Here at Goos3D, there are three things we love:
- Food
- Tech
- Everything Irish
Luckily for us, we have found a nifty little app that hits all three. A short while ago at the Dublin Tech Summit, we spoke to the guys from Bamboo. While we had a quick look at Bamboo a few months back, now we’ve had the chance to sink our teeth into some tasty bites to give you the scoop!
What is Bamboo?
Think of this: about an hour before lunch and your mental clock starts ticking. Work matters little at this point as you begin the internal “what do I want to eat for lunch” process. Realistically you get an hour to eat, relax and get back to work. To top it off, you’ll know “that guy” is probably going to be in front of you.
There is literally nothing worse than “that guy”. He’s always ahead of you in the queue bitching about his sandwich toppings, burning up your valuable lunch break. Thankfully, Bamboo is a new Dublin based app that’ll help you show “that guy” the middle finger.
Bamboo is a great little app that allows you to pre-order your lunch in Dublin. Once you’ve pre-ordered your food through the app, you can also enjoy the added benefit of skipping the queue. Take that, “that guy”.
How Does Bamboo Do It?
Well, basically Bamboo has partnered with a rake of cafes and restaurants from around Dublin. This includes the Cocu Cafe on Baggot Street where I had the joy of having lunch. There already an impressive list of places to grab a bite and there are more to join too.
The coolest thing about Bamboo is once you place your order, progress is given in real-time.
On average people spend 11 minutes of their lunch (an hour a week!) in a Q.
Ain't nobody got time for that!
Dowload @Bamboo_IE TODAY! pic.twitter.com/ie8Qn8rTqe
— The GEC (@GECinD8) January 18, 2017
Jon’s Journey Into Culinary Bliss
What I want to do here is give you all the step by step process as to how I got the lunch of my life through this nippy little app! This journey involves:
- Login and Search
- On Your Bike Lad
- All the Notifications
- Get back to work in plenty of time to actually enjoy your lunch
1. Login and Search
Quite possibly the hardest part of any food eating experience selecting what the hell you want to eat. Fun food fact: the average employee in Ireland spends 29 minutes getting lunch every day. From my experience, a solid 20 mins of that is picking, and the rest queuing.
the average employee in Ireland spends 29 minutes getting lunch every day
That’s what makes Bamboo so handy, just log in either with an email address or via Facebook and voila the game begins.
The app gives you a list of places to eat with a nice little image behind the name, just to give you an idea of what they serve. You’ll also be able to see how far away they are and their opening times. This was super handy because I was able to order my morning latte, a day in advance. Guess what, it was ready just in time for me to land on to collect it. SAVAGE!!! Fun food fact: Lattes are the most ordered item on the app. Dublin you’ve gone all fancy on us.
Lattes are the most ordered item on the app
Right, well for my review I decided to go all healthy. Not all us techy types are pizza eating indoor goblins; well at least not all the time anyway. I went with Cocu Kitchen on Baggot Street, half because the food was a healthy choice and half because the walk didn’t seem to far. If I was going to eat healthy I didn’t need too much exercise; don’t judge me it’s a sound logic.
2. On Your Bike Lad
Food ordered and now we wait. Bamboo is all about efficiency and speed and their notification system is really impressive. You get notified when the cafe/restaurant has seen your order, so you know it’s time to start moving. The Bamboo team told us that the average time someone normally orders ahead is about 7 minutes which is plenty of time to get on your walk on or hop a Dublin Bike.
3. All the Notifications!
Not to worry Woody old pal, these notifications are in no way intrusive and they are reminding you about your food, something I adored. Sounds weird but walking down the road blasting the tunes, there is something comforting about knowing how your meal is getting on.
Remember the way I already said not to judge me, but after seeing that food order I can’t even defend myself. I started a new workout programme about a week before and this seemed healthy and tasty. Props Bamboo for making my diet that little bit easier.
Before I tangent again, yes the Bamboo app will notify you once your order is seen, once the guys in the cafe get the order going and most importantly when it’s ready to collect. Now if you have ever been excited about lunch, the moment you get that notification is just the sweetest sensation. When you hit that outlet, you get to stroll right past all the people who didn’t have the foresight to use Bamboo. You grab your food and go back about your day. Seriously use the app even just to watch the faces of people waiting. If looks could kill is all I’ll say.
It’s a delightful moment of sheer smugness that you will really enjoy as you skip past the death stares swinging your bag of delightfulness. Just don’t take it too far; totally no story to tell here or anything… ahem.
4. Get Back to Work in Plenty of Time to Actually Enjoy Your Lunch
Testing out the @Bamboo_IE app today. Went to @CocuKitchen for an amazing lunch.. Review to follow 🥗☕ #foody #Lunchtime #tech #dublin #nom pic.twitter.com/F2P9qHoKcK
— Goos3D (@Goos3D_IE) August 28, 2017
Look at that for a meal and what’s best after all of this I still had a good forty minutes left of lunch. Plenty of time to eat without rushing and enjoy a bit of banter with the lads in the office. It just made my lunch easier and for that I loved it.
Conclusion
Honestly, the only downside I can see here is the fact at this moment in time the app is only available in Dublin. Of course, that could be all about to change since Bamboo has impressed so much that it’s now part of Google’s “Adopt a Startup” program. Here, they receive mentorship and support from Google along with another Goos3D favourite, InvizBox.
If this app were to go nationwide, we could be talking something that could rival the big hitters in the culinary collection/delivery circles. Personally, my lunch was quicker and healthier because of this system. I didn’t leave the office unsure of what to get and made the healthy choice. I had more time and more importantly than anything else “that guy” in the suit who gave me that look probably had to wait another ten minutes for food while I was chilling out and eating my lunch. Just an all-around game changer.
