Eating lunch at work becomes such a hassle for me sometimes. Some days I leave home too early in the morning to be able to take a dabba. Eating in the canteen becomes pretty monotonous since its hospital food at its best. Ordering in everyday turns out to be expensive and time consuming. So I was looking for a dabba service for lunch since a long time. 

I knew about the Foodees Tiffin Service since a while since I’ve been following them on twitter and even visited their website once or twice. I’ve been wanting to try out their food but hadn’t got around to doing so. As luck would have it, I won a twitter contest they conducted recently and got to try out their tiffin service for lunch for a week. Woohoo!

On a Saturday prior I got a mail mentioning the entire menu for the following week. I had to undergo the tough job of deciding what I wanted to eat on which day. Mouth was watering already! They offer a number of set meal options from salads, sandwiches to Indian Veg/ Non Veg meals to continental Veg/Non Veg meals. I decided to try all that they offer. 

Day I: Salad Non-Veg

At noon I was immersed in work, and I got a call from the delivery boy saying, ‘Madam dabba neeche gate par rakh diya hai’. +50 points! And here I thought they’d forgotten or my dabba would come late.

I trooped to the gate to find a smart blue Foodees logo-wala lunch bag with my name on top. The food came in the traditional stainless steel dabba. Khana today was a ‘Macaroni chicken salad with hung curd dressing’.

The pasta had bell peppers and corn to give it the crunch and boiled chicken hidden underneath. It was pretty bland but tasted fab after adding the dressing. The hung curd dressing added a lot of flavour.

Damages: Rs. 120 + Rs 30 Delivery
(I’m mentioning the charges here, but remember this was a contest win so I didn’t end up paying a penny).

Day 2: Classic Indian Non-Veg

I was starving that afternoon but was couldn’t finish the dabba off single handedly. Today I had chicken curry, dal, rice and 3 chapatis for lunch. The dal-rice was standard fare, exactly like what you would get at home.

The chicken curry was pretty good, again ‘ghar-ka-khana’ type. I loved the gravy. A colleague enjoyed it so much she called it ‘sexy’.

Also I loved the little fortune note in the dabba. Such a personal touch. My very own version of the movie ‘Lunchbox’. Alas, no love notes here.

Damages: Rs. 100 + Rs. 30 Delivery.

Day III: Sandwich Non Veg

By now my entire department was hooked onto the guessing game of ‘What’s in her dabba today?’ I had ordered this mouthwatering Smoked Chicken and cheese sandwich and was waiting expectedly for it, but the ants got to it before I did.

The dabba may have been placed at the gate, in a location infested with ants. They were all over my food. Ate half a sandwich, and I had to throw away the rest. The sandwich was really cheesy and had huge chunks of chicken. It was a huge triple deckered sandwich. Half of it made me decently full. They also had sent some chatpata aloo wedges which everyone polished off.

That afternoon social media proved beneficial yet again. I tweeted to the Foodees guys about the ant fiasco. In the next hour I received a call from the delivery guy saying they had a replacement sandwich ready for me. Thorough professionalism on their part.

Damages: The price for the sandwich varies daily.I think this one was for Rs. 120+ Rs. 30 delivery, but I’m not too sure.

Day IV: Indian Non-Veg

On the Thursdays of every week, the Foodees guys have a special on the menu. I was lucky to have ‘The Kolkota Meal’ by home chef Auroni Mookherjee that week. 

I love Bengali food but don’t get to eat it too often. Today’s menu was Kosha Mangsho, Aloo posto, dal, rice and lucchi puri. The kosha mangsho is a popular Bengali mutton curry. This one was finger-licking good. Succulent mutton pieces in a fiery curry, a tad bit oily for me however.

The dal was thick and had a bit of a mustard flavour. I like how the taste of a simple dal can vary depending on the region cooking it.

Aloo poshto is a potato dish cooked in poppy seeds. My first time eating this so I didn’t know what to expect. It reminded be a bit of the filling of potatoes one gets inside a masala dosa.

The quantity of food was massive so I ended up wasting a lot of it.
Damages: Rs. 230/- Totally worth it if you ask me. Two people could comfortably finish this off.

Day V: Classic Multi Cuisine Non Veg

I got two bowls of a white sauce pasta with brown bread. The least favorite dabba of mine from the entire week. Average pasta with some bell peppers, broccoli and chicken thrown in.

Damages: Rs. 110 + Rs. 30 delivery charges

Day VI: Multi Cuisine Non Veg

Another pasta meal today. Don’t know why I ordered pasta twice consecutively. Must’ve been some error on my part. Nevertheless today’s pasta was a lot better. It had heaps of veggies like carrots, zucchini in addition to bell peppers and broccoli. Plus the sauce had this tomato base which I enjoy in my pasta. Again not fancy, gourmet, Italian but hearty home-cooked stuff.

My overall experience was positive with the tiffin service. Good timely service in terms of delivery of the food. I was very impressed with their professionalism and the fact that they cared enough to replace my ant infested sandwich. The Indian food tiffins are definitely value for money and can be split between two people. The pastas can be skipped. Order an Indian meal instead. I think spending Rs. 100-150/- for a meal is worth it, especially if two people are sharing. My only suggestion is using disposable, plastic containers instead of the steel dabbas. It saves them the trouble too of having to pick up the dabba again in the evening once we are done eating.

Would I order again? Most definitely yes. Maybe one of those Thursday special dabbas they have. Or a chicken thali once in a way.

Contact: http://www.foodees.in/ for all the information you may need.
Also follow @FoodeesIndia on twitter.