Did restos miss your requests for low salt, less spicy dishes online? Here’s why

Please make the dish less spicy’, ‘Less oil please’, ‘Please use tofu instead of paneer’.... The list of customisation requests in food orders, especially online, keeps growing with changing palettes. But during the December-end festive week, a majority of Kolkata restaurants and cloud kitchens had to prioritise service over customisations. “The volume of orders and the fast-paced nature of operations make it difficult to accommodate individual, highly customised instructions. Teams work with tight timelines and standardised processes to ensure smooth service, so prioritising efficiency becomes essential,” says restaurateur Rajiv Paul.

What can’t be customised

• Spiciness
• Oiliness
• Crispiness of the vegetables in dish
• Change in taste of pre-prepared or batch-cooked items such as gravies, curries, sauces
• Requests like no onion, no garlic, or less oil
• Structural changes to dishes such as turning a non-veg dish vegetarian, replacing paneer with tofu, or changing the base sauce

What can be customisedPackaging instructions Consistency of gravy Request for a certain piece of meat Quantity of rice, if the request is to pack less of it

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