App review: Chow deck, Konga food, Gokada food, Bolt food 

How Nigerians eat is changing dramatically. Less than two decades ago, restaurant-quality
meal delivery was still largely limited to foods such as pizza, and shawarma and later came small chops, but COVID-19 upped the market index. Nowadays, food delivery has become a major market conversation. This is why, in May, we reviewed food delivery apps, and are putting them beside each other in a compiled review.

Before we go on, we would like to say that the criteria for this review are; interface, ease of use, making an order, pricing, delivery time, customer care and packaging.

Apps reviewed: Chowdeck, Konga Food, Bolt Food, G-Food.

Interface

App	comments on interface
Chowdeck	The Chowdeck app design is playful with a creative mix of colours which we find quite welcoming and relaxing. The pictures are also of good quality making the meals on display appetising. The font? Clear as crystal.
Konga Food	Konga’s landing page is also colourful but the colours look to be fighting for attention. The fonts, pictures, and overall visual appeal may take a pass.
Bolt Food	The interface of Bolt Food is a mix of primary colours and green, and a font type that makes it easy to read. It is as simple as the word itself, making the images of the food easy to see and identify.
G-Food	The Gokada food app has a chocolate icon, but is not as clear. The font is funky and the brown colour is a move away from the original green of Gokada.

Ease of use

…including onboarding, creating an account, etc.

App	comments on ease of use
Konga Food	It’s quite obvious that the designers of this app just replicated the Konga online market for the Kong food app. Getting started was confusing as an OTP was sent to verify a new account and before it could be entered the page moved to something else. Navigating the app is confusing, because when you click on the cakes and ice cream icon, you are presented with small chops. Ease of use is poor, but onboarding and creating an account is straightforward.
Chowdeck	Chowdeck is easy to use. You get in, create an account, enable your location and you are ready to begin to browse through for what to order. Ease is paramount because anyone using a food delivery is probably hungry.
Bolt Food	In this category, the onboarding process with this app was the easiest. In less than two minutes you are ready to order.
G-Food	G-Food is easy to navigate, and the onboarding process is fast and efficient. as it should be. No complaints about this one.

Making an order

In this category, we look at how each app performs.

App	comments on making an order
Bolt Food	Making an order with this app is seamless. For the purpose of this review, we ordered a smoothie from a vendor and it took less than two minutes to get to its destination. Finding the smoothie to choose from was also easy. Talk about efficiency.
Konga Food	Placing an order on Konga Food did not end well. We placed an order and it was rejected, then a customer care agent called to let us know we can’t order from a restaurant more than 5 km away from us – a piece of information that should be readily available on the app. Thereafter, all the restaurants stopped accepting orders. ‘Hunger in the mud‘.
Chowdeck	Making an order on Chowdeck is easy. You also get to choose from an assortment of vendors like other food apps. You can also choose based on the kind of meal you want.
G-Food	Unfortunately, we are unable to rate this app for this category as we discovered the app is currently on a break when we attempted to order some food.

Pricing and speed of delivery 

App	comments on delivery/pricing
Chowdeck	Even though pricing is decided largely by the vendors, we observed that the prices of some meals on Chowdeck seem to be cheaper than what is otherwise obtainable. For delivery, Chowdeck delivers almost exactly at the time they say they will.
Bolt Food	Bolt food is prompt with delivery. Although the prices may be much higher than other apps and not exactly of high quality. We would still rate this app high for efficiency and speed of delivery.

Customer care/packaging

App	comments on customer care/packaging
Bolt Food	Bolt Food performed excellently on both counts. The packaging of the delivery was done right. The parfait ordered for the purpose of this review was well packaged in a neat beautiful paper bag, tightly sealed in such a way you would know if the bag has been compromised. The customer care is also top-notch, as there was a little problem with double charging but it was promptly rectified.
Chowdeck	The meals came in a branded Chowdeck delivery bike and this gives you a sense of security. The brown paper bag was sealed with their brand seal which is a nice touch. Great customer service. Courteous delivery person. An overall great experience.
Konga Food	Konga Food gets some points for customer service. After the order was rejected, a call came in from the Konga food customer care explaining why the order was rejected and making sure there were no further problems.

Conclusion

That’s the end of our food delivery app reviews which ran all through May. Now, you can make informed decisions with our reviews.

Meanwhile, what apps would you like to see us review in the month of June? Do let us know.