Zomato steps back from ultra-fast food delivery on core app; bets on Blinkit’s ‘Bistro’ for quick bites

In a strategic shift that signals a reevaluation of the 10-to-15-minute food delivery promise, Zomato has quietly discontinued its "Quick" and "Everyday" tabs from the main app, just months after launch, highlighting the operational complexities and profitability hurdles of hyper-fast meal delivery in India.

The features, once heavily promoted on the app’s homepage and available in cities like Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, are no longer accessible. Instead of doubling down on the quick delivery model within its core platform, Zomato is redirecting its ultra-fast ambitions to a more tailored, infrastructure-ready vehicle, Blinkit’s new vertical, Bistro.

Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal, in the company’s Q4 FY25 results note to shareholders, confirmed the shutdown, citing a lack of scalable profitability and inconsistent customer experience due to inadequate restaurant density and infrastructure. “We did not see any incrementality in demand while we ran Quick as an experiment,” Goyal explained.

This marks Zomato’s second retreat from ultra-fast food delivery within its main platform. Its earlier iteration, Zomato Instant, launched in 2022, also fizzled out due to infrastructure and demand challenges.

Now, instead of forcing rapid deliveries into an ecosystem built for traditional restaurant orders, Zomato is leaning on Blinkit’s dark store network to power Bistro, an independent platform focused on speed-friendly items like snacks, puffs and baked goods. It’s a tactical pivot that allows Zomato to stay in the 15-minute race without muddying the waters of its flagship food delivery business.