Visiting restaurants, waiting for the turn at the table, boring time till the food reaches the table and finally cannot enjoy it with whole satisfaction. Sometimes, they have to face trouble with others who eagerly observe from rear side searching for opportunity to occupy the seat as soon as a customer finishes. This is a routine situation in many restaurants of vegetarian and non-veg in Nellore city which sometimes becomes very challenging during Sundays and holidays to the food lovers.
But, the days have gone as foodies in Nellore are now enjoying varieties of food stuff just with one click. They are now being served hot dishes from locally popular non-vegetarian restaurants with a negligible delivery charges. Besides mushrooming restaurants, even door delivery service providers are also increasing day by day in addition to the men deputed by the hotels too.
According to local foodies, there is a huge list of popular food items in the city since many people just visit the place to satisfy their taste buds at least once in a month. Nellore Fish Curry, Pot Biryani, Karam Dosa, Malai Kaja, and snack Puli Bongaralu. Majority are being served through door delivery except karam dosa and puli bongaralu, a native food which prepared with thick dosa batter adding onion, chillies and other taste enhancers.
Nellore, being a coastal city with around 9 lakh population, witnesses huge demand from local population and others who the city visit periodically. They simply ask their business partners, colleagues or friends to give company in a popular restaurant for tasting varieties of Nellore.
“We receive hundreds of orders on Sundays for fast delivery of non-vegetarian items such as Pot Biryani (both chicken and mutton), and other non-veg special curries. We serve only family packs and engage one person for six orders. Still, we face trouble during peak hours from 1 pm-3 pm with people who request on phone for delivery of food. Sometimes we politely refuse orders after 1 pm,” said an employee from locally popular Riyaz hotel.
Because of overwhelming response from the people for food through orders online, the delivery agencies are closing their booking time on the websites between 2 pm and 2.30 pm due to delivery constraints. There are varieties of food ranging between Rs. 100 to 1,000 and still people are not considering the price and simply asking for quality.
“Even though Nellore is famous for both vegetarian and non-vegetarian foods, still majority people prefer non-veg dishes due to time constraint and the taste of the hotels. Now, people assemble at one place and book orders early and enjoy the food along with family and friends. This is a new culture where they don’t want to spend time for at least 2-3 hours in restaurants,” said Md. Afzal, a senior chef from a local hotel. But, the minimum order is Rs. 300-400 and the delivery charges will be Rs. 30-40.
Restaurants in the city are thriving owing to taste of food and variety of combinations for many years. Sea food is also available locally which is a plus point. Even cities like Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad and others display boards that ‘Nellore food is ready’ and some hotels tag like ‘Nellore Pujitha Mess’ or hotel run by Nellore people etc. Now, cash on delivery facility is also available for the customers who cannot pay online due to low computer literacy.
As a result of huge industrialization, now many popular brands such as Mac Donald, Bawarchi, KFC, Domino’s and other locally popular hotels and restaurants like Komala Vilas, Murali Krishna, Venkata Ramana, Adyar Ananda Bhavan, Amaravathi, Basota, Riyaz, Mayuri, Tandoori Nights, Celebrations, came up for attracting the population. Popular vegetarian hotel Chandra Bhavan was closed down some years ago and the oldest popular vegetarian hotel Komala Vilas is serving the needs of the people in tune with contemporary tastes and styles. Pizzas, burglars and many other such kind of food stuff is also available online displaying a changed scenario of so called modern civilization.
