Restaurant convenience at your doorstep

OUT AND ABOUT

Last week, I found outside my back door a glossy pamphlet from Restaurant Runners — www.restaurantrunners.co.zw offering a home delivery service from a list of local eateries.  Having cooked a big family lunch on Sunday and a birthday dinner on Monday, it seemed a good idea to fore-go cooking and give the service a try.
Although billed as a revolutionary concept in delivering restaurant food to the home, it is not the first such idea to hit Harare streets. I remember Dial-a-Delivery set up in the 90s offering something similar.
Participating restaurants in the Restaurant Runners service include Antonio’s Mediterranean Deli in Borrowdale, Sitar in Newlands for Indian, Shangri-La for Chinese, The Fishmonger, St Elmos and Da Eros from Avondale, Easy Street (used to be Millers’ Café Takeaway) Paula’s Place from Greendale plus the Snak Shack for drinks, chips and icecream, as well as Fruit and Veggie gift baskets from Food Lover’s Market in Greendale.
On the whole Restaurant Runner prices are a bit more expensive than sitting down at the restaurant itself.  For example Paula’s half chicken is US$14 compared to US$11 last time I ate there. 

We decided to go Chinese. I phoned early — around 5:40pm-  and my details were entered into the computer — name, address, cellphone number — presumably for future reference.  Each restaurant item has a code which I then read off to the operator and she confirmed the order before telling me my total plus the delivery charge, in this case US$7 (it varies according to distance). She said our food would be delivered in around 45 minutes taking into account Shangri-La was not open till 6pm.
Sure enough — around 6:30pm — a motorbike arrived. A worried driver, anxious that our extremely potholed road had disturbed the food, was relieved to  unpack it from the insulated container and see that it was all still in one piece!

All in all — pretty efficient if a bit pricy, justified I guess, by not having to leave home yourself. I very much approved of the food containers —which were not my hated polystrene — but were labelled ‘microwaveable’ and ‘biodegradeable’ with the added kudos of being made in Zimbabwe. Apparently they came from the Shangri-La but I would urge Restaurant Runners to encourage this more environmentally friendly approach to packaging. Thumbs up to Shangri-La for that one and I was very pleased to crumple them into the compost heap instead of adding them to the pile of garbage currently contributing to city pollution from the burning city dump.

California sushi rolls (US$7) were our starter — salmon, cucumber avocado and fish egg — and came complete with pickled ginger, wasabi and soy sauce. I was a bit nervous about takeaway sushi but it was fine — though salmon wasn’t evenly distributed through all the rolls and there wasn’t much avo.  All the same it was a treat to lay it out in our Chinese dishes and dig out our chopsticks.
We also ordered crispy duck (US$16) and Sichuan fish (US$13) a huge portion of succulent hake accompanied by noodles.  Spicy fried rice (US$5) would easily have fed four so there were plenty of left overs  after a meal for two.

All in all, it worked very well — and although US$47 felt a lot to spend on mid week dinner in — there are leftovers and once in a while the convenience is worth it. Current restaurants provide plenty of variety ranging from pizza, wraps, salads and sandwiches, to full scale meals including soups, starters and some desserts. Minimum order is US$15 and the service allows orders from a maximum of two restaurants.
Contact Restaurant Runners on  335307 or mobiles 0771682012 – 6
– g.jeke@yahoo.com