Satiate your hunger pangs anytime

For a City that pulls down its shutters at 11.30 pm, there are few options for people to go and grab a bite post midnight. While there are a few five-star hotels in the City that offer food, not everyone can afford those places. And with the City police keeping a strict eye on the roads at that time of the night, it leaves many people in the City with no choice but to go hungry. 

Vaibhav Ali, 25, who runs an event-management firm, experienced midnight hunger pangs first-hand. This sparked off the idea of opening a full-time home-delivery service called ‘Midnight Hunger Solutions’. It’s a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week service, which has a menu that includes biryanis, kebabs, and Indian-Chinese food items. Run out of a small kitchen in Austin Town, people can call in at any time of the day or night from anywhere in the City and place their orders. 

“Being into events, I’m constantly coming up with ideas. When I thought of this concept, I didn’t know how it would work out but the people in the City have taken to it like wildfire,” he says. With just two cooks, a manager, four helpers and delivery boys, Vaibhav helps with taking orders and delivering.

 “I call myself the joker of the team. Since it’s a start-up, I pitch in all areas of the eatery. Sometimes, I’m even helping the cooks cut vegetables,” he says.  The USP of the place is that it delivers food to any part of the City — at any time. “We don’t allow our customers to come to the place and pick it up. If you look at it, I’m actually helping the Bangalore police by keeping those who drink and drive off the roads,” he smiles. While the minimum bill order for delivery is Rs 500, there’s a delivery charge that varies from Rs 50 to Rs 100 depending on the distance.

The most interesting part, however, is the fact that the place has been marketed only through social-networking sites. 

“We are too small to even think of advertising. Our menu and contact number are available online and in just these few months, we have had more than 9,000 ‘likes’ and still counting,” says Vaibhav. 

The menu has a good variety for both non-vegetarians and vegetarians. The ‘biryani’ is the most popular dish on the menu. “I actually have people calling in for burgers and pizzas. But I have stuck to simple, home-cooked food. Time is our biggest constraint — it’s not easy to cook fresh food and reach the destination in half-an-hour. We generally inform the customer about how long we would take to deliver the food. So far, our busiest days have been weekends, with the bulk of the orders pouring in between 11 pm and 2 am. We have also had to make deliveries at 5 am and 6 am,” he adds. The biggest boost that Vaibhav gets is from customer feedback. The words he often hears are: ‘You are a saviour’ and it gives him the energy to keep improving. 

“I had a childhood dream of starting a restaurant, but I didn’t have the money to open one. ‘Midnight Hunger Solutions’ may not be the kind of restaurant I wanted to open, but it’s an idea with a difference and one that fulfils my dream,” sums up Vaibhav. For details, call 8088922299.