Sehri becomes a treat for Lucknow rozedars with early morning food delivery

Sehri and iftari are the two most talked about events in the holy month of Ramzan. While online food delivery for iftar might not be a new trend, several local restaurants taking orders for sehri through food delivery apps is definitely an emerging trend in the city. Making extra efforts for the convenience of rozedars, food delivery apps like Swiggy, Zomato, Food Panda and Onlinekaka, etc are taking orders for food delivery before dawn.What’s adding to this is that several restaurants in the city are now open till 4 AM to serve customers during sehri.
And loving this new are Lucknowites, who are making the most of this service. Take for example Aleem Siddiqui, a collegian who stays alone in Lucknow. Aleem, who is observing roza, has been ordering food for iftari through the online food delivery apps but it was the sehri which used to pose a problem for him as he could not cook at home and there wasn’t a way he could go out of college to eat at that time. But things have smoothed out for him this year as online food delivery services are taking requests even for sehri and he can conveniently order for food at any time. "Getting up early in the morning before 3 AM and cooking food for myself is not at all a workable plan. But when recently I checked on a food delivery app that they were delivering food at 3 AM for rozedars, I immediately started making orders for sehri. This service is really cool and helpful for people like me who don’t stay with their families," says Aleem.
And Aleem is not the only one. Humra Khan, a housewife, who took ill recently found it convenient to order food for sehri from an online app rather than getting up in the wee hours and cooking food for the whole family. "I felt so sick that it was impossible for me to get up so early and cook food," says Humra, adding, "A friend of mine had told me that Swiggy, Zomato etc, were delivering food during sehri so I ordered food from there for us."
Commenting on the trend is Srivats TS, Swiggy’s Vice President of Marketing. "Swiggy has become an integral part of the city of the nawabs with our convenient and reliable deliveries from the widest variety of restaurants. For the holy month of Ramzan, we have curated special iftar combos including fried items, dates and beverages and have also extended our operations in the city to 3 AM to ensure customers can order for sehri as well. Restaurants like Raheem, Tunday and New Mubeen, among many others are offering their special iftar and sehri menus on Swiggy."
Swiggy has also gifted many customers a beautiful Ramzan calendar to help them conveniently track the timings for sehri and iftar.
A similar view is of the spokesperson from Zomato, who shares, "The Ramzan season has lit-up the food scene in Lucknow. Restaurants, especially ones serving Mughlai delicacies, have their doors open till 3-4 AM in the morning and we are happy to deliver to our customers even at that time."
The Zomato spokesperson adds, "On the delivery front, we’ve witnessed three times growth in the number of late night orders (post 12 AM) in the past ten days and these numbers are only slated to grow. While biryani is an all-time favourite, people are increasingly ordering rolls and kulcha-nihari during this period."

Ahad Arshad, owner of OnlineKaka, a local food delivery service, who was the first one to initiate online food delivery in Lucknow, says, "During the Ramzan month we deliver from dusk till dawn and night time is the busiest schedule for us. Apart from all other famous restaurants of Lucknow, we also deliver Idrees ki biryani, Tunday kabab-parathe as well as Acche bhai ki nihari till late at night. This trend of sehri delivery has taken a leap maybe because if you’ll visit Chowk late at night, you’ll observe mostly men eating at the restaurants there. It’s not just a question of safety of the women, with kids and elderly people at home, it’s difficult for them to venture out at 2-2.30 AM to eat. It’s then that our services are most required because sometimes one wants to have hotel ka khana too for sehri and also it’s convenient for them to order food at that hour rather than cook it. If we can provide them tikkas, nihari, which is difficult to prepare at home, then it is a boon for our customers. And plus the job to deliver food at night is also easy because of less traffic. In fact now, we have started to deliver shikanji and Kashmiri tea too."
And keeping pace with the online food delivery service wallahs are the city restaurants which have started to serve customers for sehri. Jatin Ahuja, owner of Royal Sky lounge cum restaurant in Hazratganj, says his staff is quite kicked about prepping for sehri. "This year the demand for online orders for sehri has really picked up. Initially when we thought about saying yes to food delivery service for sehri we were a little sceptical as we were not sure about the response from the rozedars. But to our surprise, we get ample number of sehri orders, which we accept daily till 11 PM, and then deliver it to the food delivery guys fresh by 3 AM," shares Jatin.
Khichda, kulcha-nihari, biryani and rolls are popular dishes being ordered for sehri (BCCL/ Farhan Ahmad Siddiqui)
John Naqvi, owner of Pizza Caves, an outlet in Chowk, who delivers pizzas late at night for sehri, says, "We have started making early morning deliveries for sehri. We have been getting a lot of orders as people have shown their interest in having pizzas during sehri."
Bilaal Ahmad of Rahim’s kulcha-nihari in Chowk is also facilitating food delivery for sehri, this year. "Since kulcha-nihari is among the most favoured dish for sehri, we are now offering people home food delivery too through the apps. It extends our customer base and people too are happy to have the dish in their homes than come all the way to the shop in the wee hours to eat it," says Ahmad.
Adeel Ahmad, owner of Mubeen’s Sameera, a popular Mughlai eatery in Chowk, says, "Apart from people coming to our shop and feasting on kulche-nihari, we have a vast online customer base. We get orders throughout the night. After the Isha namaz till sehri we provide food for deliveries non-stop. People opt for ordering food online as they get a lot of cuisines at their doorstep. The favourite delivery items are chicken and mutton biryani, roasted items, pasande kebabs, chicken and mutton korma, chicken tikka and above all kulche-nihari being our specialty tops the selling chart."
— Saad Abbasi