How EazyDiner is carving out a niche for itself that Zomato can’t enter

“Every review is vetted by me before it goes online,” says Vir Sanghvi, well-known food critic and TV anchor, explaining to me how EazyDiner stands apart from other restaurant booking apps in India. The biggest one in this space is restaurant discovery app Zomato which recently added table booking service. But, as Vir points out, Zomato relies on user-generated content, which makes it far less consistent than the curated restaurant reviews on EazyDiner.

Sanghvi and a bunch of restaurateurs launched EazyDiner in Delhi earlier this year with seed funding from DSG Consumer Partners. Yesterday, it announced series A funding from DSGCP and new investor Saama Capital. It also expanded to Mumbai, after 25x growth in the last seven months, booking 10,000 diners in August compared to 400 in January.

There’s been a plethora of food apps in India, with well-funded players competing in the discovery and delivery space. The EazyDiner founders and backers saw an opening in the market for curated content, especially in high end dining out, and that’s how a seasoned food writer like Sanghvi came into the picture.

Zomato is a formidable rival, with US$164 million in funding and a presence in 22 countries. In April it acquired US-based restaurant reservations site NexTable to launch Zomato Book. But this is a different game from food delivery because restaurant booking is mostly an upscale activity in India.

Not for the hoi polloi

“You won’t find menus from many five star hotels on Zomato,” points out Vir. “If you look at our advisory panel, we have Vikram Oberoi of the Oberoi Hotels, Dinesh Nair of the Leela, Anjan Chatterjee of Mainland China… There are huge human factors involved in negotiating these deals.”

Most high end restaurants in India are reluctant to hop on to a food app, especially one that charges them a fee for sending guests. EazyDiner had to persuade them that it’s a credible service which will give them more business. That’s where the curated content on the site makes a difference for restaurants that don’t want to risk diluting their brand by rubbing shoulders with the hoi polloi.

The EazyDiner platform also provides a concierge service for diners. They can call up a designated line and get advice on booking a suitable restaurant. The concierge team can also help diners book tables at hard-to-get-into restaurants. “It is very hard to get into restaurants like Masala Library in Bombay or Indian Accent in Delhi, but we have an allocation. So they will keep a table everyday at lunch time for EazyDiner guests and will only give it away say an hour or so before lunch if we can’t use it,” explains Vir.
EazyDiner claims to be the only service in India offering real time guaranteed restaurant reservations.

And finally, there’s the sweetener. A diner who makes a booking through EazyDiner gets a free drink or dessert or at least a discount. “No meal without a deal” is one of its slogans.