The Impact of Food Delivery Apps on the Restaurant Industry –A Boon To Cloud Kitchen or a Threat to Fine Dining

"The Fine Dining Paradox: Navigating the Rise of Delivery in the Luxury Restaurant Industry"

Dinesh Rai, 

General Manager,

Crowne Plaza Kochi

The rise of food delivery apps and cloud kitchens has reshaped the restaurant industry. By eliminating the need for physical dining spaces, cloud kitchens can operate with lower costs and focus on delivery, meeting the demand for convenience and scalability.

However, fine dining goes beyond food. It’s about atmosphere, personal service, and presentation—elements that are hard to replicate through delivery. This presents a challenge but also an opportunity for innovation. Fine dining is not just about the meal; it’s about creating lasting memories. Delivery can’t replace the immersive experience of dining in a thoughtfully designed space.

At Crowne Plaza Kochi, we’ve embraced online ordering, allowing guests to enjoy our dishes at home. This has opened new revenue streams while maintaining our quality standards. Every meal that leaves our kitchen reflects the care and attention we put into everything, ensuring guests experience our signature quality, no matter where they are.

While casual dining restaurants have expanded their reach with delivery apps, it’s crucial to ensure the right packaging and a carefully designed menu so that every dish arrives in perfect condition.

In this evolving landscape, fine dining remains a special experience—best enjoyed in a carefully crafted environment. As we continue to innovate, we aim to preserve and elevate that experience, both in our restaurant and at home.

"Delivering Excellence: How Food Delivery Apps Are Redefining the Restaurant Industry"

Akash Bansal, 

Director of Operations,

Novotel Kolkata Hotel & Residences

Food delivery apps have transformed the restaurant industry, offering both opportunities and challenges. For cloud kitchens, they are a boon, removing the need for expensive real estate and enabling a focus on high-quality meals. These platforms also provide logistics and access to wider audiences, making it easier for small businesses and start-ups to thrive.

Fine dining establishments face unique hurdles, as their hallmark ambiance and personalized service are hard to replicate through delivery. However, at Novotel Kolkata Hotel & Residences, we are leveraging these platforms to curate exclusive menus, preserving their culinary expertise while catering to convenience-driven customers.

Adaptability is key. Restaurants that innovate, diversify their offerings, and balance in-house experiences with delivery options can successfully expand their reach without compromising their identity. Food delivery apps reflect evolving consumer behaviour, and embracing this shift strategically allows both cloud kitchens and fine dining to coexist and thrive.

"The Food Delivery Revolution: A Boon for Cloud Kitchens and Casual Dining"

Reggie Fernandes

Head Revenue Management

Niraamaya Wellness Retreats

Food delivery apps have significantly transformed the restaurant industry, with their growing presence reshaping how we dine and interact with restaurants. The rise of smartphones and online transactions has made food delivery services an essential part of daily life. Contrary to concerns, food delivery apps do not pose a threat to fine dining. Instead, they offer a massive boon to cloud kitchens, providing a cost-effective way to serve a broader audience without the overhead of maintaining physical spaces. In this context, food delivery apps represent an opportunity for growth and enhanced revenue, especially for cloud kitchens and casual dining establishments.

 "Delivering Success: Cloud Kitchens Thrive, But Fine Dining Faces Challenges"

Syamjith Venugopal, 

Assistant Director of Food & Beverage.

Kochi Marriott Hotel

Talking about the trends in the restaurant space, food delivery applications stand out, and this is even more crucial for cloud kitchens. Being entirely online ordering units enables them to conserve costs since there are no expenses related to a physical location such as rent or décor. However, for cloud kitchens, delivery instruments act as a supplement as they allow effortlessly scalable deliveries. In the same breath, fine dining establishments also need to adapt and shift their strategies as the growth of the online and mobile food ordering and delivery services market may lead to a reduced motivation for customers to dine at the premises. The experience of fine dining revolves around the atmosphere and the people, which are both lost when food is ordered for delivery. On the other hand, some high-end restaurants have responded to this challenge by developing premium packaging or special online menus. Many of them, however, still grapple with how to maintain their identity in a delivery format. Therefore, whilst the commercial success of cloud kitchens is guaranteed, the dilution of the fine dining experience is quite a possibility.

"The Uneven Playing Field of Food Delivery: Challenges for Small Businesses"

Chef Kiran 

( Chef and partner) at Moglu,

Bengaluru

Food delivery apps have contributed significantly to large-scale, investor-backed cloud kitchen op-erations that rely on VC-style growth metrics and revenue multiples so as to raise subsequent rounds for market expansion. Often, such metrics are achieved through discounting which compro-mises profit margins, and therefore support cloud kitchens with cash reserves that want to capture market share. This is in stark contrast to mom-and-pop and home-cook operated brands who rely on operational income - one can argue that they don’t see sustainable profit margins after commissions and discounts on third party apps. For smaller businesses, it is often challenging to get visibility on apps as they cannot afford click-through ads, and have less negotiation power with their relationship managers. Fine dining restaurants are a different business all together that essentially sell customers a holistic dine-in experience and I don’t see food delivery apps as a threat to them. However, nowa-days fine dining restaurants have to innovate much more and much quicker to maintain exclusivity, because more and more food products are getting commoditised