I recently ate at a restaurant, we were one of the only two or three dine-in customers and there was a steady stream of delivery orders.

When we finished, we were the only customers left. We talked to the owner’s brother (running the place that night, taking orders and half the cooking) after our meal, and at a point he lamented the trend towards delivery: they nab 30% of the revenue, which is bad enough, but then the food itself is affected: a freshly-cooked naan bread kept in delivery packaging will just it in its steam and get soggy by the time it’s delivered. A five-star dish becomes a three-star dish, and that affects your reviews.

But something that also came through, for me, was how it affects community. The manager-cook took us back into the kitchen, showed us around, let me put my hand in a huge ceramic tandoor, and made it into an experience (and not in the marketing buzzword sense!).

I’ve been raised in a city environment where food, if not made by family or close friends, is purely a commercial service. A smile from a server is the entire humanity of it, or you’re thoughtful, a thank you to the chef. I only know two exceptions rather than this Indian place, which is a kebab store (ordering certain foods will prompt an excited cheer from the staff) and a Japanese sushi store where the tiny open kitchen burst out ‘ohaiyo!’ when the door bell rang. It’s even embedded in our language, for an example, ‘companion’ comes from latin stems meaning ‘with’,‘bread’, com panis, someone you eat with. What happened to communal food culture in ‘the West’?

Well, maybe you get a bit of interaction from the delivery guy if you write notes telling them to dance… sigh

But I’ve also talked to someone who was short on money and ran two delivery jobs (as in, two services simultaneously) while on vacation so we went with them, and they emphasized that a 4 out of 5 is a bad score and that average allows you to be fired.

4 stars is, in no normal rating system, below average. Everyone I ask says that means ‘better than expected’ or ‘above average’.

So yeah, try and order directly from stores (I’ve never used a third-party delivery service) and if you must use delivery or taxi services, give 5 stars if they don’t deserve 1 star.