6 lesser-known features on Zomato that will elevate your food-ordering experience

Food filters

Zomato makes it easy to choose the right kind of food. (Express Photo)

This feature from Zomato can help you save a lot of time, especially when you are looking for a specific kind of food. While most food delivery apps just have two options, vegetarian and non-vegetarian, Zomato takes this a notch above with additional options like Egg, Healthy, and Spicy. This makes searching for a “healthy, spicy non-vegetarian dish” from your favourite restaurant much easier. On top of that, there are obvious filters such as price (low-to-high, high-to-low), and rating filters.

Group ordering

Group ordering makes it easy to build a party order. (Image credit: Zomato)

This is more like an order-your-own-food party, but the host will pay for it. Group ordering enables up to 50 users to build a food order, where only the host can edit the cart and place an order, while everyone else can continue to track it. Again, this feature ensures your friends or family can get food that they actually want to eat. However, it can be ordered only from a single restaurant. These large orders will be delivered swiftly using Zomato’s large order fleet delivery vehicles. Again, when you place a group order, it could take a bit longer to deliver, especially if there are more participants, as restaurants will require extra time to prepare and package the orders.

Pure-vegetarian options

Zomato also has a veg-only option. (Image credit: Zomato)

Over 20 to 39 per cent of people in India are pure vegetarians, who will not consume either egg or meat, and some don’t even consume food from a restaurant that prepares non-vegetarian dishes. Zomato has a dedicated vegetarian mode, which offers users the option of choosing between vegetarian dishes either from all restaurants or just from pure-vegetarian outlets. In the pure-veg mode, the food will even be delivered by a pure-veg fleet.

Schedule your order

This enables pre-ordering food up to 2 days ahead. (Image credit: Zomato)

Zomato also allows users to schedule orders for up to two days in advance. Again, it depends on the restaurant and food. This service is currently live in select cities such as Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, Raipur, Ahmedabad, etc. This is a good feature for those who like to get their food hot and fresh at a specific time of the day without worrying about placing the order at that moment.

Get food delivered to your train seat

Zomato also delivers food to trains. (Image credit: Zomato)

Zomato, in collaboration with IRCTC, has launched a train food delivery service in which users can order food from a favourite restaurant in cities across India, and Zomato will deliver that food to their seats. This makes ordering local delicacies while travelling a lot easier. And the best part is that if Zomato fails to deliver, users will get a 100 per cent refund. Users can place these orders up to four days in advance and cancel them for free before the food preparation starts.

Food gift cards

Zomato also offers digital gift cards. (Image credit: Zomato)

For those who are planning to gift food but are not quite sure what to order, Zomato also has gift cards, which can be redeemed for any food at any given time. These gift cards can be customised to include personal messages or even a custom gift amount. They can be redeemed on Zomato and spent at some of the partner restaurants.