The Czech gastronomic scene is going through a challenging period. The only way restaurants can stay up and running now is through a serving window or food delivery.

However, according to some restaurants, delivery services do not offer the fairest conditions. Storyous – which focuses of developing technologies for the restaurant industry – wants to change this, by cooperating with renowned chef, TV personality and entrepreneur, Zdeněk Pohlreich, and taxi ordering app Liftago.

Together, they launched OneMenu.cz, which, according to its founders, is “based on fairness towards customers, carriers, and restaurants”.

According to statistics from Storyous, only about half of Czech restaurants are currently open, and sales in gastronomy fell by 49 per cent year-on-year in October.

“OneMenu.cz has been operating since spring as an online service to order from the dispensing window. Thanks to growing demand from many restaurants, we are now also expanding the service with delivery options, and I am very pleased that Zdeněk Pohlreich and Liftago decided to further develop the project with us,” says Igor Třeslín, Head of Storyous.

From the customer’s point of view, OneMenu works in the same way as the main competing DameJidlo, Wolt or Bolt Food. However, Storyous charges a margin of 3.79 per cent for each order, and the price of the delivery itself then depends on the decision of the restaurant.

For consumers, the service will work similarly to existing food delivery services. Customers will choose a restaurant on the OneMenu.cz website, put their order in the shopping basket, enter the delivery address, and pay on-line. Restaurants can also add a link to the service directly on their websites. However, the main difference is in the relationship between the service, the delivery company, and the restaurant.

“The restaurant sets the price the customer pays for home delivery. The price charged by Liftago to the restaurant is fixed, and thus does not increase with the price of the total order,” explains Ondřej Krátký, founder and CEO of Liftago.

Ondřej Krátký (Liftago), Zdeněk Pohlreich and Igor Třeslín (Storyous)

“For the restaurant, the delivery price with Liftago is fixed, so it does not increase for restaurants with the value of the total order,” adds Krátký. For existing delivery services, the standard model is to take a commission from the overall price of food of up to several tens of per cent, while transport costs of tens of crowns are paid by the customer.

“Unfortunately, we will not announce a specific amount, but we have set it fairly and exactly the same for everyone. It works in two tariffs according to the distance. Delivery up to four kilometres is therefore slightly cheaper than over four kilometres,” specifies Třeslín.

OneMenu currently accepts online orders from over 400 restaurants, which until now had the opportunity to use their own delivery, or delivery with companies other than Liftago.

“The first priority for restaurants now is to survive this crisis. In the current conditions, however, due to the margin of delivery services, our survival would have to be at the expense of the quality of the raw materials from which we prepare food. And this way of survival does not suit anyone. Restaurants want to cook good food and customers want to eat quality food. This is possible with OneMenu.cz, which is now the best choice for all of us. It’s not free, but it’s fair,” says Zdeněk Pohlreich.

Restaurants can connect their businesses to OneMenu.cz after contacting Storyous. Users can already now place their first fair home delivery orders via OneMenu.cz.