It is completely self funded project, Concept and Brand awareness needed fairly big budget for advertisements, I compensated it by SEO, adding video, Free SMS and SMS Wall, Polls etc.

He also told me that he is planning to enable Menu update in “Merchant Interface” XL Like sheet (AJAX). The main interface is ready and needs little time to implement “Menu Sections” updates to it.

The site is good overall but the GUI is little jarring to my eyes. A neat and user friendly interface is a must for these type of portals. The KSE stock ticker looks really funny. Secondly, they have currently listed those restaurants which have their own delivery systems in place, though he told me that they might come up with an in-house delivery system if they get the finances.  The site can be a success if they improve its GUI and content and expand the scope of listings (both city wise and area wise).

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9 Comments

  • Basit Ali
    October 22, 2008
    12:47 pm

    Great work Ayaz. I belong to Lahore and not only I needed something of this sort for myself, but also am interested in helping you out with the project. At least I can list areas down for you. Can somebody get me through to Ayaz right away?

  • fawwad
    October 22, 2008
    1:54 pm

    this is very good service & BEST

  • Sohaib Athar
    October 22, 2008
    2:22 pm

    The link to eyes2fingers has a typo here, and by the way, I don’t understand why Mr. Ayaz Shah had to “send the proposal” to “a developers consortium” for endorsement, when he owns the consortium, or atleast its domain name. Just curious :>

  • Sibtain Jiwani
    October 22, 2008
    2:27 pm

    Well done!

    Though the idea is not relatively a new one, similar service is offered in UK which started around 3 years ago, where users have to pay for the food online thus riders dont have to carry any change!

  • Ayaz Shah
    October 22, 2008
    8:56 pm

    Thank you for your review Saad,

    Thanks for your comments everyone.

    I appreciate your offer Basit. I am not at all hard to find. You can reach me from “Contact Us” at the site or ayaz.shah AT gmail DOT com

  • M
    October 23, 2008
    4:20 pm

    Terrible UI. Misplaced focus. I came here to figure out the number to call and a menu, not smsing or recipies.

    Ofcourse, I might be biased. see below :)

    http://www.karachimetro.com

  • Obaid
    October 23, 2008
    8:46 pm

    I have to agree with mr M above.

    The UI is what killed the site for me. It is hard to navigate and if I had not read greenwhite review i would have never guessed what is it that the site actually does.

    Also, Ayaz can you share with us how your experience has been so far in pushing a web startup in Pakistan?

    PS: You can get my contact with my blog.

  • Mackey
    October 24, 2008
    7:53 am

    What with the SMS wall?

  • Ayaz Shah
    October 30, 2008
    8:05 am

    Mackey. What is your question?

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