Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Ordering Pizza

One of Sophia's and my favorite restaurants is called Il Platio; it's an Italian-Japanese restaurant, with reasonable prices and decent food. Sophia likes the pizza and pasta; I like the pizza and pasta, as well as the salads and meat options. There are two Il Platio's in Astana; one is located in the Sariarka mall near our house, so we sometimes go there after school for dinner. We can sit by one of the large windows and watch the sun set over the steppe. It's nice.

The other is located on Respublika Street, next to where the TJI Friday's used to be. TJI Friday's is now the American Bar and Grill. The same company owns these two restaurants.

Once while eating at Il Platio, I noticed a brochure that seemed to imply that we could order delivery over the Internet. I would love to have my dinner delivered, but although I can order fine in Russian, my skills on the telephone are practically non-existent.

So I went on the web site, http://dostavka.rosinter.kz, and found that they had a page in English, and that, yes, you can order delivery on-line! Hurrah!

Delivery is free, but the delivery prices are a bit higher than in-store, which is fine. 999 Tenge (under $7) for a cheese pizza, so not bad. You have to order at least 3000 Tenge ($20) in order to get delivery.

One evening, we tried it. I submitted my order on-line, I got a confirmation email--and then I went back and read the delivery info. on the site and found out that I'd get a phone call confirming my order. So I wasn't bypassing a telephone conversation altogether.

But the phone call was much easier than placing an order via phone. A lady called, confirmed my name and address, and all I had to do was so, "Da" (Russian for "yes"). I can do that.

Two hours went by and no pizza!

So I called a Kazakh friend, who called the restaurant. She was told that since it was the eve of a big holiday (Kazakh Independence Day) and they only had one driver, they were backed up quite a bit. Not long after, the pizza arrived, a bit cold.

Well, a few days ago I decided to give them one more chance. They had a good excuse last time, didn't that? I placed my order on a Monday, the eve of no holiday that I knew of.

The confirmation call didn't come for about an hour. I'm suspecting that they just didn't check their computer. The pizza came about an hour later, hot this time, but after bedtime!

Which, sadly, means that this place really isn't worth it for on-line ordering. Maybe if I called an order it'd be quicker? Definitely if we went there and ate it'd be quicker! It'd be worth it on a Saturday, if we had nowhere to go and no need to go to bed early. But not during the week, which is when I'd really like it.

Oh well!

UPDATE: 
I tried ordering on-line one more time, and this time the pizza never came!  Then I realized that if I can order food in Russian, then I can order delivery over the telephone in Russian.  So I called the Il Platio delivery number and ordered delivery.  I had to spell out my address & give my phone number (in Russian), but it worked.  They delivered within in hour!  I've done it several times since then, and my pizza has always arrived within the hour.  Sophia & I are quite pleased.

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