Bahrain’s meals on wheels

Have you ever had one of those moments where you wanted to devour delectable starters from Chilli’s, a hot and spicy curry from Curry Country and the finger-licking chocolate cake from Lilu’s and haven’t been able to amass the goodies at your dinner table? Well, with Gourmet Taxi help is at hand with its canary-yellow checkered vehicles traversing the island and delivering scrumptious delights to your doorstep.
“We are no ordinary delivery company delivering fast food to customers, but have a contract with high-end restaurants to deliver their food. Hence customers have the option to mix and match cuisines. We have special heated thermal bags and freezer boxes imported from UK and the US that keeps the food fresh and warm, no matter where we deliver. We are the only multi-restaurant delivery company that also delivers ice-cream!” said Nigel S Viegas, regional general manager of Gourmet Taxi.
The concept of Gourmet Taxi is quite popular in South Africa where people tend to eat a variety of cuisine, rather than just fast food; and pizza delivery boys are not seen flitting around like flies. “We have studied the concept of Gourmet Taxi extensively and have built our business around the same model. Here we have even gone a step further and included flowers, gifts, groceries, DVD rentals and a host of other deliverables under our banner,” added Nigel.
So how does the meals-on-wheels concept work? Gourmet Taxi has a contract with many of the top restaurants on the island and it charges a flat rate of BD2 for every order made by the customer. Regular customers get benefits like discounted rates and special deals. The operation runs round the clock, catering to early birds for breakfast, snacks, lunch and dinner; their motto: Relax, we deliver. Gourmet Taxi publishes a restaurant guide with colour-coded items to make ordering easier. Their food guide boasts a mélange of cuisines from Mexican, European and Chinese to Japanese, Arabic, Indian and many more. The prices are identical to those in the restaurants and Gourmet Taxi guarantees the delivery of hot food to your doorstep.
Establishing a business with a concept totally new to Bahrain was no mean feat. “Initially it was a monumental task to simply get restaurant owners to sign a contract with us. Since quality was our benchmark we would not sign up with any hole-in-the-wall to get our business going. We started off with 15 restaurants and after seven years we have around 75 restaurants in the Gourmet Taxi family,” says Nigel who has over a decade’s experience working in the hospitality industry in Switzerland, Europe and the Middle East.
Gourmet Taxi has gone from strength to strength since it set up shop in 2000. Growth in business was simply by word-of-mouth, the extras it added to its service, and of course by delivering flyers and menus all over Bahrain. It has increased its fleet of delivery vehicles from five to 15: The fleet comprises four BMW bikes, nine cars and two vans for large catering orders. It does 95 orders daily and has 15,000 clients in its database.
But getting to the top of any business doesn’t necessarily mean that you will stay there. Gourmet Taxi regularly does promotions with restaurants to provide the best value to its customers. It updates its food directory regularly and introduces new cuisines to its customers. Dealing with high-end restaurants mean that delivery and packaging is done in a way that keeps the flavour of those special ingredients intact. If the order is delayed due to any external factors Gourmet
Taxi provides complimentary desserts to appease disgruntled customers.
“In order to build business we need happy customers and we feel that everything is possible with a smile and that extra effort to get people what they want. In order to stay on top of things we need to be a step ahead and value customer care without compromising quality,” says Nigel.
Keeping the customer care principle at the forefront, Gourmet Taxi management regularly trains its delivery crew so that it is constantly up to date with the island’s ever-changing food trends.
As a trendsetter in food delivery and services business, Gourmet Taxi introduced the interactive online service whereby customers could order food online by using their credit card. In 2005, Gourmet Taxi introduced their signature checkered canary-yellow delivery vehicles to the Dubai market and in 2006 it started its operations in Mumbai.
According to Nigel, Qatar and the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia are in the pipeline. “Now you can order hot food for a loved one in the UAE or Mumbai and we guarantee that it gets to them fresh and hot. But seven years down the road we still get calls for a passenger pick up,” Nigel laughs.