At least twice or thrice a week, I open my honestbee app and decide where to order dinner. It is so much easier to just swipe up and down to choose the food I want, and honestbee, Asia’s leading online concierge and delivery service, has a well-curated list of restaurants—whether it’s Japanese or Chinese or Mediterranean, or simply milk tea from my favorite store.
The “bees” have always been efficient, and delivery has always been prompt, save for that one time that it rained so hard and the rider had no raincoat such that the scallop shrimp siomai and seafood lumpia that I ordered arrived more than two hours late—I chalked it up to force majeure. (I was more concerned with the rider who arrived soaking wet, and told him to take Vitamin C and a shower, not necessarily in that order.) As for the already cold food, well, that’s what the oven in the pantry is for.)
“Our passion is really food—whether you want to order something to eat or you want to create your food from scratch by ordering ingredients from our grocery partners,” said honestbee’s managing director for the Philippines Crystal Gonzalez.
“We really make sure we provide a highly curated selection of restaurants for our customers. So whether they’re looking for large chains or hole-in-the-walls, they can find the best of the best on honestbee,” she added.
For Chris Guarin, owner of Varda Burger, being on the honestbee platform helped expand his business.
Guarin named his restaurant after “bardagul”—a description that his classmates in elementary used to teased him with for being tall, big, and gay.
“I owned that term and transformed it into Varda, which sounds gayer than barda as shortcut for bardagul. Even before I started my business, I always knew I would use Varda as brand name,” he said.
Varda now has 34 branches, mostly kiosks, across Luzon since it started in 2016, and Guarin—armed with his witty burgers: RK or rich kid for the one with bacon and Terror Prof for the spicy version, among others—aims to reach 50 branches by yearend.
For Vincent Rocha, honestbee was a “gamechanger” for his restaurant, Fat Ninja, which has become famous for its innovative gyoza flavors—cheesy gyoza, mentaiko (fish roe) gyoza, and takoyaki gyoza complete with a generous heaping of bonito flakes.
“We started out with a stall in Mercato, and now we have our first physical store near CCP in Pasay City. In the beginning, our store only had little foot traffic, but since joining honestbee we’ve increased our direct sales especially during the rainy days. We have no complaints with honestbee,” said Rocha.
Actor-cum-entrepreneur Michael Agassi, owner of Victoria’s Pancit Malabon, said sales from orders through honestbee have almost made it unnecessary to keep their physical store.
“For our first three months with honestbee, we experienced a triple increase in sales. Being onboard with honestbee helps our customers always be ready for any potluck or office celebration,” he said.
Just like Agassi’s panciteria, Eugene Claravall of Kanto Freestyle, a 24/7 breakfast concept, also attributed the 14 percent increase in sales of his restaurant to honestbee.
“honestbee is a great force multiplier,” he said, noting how Kanto’s Instagram-ready silog meals as well as pancakes and eggs Benedict helped boost the restaurant’s following through online social media platforms.
“We wanted to revolutionize how people view carinderia by elevating the usual dishes you see in eateries. Partnering up with honestbee has helped us expand our horizons, letting people try our food the way breakfast should be enjoyed, from the comforts of their homes,” Claravall added.
Indeed, honestbee has afforded small homegrown brands a level playing field for their deliveries.
“Not only do we provide jobs to thousands of bees, we also empower our merchants by giving them analytics on their bestsellers and fast-moving items,” said Gonzalez. “We love collaborating with our merchants, and watching their businesses thrive and grow because of our service.”
I’m at joyce.panares@gmail.com.
