Zomato Responds After Customer Claims He Received Children’s Day Cake Instead Of Birthday Cake

Over the last ten years, India has seen a significant change in the way people eat, dine, and connect to restaurants. Food delivery apps like Zomato and Swiggy have changed consumer habits, given a boost to small food businesses, and generated an enormous gig economy workforce. A convenience-first service has now become an integral part of city life for professionals and students who crave hassle-free dining options in the comfort of their homes or for families seeking variety.

However, the rapid growth of the food delivery market caused many problems. Food delivery mishaps, from wrong orders to delays in delivery, hygiene issues, and flawed packaging, have gradually become prevalent. Social media is full of experiences where one gets the wrong items, stale food, or poorly packaged meals. A similar kind of thing exactly happened with a customer who received an unexpected cake instead of a birthday cake, despite confirmation of the custom message request. Nevertheless, Zomato has now reacted to the incident. So, here’s what happened:

X

Zomato delivers the Children’s Day cake instead of a birthday cake despite receiving a custom message request

Anoop Tiwari, an X user, ordered a chocolate cake through the Zomato app to celebrate his brother’s birthday. According to his post, he personally called up the owner of the restaurant and requested him to write the name of his brother on the birthday cake. The owner replied that he would make the necessary changes as part of the cake order. But when the order arrived, he received something entirely different. It’s a cake with “Happy Children’s Day” written on it.

In his post, he also claimed that the cake looked three days old, adding to the disappointment. Tiwari mentioned that the wrongly prepared cake “ruined the mood,” especially because he had taken the extra step to call and confirm the customization. Along with the photo of the wrong cake, Anoop wrote on X:

@zomato @zomatocare, Ordered  Chocolate cake for my brothers birthday , called the restaurant owner, and told him to write the name of my brother. He said okay, and he gave us the 3-day-old Children’s Day cake.  Ruined the mood.

Have a look at the original post:

@zomato @zomatocare , Ordered Chocolate cake for my brothers birthday , called the restaurant Owner, told him to write the name of my brother , he said okay , he gave us the 3 days old, children’s day cake. Ruined the mood. pic.twitter.com/8gw0XEg1pe

— Anoop Tiwari (@__Plan_b) November 16, 2025

How did Zomato react to the incident?

Upon seeing Anoop’s tweet and realizing their mistake, Zomato’s customer support replied publicly to the post. They acknowledged the user’s concern and assured him that the company would look into this. Zomato asked Tiwari to share his order details via private message to assist the team further. In their reply, the food delivery company wrote,

Hi Anoop, that’s not how we wanted your celebration to go. Please DM us your order ID so that we can look into this and get back to you with an update.

Hi Anoop, that’s not how we wanted your celebration to go. Please DM us your order ID so that we can look into this and get back to you with an update. https://t.co/jcTFuGT2Se

— Zomato Care (@zomatocare) November 17, 2025

The response was brief, but it follows common practice among food delivery platforms that each grievance is taken up individually and public communication is kept to a minimum. This incident initiates wider discussions about the difficulties faced by third-party delivery ecosystems. Delivery platforms like Zomato bridge the gap between customers and thousands of partner restaurants.

But while they put order into systems, sorting logistics and handling customer complaints, actual food preparation and customization are performed by the restaurants. So if the order that goes out is wrong, poorly packaged, or incorrectly customized, as in this case, it impacts not just the restaurant where the error occurred but also the platform offering the service.

What do you think about this? Do share your thoughts with us in the comment section of this article.