Sri Lanka’s newest online brand debuts with restaurant directory and online ordering
Wednesday, 18 March 2015 00:00
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Foodie.lk is Sri Lanka’s first major food brand aimed at modernising the local food industry and growing the emerging food culture in the country. Although the staple rice and curry is still a mainstay in the majority of Sri Lankan diets, the booming Colombo professional class is now on the lookout for new tastes and experiences; what to eat is becoming as important as where to eat.
New brands like Sugar (Bistro/41) are setting a new standard of culinary experiences in Colombo, bringing gourmet flavours and refined quality rarely seen in the market. Foodie has already partnered with some of the best brands in the country and is building ties with industry participants at all levels. Award winning brands like Ministry of Crab and Nihonbashi, and new brands like China Doll and Arabian Knights are examples of the new guard of Sri Lankan restaurants with unique identity, flavours and distinct strategies.
Founded by Mike Soertsz and Kai van Harten with the intention to help restaurants focus on the two most important factors to their success, i.e. food quality and customer service. Foodie hopes to learn their needs and build services and tools to help restaurants like the above succeed in pleasing diners.
By building comprehensive tools to automate restaurant management in the cloud, Foodie will give restaurateurs much needed time to focus on what matters most. Foodie is more a food brand than a tech company. Foodie.lk stands for better food quality and service in the industry as a whole, and aims to be an advocate for restaurateur owners and operators.
Foodie.lk is launching in Sri Lanka as an online food ordering platform and restaurant directory. In coming months Foodie will roll out a series of advanced features never yet seen in the industry. Not just in Sri Lanka, but globally. Gamified interfaces, restaurant management software, advanced logistics and mobile apps are all scheduled for release in the coming 12 months.
Interestingly, Foodie CEO Mike Soertsz decided not to allow public reviews on the site, a stark difference from most other restaurant directories online like Yelp, Tripadvisor and even Yamu here in Sri Lanka. Instead the site will feature expert food bloggers whose content is vetted to ensure no bias.
Soertsz says: “We see ourselves as a technology partner for restaurants, and aim to provide them the tools they need to succeed by focusing on the important things, i.e. food quality and customer service. No restaurant aims to disappoint customers, but because of the nature of the business, it’s inevitable. Running a restaurant is incredibly intricate, and there are literally a thousand things that can go wrong in the course of each meal’s preparation and service to cause a customer a negative experience. I know this because I worked in restaurants when I was a teenager, both at front and back of house. We work closely with restaurants to reduce all those potential mistakes and failures wherever possible...using technology. The result is that restaurants provide better service and food, creating more happy customers. We hope to understand and solve the problem(s), not publicly shame restaurants when they fail, something I don’t feel has any real positive effect.”
Foodie has a ton of features being built for release in the coming months. First up are Mobile Apps for Android and iOS, meaning ordering food on your mobile, or finding places to eat will be easier than ever. Table reservations, Event planning, Social Gamification and more are all coming too.
“We’ll be gradually launching features as we get feedback from our customers on what they want most. Might be table reservations, might be something we haven’t thought of. Either way, we’ll be working hard to build Foodie into a brand they remember for anything food related. We’ll also be running a range of culinary events and experiences. We’ll be creating one-time-only events centred around food. Whether it’s a Battle of the Burgers or a Chili Crab Contest,” says Soertsz.
Kai van Harten states, “Listing your restaurant on Foodie.lk is guaranteed free. Foodie doesn’t require an exclusive restaurant partnership with the idea that Foodie stays incentivised to offer and maintain the best application in the market. Foodie earns a commission on all sales it generates through the platform, so we work hard to push sales for all our online delivery restaurants. Part of our business model is to advertise on our partner’s behalf, leveraging our Foodie community to create more value for all our partners’ businesses.”
