Monday, July 02, 2012

Review : Zomato Restaurant Guide 2012

    BlogAdda has sent me the Zomato Restaurant Guide - 2012, Bangalore as a part of the book review program. I was very much thrilled and excited when i got the book because this was my first book review. Thanks BlogAdda for considering me to review the book.

    Before going to review part just a little note about Zomato. Zomato was started with a vision to help people discover more places to eat-whether near their home, workplace or places they were travelling to. Since it went live in 2008Zomato is the largest electronic restaurant guide in the country serving more than three million unique users across its web and mobile platforms every month. Most users visit zomato restaurant guide selection to choose the next place they are going to dine-out at order-in from. They provide menus, ratings, reviews, photos, maps for restaurants in  India.The site is user friendly and the foodies can explore a whole range of restaurants depending on their choice of cuisine, budget and location. The website is at www.Zomato.com and mobile apps are available across all major mobile platforms.

    As i already said above they offer a wide range of restaurants through its website now they have forayed into the print medium by launching " Citibank Zomato Restaurant Guide 2012 " for 4 cities in the country - Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai and Pune. The book is priced about Rs 199/-.

   Now coming to the review part about this guide i will start with look and first impression of it. The book looks good, paper quality is nice, guider/bookmark with attractive colour, good font selection of Helevetica, it's compact in size and weighs about ~385gms so its easily goes into your handbag or laptop bag, short and sweet synopsis of guide printed on the cover and finally the photographs that are eye-catching and beautiful.

   The icons and the metrics used in this guide are clearly understandable like whether the restaurant is vegetarian or not or whether dining in, delivery or a bar is available or not.  They have clearly mention about this in their 'using the guide' section.

   This guide features 250 must visit restaurants in Bangalore They have been classified under 22 categories. They have categorized the restaurant according to the customer needs and moods at different point of time, for example Casual Dining, Healthy Eating, Dining with Kids, On the Go, Beer in a Bar, Girl's Night out, Romantic Dinner, Street Food, Sunday Brunch etc. I specially liked the " Late nighters " category they have provided. It's a boon for the late night working community, particularly for IT professionals in Bangalore.

   For detailed information about a particular restaurant use Restaurant details section where each restaurant got its own space which provides you with all the relevant facts about the restaurant such as cost, timings, type of restaurant, what cuisine they provide, whether debit/ credit cards acceptable and also provide the details like location , phone no, address, bar attached, takeaway, home delivery . 

   Apart from these details they also provide some interesting information. ' Don't Mission Section'  tells you about the best dishes provided in that place. Also they include information like User Ratings and User Reviews. The best part is that they have provided the QR code for most of the restaurant to view menu, photos and other information.

   A very good index is maintained at the end of the book and also they provide a list of restaurants in bangalore on the Citibank Dining Privileges program.

The things i Like:
 - It is compact and an easy to use guide with all the necessary information for choosing the restaurant.
 - The category section is based on the customers moods and needs for various occasions.
 - QR code to view the menus, photos and other information of restaurants.
The information that are Missing
 - Parking facilities
 - Food coupons acceptance
 - Party hall
     For the information above they can provide the icons.
 - Couldn't find few of restaurants like Barbeque nation, Nandana Palace, famous chettinad chains are missing and so on.
 - Multiple location details for some restaurants are missing.

To go to Zomato website Click here
To buy the book from the Flipkart click here, it cost only rs.149/-

This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at  BlogAdda.com. Participate now to get free books!

3 comments :

Divya A said...

That's a great review thanks for sharing the info!! Am glad to find your lovely space, now following you :)
-You Too Can Cook Indian Food Recipes

Jayanthy Kumaran said...

wow...wat a fantastic review...love to have d book now..:)
Tasty Appetite

Priya dharshini said...

Great job valar :)