THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: For many in the capital city, Thiruvonam turned out to be a bitter experience as the Onasadya they ordered from home chefs and caterers failed to arrive as expected. With scores of orders, a majority of them could not deliver the Onasadya in time.
Facebook groups like ‘Eat at Tvm’ and ‘Where in Trivandrum’ have been inundated with complaints citing demands to take legal action against those who failed to keep their promises after coming out with sadya offers ranging from Rs 149 to Rs 650.
Ever since the pandemic outbreak, there has been a surge in the number of home chefs, a majority of whom had lost their jobs. After getting the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) registration number, many have been doing reasonable business through food delivery mobile applications. But once the packing of the sadya starts on a delayed note, it is mayhem. When prompt delivery is not assured, chaos reigns.
Jithin Raj, 28, had ordered five sadyas on cash-on-delivery basis from a leading vegetarian restaurant at Bakery Junction. To his horror, the sadya never arrived forcing him to write a sarcastic review on ‘Eat at Trivandrum’, which went viral.“The restaurant authorities did not attend to repeated phone calls. After 3pm, I ordered mutton biryani,” Jithin, who works as an animator, told TNIE.
L S Kishore, a 35-year-old government employee, had ordered three sadyas from a neighbouring catering agency at Elipode. Despite waiting until 3.30pm, they were not delivered.“On Sunday, the caterer came up with two consolation sadyas. We didn’t accept as we wanted the sadyas only for Thiruvonam,” Kishore said.
Several customers paid the full amount and still got a raw deal. Hotel owners and home chefs reason that they were short-staffed, which led to delay in packing and delivering food on time. Arvind Soju, an administrator with ‘Eat at Trivandrum’ said incidents of cheating, by accepting payment and not delivering food, are bound to affect even those hotels and home chefs with excellent track records.