In 15 minutes, Grain delivers piping hot, healthy food to a driveway near you

Food is central to many cultures. The Japanese are renowned for their sushi, Singaporeans revere their cheap hawker food, and Indians have, well, 36 regional cuisines to choose from.

The problem is that they’re often unhealthy. White rice has tons of fast carbs, which raise the risk of diabetes if consumed over five times a week. Coconut milk, used in curry dishes in South Asia, can make you pile on the weight.

Yet healthy food isn’t readily available in Asia. Brought up on cheap local fare and McDonalds, Asians won’t change their diet easily. The lack of demand, coupled with the relatively smaller number of health-conscious eateries, heighten the difficulty of healthy living.

Singapore startup Grain is turning this into an opportunity. Think of it as an Uber for wholesome food: it serves up ready-to-eat dishes to a taxi stand near to you, and it promises to do it on-demand.

“The moment you think about food, we want to get it to your doorstep within 15 minutes,” says Yi Sung Yong, one of the co-founders of the startup. Typical food catering services take much longer.

Grain is a young operation. It only began delivering at the end of 2013, stopped for a couple of months, and then kickstarted it again in February 2014.

They’ve tried different things. Initially, you’d tell Grain your preferences and plot out a week ahead which days you’d like your food, but that approach made operations difficult since they had to cook many variations on the same day. Customers also found it inconvenient since schedules often change. The new on-demand service is designed to better meet their needs while making the business easier to run.

Eats in a box

I decided to try Grain for myself. Here’s the downer: while it is available for lunch and dinner and recently added cold-pressed juices to the repertoire, it only delivers within the Marina Bay area for now. So if you’re hungry but residing outside its delivery zone, tough luck.

Signing up and ordering is a breeze. After creating an account, you’ll need to enter your postal code to set up your pick-up spot, which for me was the Ocean Financial Center taxi stand.

You place orders between 11am and 2pm for lunch, or 5.30pm to 8.30pm for dinner. You can pick any number of items – perfect if you’re ordering for co-workers. A main dish costs around S$10 (US$8) and juices around S$5 (US$4), which is in the vicinity of what healthy eateries charge. Payment is done via credit card only and processed through Stripe, which makes the entire checkout process a joy that’s rare in Asia.

Then it’s time to wait. Grain sends you an email to confirm the order. Once its delivery car is about to reach your building, you’ll get a notification to come down and collect your grub.

Can Grain sustain itself?