If you live in Turkey and want to order food, you go to Yemeksepeti.com or use their mobile app.
This online food ordering company was founded by 3 Turkish businessmen in 2001.
For almost a decade they have extended their activities in other countries in the GCC region under the name Foodonclick.com.
The company isn’t Turkish anymore. In May 2015 Yemeksepeti was acquired by the German-based Delivery Hero.
In Turkey, Yemeksepeti currently operates in 64 cities and in Cyprus with more than 11,000 member restaurants, 5.2 million users, and 150,000 orders on a daily basis.
The easiest way to use the service is to browse their website Yemeksepeti.com using Google Translate either on a mobile device or a desktop computer.
CAREFULL some translation are awkward/funny like Painless chicken (not spicy) or Egypt on your pizza (it is corn) but most of the time you can understand.
BUT WHAT IF THEY CALL?
The problem starts when the restaurant calls you because they’re out of a specific product of have a problem with your order. They probably only speak Turkish. I use to say Tamam…tamam… tamam… Tesekkurler. and wait to see the surprise when the order gets to my door…But not anymore!
PROBLEM YOK!
I found an easy way to manage their phone calls. Unless you speak Turkish… DON’T ANSWER!
If the call came from the order center, within a few seconds Yemeksepeti will send you a SMS to explain the problem.
Then you can use Google Translate and understand!
If it is the restaurant calling, DON’T ANSWER!
Go on the Yemeksepeti website and click on the Live Help windows at the bottom of the page.
This is a live chat (In Turkish)
Then using Google translate you can easily ask what is the problem with the order, understand the answer, and take the appropriate decision, change those sushis for these ones, etc….
I often find that communication by chat message is much easier, I can translate their message in a 2nd windows of my internet browser and translate my answer from English to Turkish!
Don’t forget to do a reverse translation before sending your message to make sure you are not saying “I am a sushi” (It can easily happen because of the structure of the language)…. Keep it to one idea per sentence and it should work!
Try something new with the Joker
Everyday these Joker deal comes and go. They either pop up when you get on the desktop version of the site, or when you look at the restaurant list in the mobile app.
You get interesting discount on your order, if you choose one of their featured restaurant.
The discount is pretty good! Is is around 35% of the normal price. But you have to choose that specefic restaurant, and it goes away after 15 minutes.
You will notice that it is often for Çiğköfte and Cakes, but it is also a great way to discover new dishes and food.