India once again proved that it’s a country that finds ‘happiness in food’ and according to food-delivery company Swiggy’s year-end report for 2024, Biryani remained the hot favourite for consumers this year as well. The food-delivery major released the 9th edition of ‘How India Swiggy’d’ and per the findings, Biryani remained the most-ordered dish, with 83 million orders placed this year, which means 158 orders per minute or roughly 2 biryanis every second. Biryani marked its ninth consecutive year at the top. This was followed by Dosa which stood out with 23 million orders, cementing its position as a culinary favourite. In Shillong, Noodles stayed in the spotlight as the city placed the most orders for this dish in 2024.
In 2024, a single consumer in Bengaluru spent Rs 49,900 on pasta, indulging in almost 55 Alfredo dishes, 40 Mac & Cheese, and 30 Spaghetti plates, the report stated.
Symphony of mealtimes: Does India order dinner more?
Per Swiggy’s annual report, Dinner proved to be the ‘ultimate Bahubali’ of mealtimes with India placing 215 million orders in 2024, which is nearly 29 per cent higher than lunch orders on the platform.
Now, what did India order for Breakfast this year? Swiggy said that the South Indian favourites topped the list with 8.5 million dosas and 7.8 million idlis ordered during 2024. True to its roots, Bengaluru enjoyed an incredible 2.5 million masala dosas in 2024, while Delhi, Chandigarh, and Kolkata couldn’t do without their classic crowd pullers of Chole, Aloo Parantha and Kachoris, respectively.
Now on to the munchies and snackables. While chicken roll was the ultimate favourite during 2024 with 2.48 million orders, chicken momos followed with 1.63 million orders placed during the year and potato fries saw 1.3 million orders. For midnight indulgence, India placed its bets on chicken burgers with 1.84 million orders placed for it between 12–2 AM. Chicken biryani came in as a close second with consumers opting for this ‘hot favourite’ round the clock. In terms of most active customers during the night hours, a Delhi user placed an order for 250 Onion Pizzas in a single order.
For desserts, choco lava cakes proved to be most popular with 3.6 million customers placing the order for the same. This was followed by 2.27 million chocolate truffle cakes ordered during 2024. While shahi tukda proved to be Hyderabad’s favourite, Ludhiana showed much love to black forest cake. In Kochi and Kozhikode, falooda was the most ordered sweet dish. Meanwhile, a user from Lucknow spent Rs 28,830 on gujiyas during Holi.
The festive food edit
India considers food a major part of its celebrations and the country proved it with a staggering number of orders during celebrations and festivals. During Ramzan, India’s most ordered dishes were biryani, haleem and phirni with 6 million biryani orders placed. Mumbaikars, meanwhile placed orders for 2,26,393 modaks during Ganesh Chaturthi, with one customer placing modak order worth Rs 12,000. And for Diwali, India ordered 11.4 million milkcake. Now while talking about festivals, one cannot not mention cricket. On India’s win in the T20 World Cup, a Bengaluru fan ordered a total of 120 burgers while a Chandigarh fan placed an order for 70 burgers.
Dining Out
People across the country are not only ordering in. Swiggy’s Dineout seated 22 million diners in 2024, who saved Rs 533 crore in total with table reservations/deals per hour rising from 337 to 1,242 throughout the year. Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Pune led, while cities like Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Lucknow and Indore followed, stated the report. Consumers used wallets more with diners saving an average of Rs 708 per order, up from Rs 672 in 2023. Delhiites saved the maximum with Rs 121 crore in total savings, while Bengaluru wasn’t far behind with Rs 101 crore. Now for the single largest bell, a Mumbai diner spent Rs 3 lakh on a single order at a restaurant. Delhi, it seems, was the most lucky with a user from the city saving Rs 1.22 lakh on a single order at Malamen. In terms of average transaction, Kanchipuram topped the charts with an average transaction of Rs 4284, followed by Shillong at Rs 3678 and Siliguri at Rs 2747.
In terms of alcohol transactions, Bengaluru topped the list with nearly 289,000 transactions, far outpacing Delhi’s 96,000.
Delivery partner update
Per Swiggy, its delivery partners clocked 1.96 billion kilometers during 2024, “which is like driving the distance from Kashmir to Kanyakumari 533 thousand times and still stopping for chai”. Acknowledging the delivery superheroes, Swiggy said that Kapil Kumar Pandey from Mumbai delivered 10,703 orders this year, while Kaleeswari M from Coimbatore led the female partners with 6,658 orders.