Over the past decade, India has seen a transformative change in the food and hospitality industry. To a large extent, this change was especially fueled by the emergence of food ordering platforms like Zomato and Swiggy. These online platforms have revolutionized the way people dine out. Now, the restaurant cuisine is available at the click of a button, and that too at our doorstep. However, as food delivery apps made eating easy, they also created several new issues. The most obvious is the widening disparity in food prices when ordered on an app versus buying at a restaurant directly.
One recent instance shared on social media brings this matter into sharp focus. A customer reported finding a different price for the same dish when he bought it directly from the restaurant compared to using Zomato. The disparity in both prices was approximately Rs 140, which left the customer perplexed. Now, Zomato too has responded to the complaint.
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A Zomato customer shares how he has to pay Rs 140 more for a dish ordered on Zomato than its actual price
On X, formerly known as Twitter, a user named Raveendra recently posted two screenshots: one is a Zomato bill, and the other is a restaurant bill for the same dish from the same place. With this, he compared the disparity in prices in both cases, which he recently faced.
The bill from Zomato shows that despite having a Zomato membership, he had to pay Rs 440 for a full box of Tandoori Paneer Biryani without any taxes or delivery fee. However, the restaurant bill shows that he only had to pay Rs 350 (which also includes GST) for the same dish. In his X post, the customer wrote,
Food when you buy directly Rs. 350, same in Zomato Rs. 490 ( even after having Zomato Gold) How fair is this @zomato?
Have a look at the original post:
Food when you buy directly Rs. 350, same in Zomato Rs. 490 ( even after having Zomato Gold )
How fair is this @zomato ? pic.twitter.com/B1ccoceVlK— Raveendra (@ravi143sun) October 26, 2025
How did Zomato react to the above-mentioned tweet?
In response, Zomato presented its own version of this whole mismatch of prices. The company has made it clear that restaurants set the menu prices on the platform. In order to communicate the customer’s feedback to the restaurant, they also requested the customer’s phone number. The company wrote,
Hi Raveendra, Zomato being an intermediary platform between a customer and a restaurant, does not govern the prices implemented by the restaurant partners on our platform. That said, please DM us your registered mobile number so we can convey your feedback to the restaurant partner.
Hi Raveendra, Zomato being an intermediary platform between a customer and a restaurant, does not govern the prices implemented by the restaurant partners on our platform. That said, please DM us your registered mobile number so we can convey your feedback to the restaurant… https://t.co/jcTFuGT2Se
— Zomato Care (@zomatocare) October 26, 2025
Meanwhile, it is not the first such incident. Although the aforementioned incident did not receive that much traction on social media, it points to the huge issue that is plaguing the entire food delivery business right now. Food aggregators like Zomato and Swiggy had earlier claimed that restaurants do modify online prices to adjust for commissions and delivery-related costs.
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Despite this, customers often ask for more transparency so they can see the reasoning behind such markups. Although Zomato’s clarification may satisfy policy issues, the debate has again highlighted the broader issue of price equity of online food ordering, particularly at a time when convenience tends to have an unseen cost.
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What do you think about such incidents? Do share your thoughts with us in the comment section of this article.
