Biriyani truly is India’s comfort food with citizens ordering in kilos to cope with the lockdown. According to Zomato, the food platform delivered 22 orders of biriyani every minute of 2020. And before the veg biriyani is not biriyani debate begins, Zomato delivered 1,988,044 veg biryani this year.
According to the food platform’s 2020 REWIND outlining delivery trends, another favourite was pizza. Zomato had over 4.5 lakh orders of pizza in May, which went on to become over 9 lakh by July, over 12 lakh by September and over 17 lakh orders in November. In fact, one customer in Jalgaon, Maharashtra, ordered 369 pizzas this year.
Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi and Pune ordered momos 25 lakh times, with Delhi ordering it more times than all other cities combined. People were also looking for some slightly questionable items — with 414 people searching ‘bat soup’ on the app (the pandemic was rumoured to have begun with a woman consuming bat soup, which was found to be untrue).
However, the most number of Zomato orders came from a man named Yash in Bengaluru, who placed 1,380 orders in 2020 — which translates to almost four orders every day.
By order value, the most expensive order was at nearly Rs 2 lakh. The order cost Rs 1,99,950, with a discount of Rs 66,650. On the other end of the spectrum was the smallest order, which cost Rs 10.01 after a discount of Rs 39.99.
Zomato’s Pro membership program which gives privileges on dining out and delivery, saw a member save Rs 1,94,233.
Gulab Jamun emerged as the country’s favourite dessert, with one lakh orders being placed during Diwali week alone. Mumbai led the chart for gulab jamun orders in 2020.
Darjeeling beat every other city, including the metros, in spending on every order, with an average order value of Rs 500, and Chandigarh ordered at midnight the most. In terms of tips, Mumbai’s delivery partners received almost Rs 4.6 crore in tips, followed by Goa where 20 people gave Rs 2000 in tips.