Restaurant Ordering App

Most of the chain’s online orders came through food delivery aggregators, which took a commission on every order and kept the customers to themselves. Regular customers who loved the food had no reason to order directly, and the chain had no way to reach them.

Inside each outlet, orders arrived in too many ways: several aggregator tablets on the counter, phone orders written on a pad, and counter orders in the billing system. Kitchens worked from printed slips, and on busy nights slips went missing, dishes went out in the wrong order and riders stood waiting without knowing which bag was theirs.

We spent weekend evenings in the kitchens and at the counters before designing anything.

• The counter was a wall of beeping tablets. Each aggregator had its own device, and every order was keyed again into the billing system by hand.
• The kitchen had no single order of work. Slips from different channels piled up by printer, not by time, and the biryani station couldn’t see what the tandoor was waiting on.
• Phone orders were the most loyal and the least organised. Regulars called the same outlet every week, and their orders lived on a notepad.
• Customers called to ask “where is my food?” because nobody could tell them.

We built a branded food ordering app for Android and iPhone, with an ordering website, both connected to one menu that each outlet manages itself.

The menu is built for ordering on a phone with one hand:

• dishes grouped the way people order, with the best-sellers first;
• customisations such as spice level, portion size and add-ons, priced clearly;
• combos and family packs, with the saving shown;
• reorder a past order in two taps.

Customers choose delivery or pickup and can schedule an order for later. Addresses are confirmed with a pin on the map, and each outlet delivers within its own area, so every order goes to the nearest kitchen. Payment is by UPI, card, wallet or cash on delivery.

The kitchen display replaced printed slips. Android tablets in each kitchen show every order from every channel in one queue: the app, the website, phone orders entered at the counter, and aggregator orders entered once at the counter instead of being written out again.

Orders are split by station, so the tandoor, curry, biryani and beverage stations each see only their own items, with a timer on each. When a station finishes, it taps the item ready. When the whole order is ready, the counter and the rider know at once.

The chain’s own riders use a rider app that lists their deliveries, guides them to each address and shares their location while delivering. Customers follow their order on a map from the kitchen to their door, with a notification at each step: accepted, cooking, out for delivery, delivered.

Cash collected on delivery is recorded in the rider app and settled against each rider at the end of the shift, so the outlet’s cash always matches its orders.

Customers earn loyalty points on every order they place directly and spend them on future orders. Birthday offers, referral rewards and outlet-specific deals go out as push notifications to the customers they suit, instead of as discounts for everyone.

For the first time, the chain knows its regular customers: what they order, how often and from which outlet. That knowledge stays with the chain, not with an aggregator.

Each outlet manager has a panel to run their own outlet:

• change prices and add dishes or festival specials;
• mark a dish unavailable the moment it runs out;
• set opening hours, delivery area and minimum order;
• see the day’s orders, sales by channel and delivery times.

Changes reach the app straight away, so customers never order a dish the kitchen can’t make.

The customer app is React Native, and the ordering website and panels are React. A Node.js and Express API sits on MongoDB, with Redis and Socket.IO pushing new orders to the kitchen displays in real time. Firebase Cloud Messaging carries notifications, Razorpay handles online payments, and Google Maps powers addresses, delivery areas and live tracking. Everything runs on AWS.

One outlet ran the whole system for two weeks while we tuned the kitchen display with its chefs and the rider app with its riders. Every other outlet then switched in turn. The launch was promoted inside the restaurants themselves, with QR codes on tables, takeaway bags and bills, and a first-order offer for customers who downloaded the app.

Regular customers now order directly from the chain, with offers and loyalty rewards that bring them back. Every order, from every channel, appears on one kitchen screen in one order of work, riders know which bag is theirs, and customers follow their food instead of calling. Outlet managers update menus, prices and availability themselves in minutes.