HomeBusiness NewsCompanies NewsZomato cooks up intercity food delivery — will it be a hit or a miss?

Zomato cooks up intercity food delivery — will it be a hit or a miss?

The food delivery app is testing a new project close to the festive season, called Intercity Legends, through which it will deliver iconic foods across Indian cities in 24 hours. The food will be cooked, frozen, and shipped by air or road. Will foodies warm up to Zomato's current big idea. Will the food arrive fresh?

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By Nishtha Pandey  August 30, 2022, 7:08:23 PM IST (Updated)

4 Min Read
Zomato cooks up intercity food delivery — will it be a hit or a miss?
Have you ever craved for biryani straight from Hyderabad while sitting in your Delhi flat? Well, Zomato seems to have heard you and decided to do something about it. Now, food from different parts of the country will get delivered to you as the food delivery app is ready with its intercity food delivery.


The company is testing a new project called Intercity Legends, through which it will deliver iconic foods across Indian cities in 24 hours. Food items will be cooked, frozen, and then shipped by air or road. You will receive them the next day. For now, the project is only available in a few cities.

Source: Twitter user @GabbarSingh


How will this work?

According to a blog published by Zomato, the company will use its vast network of restaurant partners and delivery partners to understand what legendary dishes customers across India love.

The feature lists restaurants in different cities where customers can place their orders like any other regular Zomato order.

“Food is freshly prepared by the restaurant and packed in reusable and tamper-proof containers to keep it safe during air transit. State-of-the-art mobile refrigeration technology preserves the food without the need to freeze it or add any kind of preservatives,” said Zomato.

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The food can be microwaved, air-fried, or pan-fried after you receive it, just like any other dish you get out of the refrigerator.

Twitterati relishing it

A Twitter user who goes by the name Gabbbar Singh tweeted on August 29, that he ordered pyaaz kachori from Jaipur and baked rasgulla from Balram Mullick in Kolkata using the feature.

He further mentioned that the order arrived in less than 24 hours from Kolkata. “Pretty solid tin packaging for Rasgullah. Tasted good,” added the tweet.

Another user who goes by the name Pushkal Srivastava pointed out that he is really happy with the feature as it comes with a touch of nostalgia.

A hit or a miss?

With the new feature launched specifically around the festive season, it would be interesting to see whether it will be a miss or a hit. The feature does come with the benefits of bringing nostalgia with food and making food available for anyone anywhere in India. Still, there can be some logistical challenges that Intercity Legends might face.

Zomato can beat logistics channels by leveraging its investment in logistics unicorn Shiprocket. Zomato had invested in the company in December. This week, Shiprocket raised a fresh round of funds to join the unicorn club after acquiring a number of startups last year.

A hurdle that the feature can face is that Zomato is planning to deliver food via air transit, which will come up with logistical challenges. Moreover, the cost of moving food from the airport to home could differ for customers depending on the location, so customers could end up paying more for food that is not even fresh.

Some recent history

Apart from that, Zomato is quite famous for its infamous experiments. The Zomato Instant pilot project, which garnered plenty of criticism, is another example of this. The 10-minute food delivery service was tested in Gurugram. Then it was supposed to be launched in Bengaluru but that never happened.

ALSO READ: Zomato pilot tests grocery service Blinkit on its main app

On June 24, Zomato's board approved the acquisition of Blinkit (Blink Commerce Pvt Ltd) for Rs 4,447 crore in an all-stock deal. The company lost about $1.1 billion of its market value two days after the announcement.

Earlier in July Zomato’s founder, Deepinder Goyal told CNBC-TV18 that the company is racing towards profitability. Although the company is likely to announce soon how they are planning to take the feature forward, it will be interesting to see whether people would actually invest in the feature and help Zomato’s race towards profitability.

ALSO READ: Zomato loses 65% value in 2022 so far but Deepinder Goyal says company is racing toward profitability
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