Daawat-a-Biryani is a name that is very popular in the food circles. I have been waiting to try their biryani for quite sometime and what better occasion than my daughter’s birthday !
We had guests at home and it was a lunch party which was to follow a brief cake-cutting ceremony. Not the ideal time to cut a cake, but that’s how we planned it since many were busy in the evening. I called up a day earlier and placed an order for 1Kg of Chicken Biryani, 2 Portions of boneless Chicken 65, Half Kg of Pepper Chicken, and Half Kg of Bread Halwa. I was told that thy have a tie-up with a delivery company and they charge around Rs 200 for delivery to Velachery. Well, we’ll come to the delivery part later, but I was promised that the food will be delivered by 1:00PM. The SMS confirmation was prompt and placing the order was easy.
It was 12:47PM and I got a call from someone from the delivery company, and they said that there was a slight delay and the person was already on his way and the biryani should reach latest by 1:15PM. I was really impressed by the prompt service that a delay of 15 minutes hardly mattered. We were all having a good time and that’s when the kids started to feel hungry. It was 1:30PM and no sign of Biryani yet. We waited, and waited and the kids and elders too were restless by this time. At last, at 2:00PM the guy shows up with Biryani. Hurriedly made the payment and the guy has no change, no hundreds, no tens, nothing. Ransacked my purse, managed to get all the change I needed and paid.
Settled down and opened the packets one by one. The moment we opened the chicken 65, I was in for more disappointment ! I wanted boneless and that’s what I mentioned when I placed the order. I got 2 portions of chicken-65 with bones! That was a big let down. Anyway, the biryani along with the brinjal gravy and raita were wonderful ! All of them relished the biryani. The chicken pieces in the biryani were soft and well-cooked and had a nice flavor. The Biryani was awesome, no doubts about that ! Pepper chicken was good, but the brinjal gravy was so tasty that there wasn’t so much demand for pepper chicken. I ate a little of that and it tasted quite good. We had some bread halwa for dessert and it was very good.
So my opinion on today’s order from Daawat-a-Biryani is a mixed bag. In fact, I am still wondering about the delivery charges. A delivery to Velachery shouldn’t be costing Rs 220 in the first place. Well, if orders are small, it is understandable. For normal orders of 1Kg or more, I would expect delivery to be free ! My order cost me Rs 2020 and Rs 220 on top of it for delivery did not sound fine. While their biryani was truly wonderful, the mix-up with chicken-65 and the late delivery didn’t make my experience very pleasant. So I would probably pick up their biryani if I am somewhere around Kodambakkam than place an order for home-delivery !
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