Goodbye Food By Phone -- Rest in Peace.

[PT4]

.

Went to Food By Phone web site this evening to order supper. Gone. I'll miss them.

Changed to Food Panda -- which is a very different approach to meal delivery.

For the past year, restaurants have been leaving Food By Phone. A recent note added to the website said something like, "Food By Phone - powered by Food Panda". When I ordered, sometimes the delivery man would be wearing jacket with "Food By Phone", sometimes "Food Panda", so I knew something was changing. But, still, meals always delivered in reasonable time and -- Food By Phone's big advantage -- well packaged for take-away.

But Food Panda is aimed at a different market entirely. Where Food By Phone had a broad mix of restaurants -- from New York hot dogs, to pub grub from Jool's, to tasty dinners from Bourbon Street -- Food Panda is mostly "mall food" chains. Bland, factory-made, totally un-inspired, mall food.

Sad to say goodbye to the old Food By Phone: many quality restaurants and dependable delivery.

ChefsXP is the only other option that I know with a variety of Western food. Quality of restaurants varies widely. Delivery varies widely. And their website is awkward to use.

Edited February 20, 2016 by PT4

[wordchild]

I gave up on chefsxp a while ago, just too unreliable nearly always late, on one occasion over 2 hours from ordering to the guy appearing on the doorstep, and that was for a central bkk delivery. Never again after that.

I am a fairly regular user of food by phone (1x per week) service level much higher than cxp, it would be a shame if they were closing down.

[ExpatOilWorker]

If you use Food Panda, get your wife to search for discount codes online.

My wife does that and often gets 50% discount.

[Glock3am]

Food Panda has all of the items/restaurants you mention - New York, New York does hot dogs, Jools and Bourbon Street are there, etc. At least they appear on the choices that deliver to my area; I have noticed that the choice is limited depending on where you live, perhaps they have a different delivery radius that excludes you from those restaurants now?

Here are the direct links to each one anyway. Try your luck:

https://www.foodpanda.co.th/restaurant/t6ix/new-york-new-york-park-ventures-ecoplex-corp

https://www.foodpanda.co.th/restaurant/t0zl/jools-bar-restaurant

https://www.foodpanda.co.th/restaurant/t0eq/bourbon-street

Edited February 20, 2016 by Glock3am

[bkkmick]

New version of the website is there. What a load of Bill*cks. You have to choose the area of the restaurant. What a crap design.

[PT4]

Glock3am wrote:

"I have noticed that the choice is limited depending on where you live, perhaps they have a different delivery radius that excludes you from those restaurants now? ... Here are the direct links to each one anyway. Try your luck:"

Thank you, Glock, for checking those restaurants and sending links. You are correct: delivery depends on radius from customer location. That's always been a characteristic of Food Panda. I am in the Eastern suburbs. In each case above, FoodPanda says to me:

"Sorry, [restaurant] doesn't deliver to your address."

One of the positive features of FoodByPhone was their wide delivery radius. Yes, extra charge for delivery out to the suburbs, but they would deliver. FoodPanda won't.

[PT4]

(deleted by poster)

Edited February 21, 2016 by PT4

[Pvassana]

I've tried Iron Grill BKK delivery for American style chicken wings. I believe they only sell wings though.

[PT4]

​

Since starting this thread 6 weeks ago, I've been experimenting with other food delivery services in Bangkok. Here's a brief summary:

​

​1) ChefsXP: Much improved over past years and my current favorite. Delivery from any restaurant on their list to anywhere in their service area. Some very good restaurants, too, just not as many as the old Food-by-Phone. Example: Recently, I ordered from Roadhouse BBQ in Silom area downtown. Delivery to Eastern suburbs. That's a long, nasty, drive on a motorcycle. My dinner arrived in about 90 minutes. Very nice. ChefsXP has been providing consistently good service.

​

​2) GoTasty: Always fast and reliable, but delivery is limited to a few suburban areas, and from mostly small, local, Thai restaurants and food carts. A few Western-style restaurants available, some of them okay. When I want Thai food delivered, I order from GoTasty for quick delivery.

​

​3) FoodPanda: This is the service that absorbed Food-by-Phone. FoodPanda only delivers to areas nearby each restaurant. If you are in a farang area of Bangkok, you'll have a wide selection of nearby restaurants. If you are in the suburbs, as I am, you'll be able to order only "mall food" from the usual chain restaurants in nearby malls. I don't bother with FoodPanda, but for those in central Bangkok, it would be very useful.

​

Edited March 21, 2016 by PT4

[steven100]

just order a pepperoni pizza and a coke and you'll be fine .....

[bkkgooner]

Horrible service, took 2 hours to get my dinner once, haven't used it since.

[wordchild]

i have used food panda 2/3 times now since they took over food by phone and so far been pretty impressed, wider selection of restaurants than before (but we do live central bkk) and same good delivery service, even recognized one of the old f by p delivery guys who brought our delivery last night.

[thaihome]

Ordered LA Monitas from ChefXP tonight at 5:30, delivered at 6:20. Have found ordering early makes a huge difference in delivery time.

TH