Despite the ever-increasing number of restaurants and cafés across their city, Budapesters seem to be increasingly unwilling to leave their homes or offices in search of meals cooked by someone else. At least that is what seems to be behind the record numbers being posted by NetPincér.hu (“Net Waiter”), Hungary’s leading online food delivery specialist, which says that last month it broke the Ft 100 million/month barrier for the first time in its history.
Interestingly, the record was broken despite weather so balmy that even last week some in town were still taking their lunch outside. (For this reasons head pincer Péter Perger calls his service a “barometer.”) While it is not clear when the last lunch will be eaten at an actual restaurant in Budapest, the company says it expects to cross the next hurdle – Ft 200 million a month – in the winter of 2008. By then, the IP TV-based “TVPincér” service will have been launched, which will make it possible to order food with a remote control, meaning hungry Hungarians won’t even have to get up and walk over to their computers to order in.
