Appetite has put the ability to order food from restaurants and fast food outlets in your pocket with an app for iOS and Android.
It lets you browse menus and order items as you wish by tapping your screen then messages you an order confirmation and expected time of readiness. If the restaurant offers a delivery service that can be requested too.
“This is a South African-developed app for South Africans that really takes the pain out of getting take-aways,” says Chris Davis, who started the company in October last year.
“Customers don’t pay for the app or any orders they place, so it’s totally free of charge for them, and it means they don’t have to wait if they’re picking up their order, they don’t have to deal with difficult phone calls and they can even pay via the secure, online transaction processing system.”
The app connects people directly to the restaurant of their choice and there is no intermediary. The way it works is, after entering your basic details – name and home address and work address too if you like – you simply browse restaurants near your home, your office or your current location, check the menu, select the items you want, add a comment for extra toppings, sauces or other extras if you wish, and submit the order. The app takes care of the rest.
It sends the information directly to the restaurant where it immediately gets printed out at the order counter and the printout slipped into the chef’s order queue. The app even notifies you that the order is received and when it will be ready for collection or delivery if the specific restaurant offers a delivery service.
You get an order number that you can use to check the progress of your order if you wish and you can choose to pay when you get there, when it’s delivered, or by credit card using the secure, authenticated payment option in the app.
“Ordering take-aways for collection or delivery is a time-consuming and often difficult process,” says Chris Davis, who heads up Appetite. “Our app means you always have the menu in front of you, you don’t get orders mixed up, it makes it very easy to order for lots of different people, like when you have guests over, from lots of different restaurants or fast food outlets and you don’t have to wait to get through on the phone.”
At last count there nearly 100 restaurants on board, primarily located in the Fordsburg, Fourways, Midrand and Centurion areas and surrounds, and the number grows daily. Davis says he is concentrating on rolling it out across Gauteng in this first phase and will increase geographies as it achieves critical mass.
Davis is offering restaurants a free trial period during this initial phase only.