Grounded on its advocacy of helping local restaurants nationwide, foodpanda, an on-demand food delivery service in the Philippines, partnered with three restaurants in Iloilo City so that Ilonggos could have a taste of specially made food and drinks at a reasonable price.
foodpanda definitely has got your love for food covered by sharing the great stories of three of their restaurant partners and how the platform helped their business:
Akamon Ramen Bar started out in 2018 as a small ramen shop in a food park located in Iloilo City. Back then, it was still called Ramen Raku until they decided to take a big leap and opened a stand-alone ramen restaurant in SM Strata this year. The new name, Akamon, means a red gate (door) in Japanese.
Mr. Bryan Te, owner of Akamon Ramen Bar, started the business, wanting to serve authentic Japanese food to its customers in hopes of becoming one of the leading ramen chains in Iloilo City. “Always dream big and put quality first before anything else. There will be struggles along the way but you have to keep up and think of innovative ideas”, shared Mr. Te.
Kai Royal Tea started out only last year but they are already bringing lots of smiles to people living in Iloilo City because of their milk teas and refreshing drinks. The owner of the milk tea shop, Mr. Keano Lev Eslabon, has plans of branching out soon and his team is also working on franchising the business in order to open more branches in the city.
“Always study the market first to understand it and focus on your customers without forgetting about your employees. Make sure you have enough knowledge of the industry you’ll be involved in. Lastly, there will always be risks but you can manage risk by planning ahead”, said Mr. Eslabon.
Another homegrown brand, Monkey Grounds Coffee, which started in 2016, serves healthy meatless food. It has always been Ms. Glaiza Wong-Nava and Ms. Goldline Wong’s dream to have a coffee shop and as business owners, they discussed how there’s a lot of challenges along the way but they always try to improve and do their best as receiving good feedback from their valued customers is very rewarding.
“No one is going to take care of your business but you. You need to put your heart and soul into it and to stay motivated when problems arise. It’s also important that your family understands your long hours spent in the business but at the same time you also need to balance business, and family, and personal life”, said Ms. Nava.
The three business owners shared how foodpanda was instrumental during the difficult times of community quarantines, with its convenient ordering and delivery process. foodpanda truly has got its partner restaurants and customers covered.