Food will always be a friendly face at any party. We cannot deny its popularity when food may be the second most used hashtag on your Instagram, the best genre of videos on YouTube, or even the first search option on your Google browser. In short, we cannot deny the power of #foodporn.
Having established that we like food, we have to then establish our relationship with food delivery systems. With three popular food delivery services in Phnom Penh, some might say that getting food around the clock here is a piece of cake. You can easily find over 100 restaurants across cuisine genres in a free Door-2-Door (D2D) booklet, or (if you are more tech-savvy), a column bar within MealTemple’s website.
Photo Credits: D2D Cambodia
D2D Cambodia has established itself since 2007, and you might recognise their trademark monkey from the green or purple booklets scattered around the city. Their website acts as a page portal for restaurant listings with a simple structure: Pick a restaurant, place your order and wait. If the food doesn’t arrive, our advice is to call the restaurant directly. With a concise interface, you can quickly scan the restaurants’ information and find out their delivery charge, average waiting time, and working hours. Most of the restaurants replicate their menu on D2D exactly, so you are usually getting the same deal in the comfort of your room.
You can find familiar favourites like Java Cafe, FCC Cambodia and The Blue Pumpkin hosted on the website. The highlighted information on D2D’s website are the restaurants’ address and contact numbers, effectively doubling their platform to be the Yellow Pages of eateries. They are constantly adding new outlets to the collection, so be sure to check them out here!
Photo Credits: Meal Temple
Meal Temple uses a more advanced approach, where the majority of ordering can be done on their platform under their care. They automatically charge $1 USD as a delivery fee for every confirmed order (regardless of restaurant) as they employ their own drivers. As a result, their database of restaurants is much bigger as the delivery option is settled. You can spend a comfortable amount of time browsing through their list of restaurants, which includes a variety of options like Dim Sum Emperors, Crepe Mania, and Fish & Co. The menus come with additional photographs at the discretion of the restaurants, and the clean interface of the website makes food delivery a little easier to get through with. The website caters to both English and French speakers, but the deliverymen are usually local with a good sense of the language.
A neat function on their website is the showcase of recent choices personalised to real-time accounts. If you cannot decide on a dinner choice, then take a look at what people recently ordered here to get inspired. However, as the entire delivery service is dependent on Meal Temple’s internal system, be sure to keep a close check on your order status with the company directly!
Photo Credits: Your Phnom Penh
Nothing says we care more than Your Phnom Penh’s food delivery system. Established since 2012, the website operates in a few simple steps: add the food items to your cart, pay $1 USD for delivery and confirm an address. They offer a dedicated team to handle the food orders, akin to MealTemple, forwarding orders from the site to the restaurants directly. Again, they host a variety of restaurants unique to their portal, like Cool Cup and La P’tite France. Their homepage features customer testimonials backing their service, and almost every function (from FAQs to report problems) can be accessed the moment you land on their page. With a good mix of visuals to aid the process of picking cuisines, restaurants and your online destination, their website is considered one of the most user-friendly sites to date.
With the three food delivery players in the market, it is clear that the demand outweighs the service. Phnom Penh has restaurants scattered all over the city and there is great potential for homegrown startups to take advantage of the scene. As a community, we will never stop our constantly demand for restaurants and personal convenience, so the opportunities to make the processes more accessible, helpful or even attractive are endless.
The international delivery Foodpanda is the latest addition to the sum, and while their current offerings are limited, they offer accessibility as their constant edge. With the extension of mobile platforms and user trends, we encourage startups to get involved in a sector that is not only bursting with a hungry market, but will also provide a very tasteful venture.