ZOMATO : To love or not to love?

What is Zomato? 

I am sure, the ones reading this would laugh, saying this is not a question to be asked, because everyone in the world knows about Zomato. I am sure, its true, with the wonders Zomato has done in less than 5 years. But let me tell you a little about Zomato, for those living in cities where Zomato is still a new concept.

From the Start :

Zomato started as FoodieBay.com  by Deepinder Goyal along with a few of his colleagues to sort out the problems of finding a good restaurant to eat. Officially started in July, 2008 with a database for approx 1200 restaurants in Delhi, Zomato has expanded its database to more than 1,20,000. Zomato has expanded its reach outside India recently to places like Brazil, New Zealand, Phillipines, Qatar, UAE, UK, Sri Lanka, London and many more...

What does it do :

Zomato's guide allows you to search for information related to restaurants, bars, pubs, and clubs. The information includes the establishment's name, contact info, hours of operation, happy hours (where valid), menu cards, photos, user reviews, location on map, user ratings and recommendations for the restaurant, types of cuisines served, presence or absence of AC, smoking area availability, WiFi services, approx prices, availability of home delivery, and much more!

My Experience :

I myself started out sharing a few experiences on Zomato. When I earned a position on the leaderboard for the first time, I couldn't control my excitement. I was filled with joy! From then on, I have never missed a chance to try out a new restaurant, or a newly opened club, (just to review more on Zomato, and go higher on the foodie leaderboard). 

My eyes light up, when one of my friends sees my name on the Zomato leaderboard while surfing and texts me to say that they feel proud of me! I have gained huge popularity among my friends, and they all ask for my recommendations whenever they go out, which makes me nothing less than proud! ;) 

Now, I aspire to be recognized as a foodie, and be known to my fellow Zomen as a connoisseur, a gourmand. Zomato served as an inspiration...

What We love :

1) Zomato provides us with accurate, up-to-date and detailed information for each establishment in the city.

2) User Recommendations, help you decide if the restaurant/club/pub is worth going or not.

3) Availability of Menu for each restaurant which helps us decide if we can really afford it or not, and if the cuisine and the dishes available matches our taste or not.

4) The interface is easy-to-use and user friendly.Also, it is updated frequently, which keeps us hooked to the website, and makes us more enthusiastic about food we eat outside!

5) Zomato has made eating outside a trend, an experience worth having! People want to go out more, and discover new places to eat, so that they can review more on Zomato and earn points and respectable status in the foodie committee. 

6) Zomato recently introduced an option to thank someone if you liked their review, which is a superb move to let people know, their reviews are appreciated!

7) The leaderboard system on Zomato helps you maintain the competitive spirit, and keeps alive the spirit of discovering new places and restaurants in your city.

8) Zomato has launched an app for the mobile phones, which makes it easy to discover new places through mobile.

9) Zomato also lists the budget for 2 for each restaurant, which helps you decide if it is within your price range or not.

10) The happy hours availability on Zomato is great for all!

11) Finding nearby metro, and posting pics and commenting on the reviews is easy through the Zomato app...Which we absolutely love!

12) Book a table option availability at a few restaurants, which helps you to avoid the waiting line at the restaurants.

What we want to change or be added to our fav Website :

1) Zomato can introduce their own offers for each restaurant for people come to ZOMATO almost everyday, and availing offers by writing reviews would be very helpful!

2) We should be able to recommend a dish for each restaurant, and availability of voting system for each dish (special to each restaurant) would help us try out the best dishes of each restaurant.

3) I want to be able to divide the places I favourite, into groups like #Party Favourites, #Buffet Favourites, #Brunch Favorites etc. so that its easy to find the place when I need to!

4) I should be able to find out the restaurants open at a particular time, especially night time and breakfast time, when searching for a food joint is pretty difficult.

5) Include the Chef's names if possible. People would love to know about them. Also, if there was a lil section devoted to the chefs, it would be great!

6) People writing small insignificant reviews should be warned, as such reviews are in no way helpful, and quite irritating. We should be allowed to report and moderate such users.

7) Zomato rewards its foodies, but not too well. Foodies should be offered special discounts once in a while. It would be nice, refreshing and rewarding.

8) While planning for my party, it became very difficult for me to go to each restaurant and gather details to organize a private party. Such options should be made available on Zomato.

9) We need a better Rating system! We should be able to rate food, music, ambiance, etc individually, so it becomes easy for people to judge a place better!

11) Lack of ambiance photos is quite frustrating. We need to check out the ambiance, and food photos aren't that important! We need more ambiance photos for each restaurant!

12) A coming soon section is much required on Zomato. Coming Soon or newly launched restaurants should be listed separately for users to be able to discover more!

13) There should be an option available, for those, who dont have a lot of time to write a review, to choose few of the given words in each section of food, ambiance, service, etc to describe a place fast and easy, without any hassles.

14) More criteria to sort out the restaurant of choice can be added to the website. 

I hope Zomato implements these points in their next update, and help enhance the experience of fellow Zomen.