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Burnaby’s biggest Asian food app now has a killer English version

So, you can’t eat out right now, but you can order takeout or food via a delivery app. Those apps are doing huge business right now. They help customers and they help restaurants, although some apps charge high fees to eateries.
Fantuan
Randy Wu (left) and Feng Yaofei, founders of Fantuan. Photo by Chuck Chiang, Business in Vancouver.

So, you can’t eat out right now, but you can order takeout or food via a delivery app. Those apps are doing huge business right now. They help customers and they help restaurants, although some apps charge high fees to eateries.

There are the usual suspects, but I just tried out Burnaby’s biggest Asian-food app, Fantuan, because it has a killer new English version of the app that connects you with all sorts of Asian restaurants.

Founded and based out of Burnaby, Fantuan is the go-to app for any type of Asian food.

Fantuan let me know recently that it has released its English app. This was apparently slowed somewhat thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.

I checked this app out and it’s super-easy to use, with all sorts of categories, from noodles to soups to sushi – all the way to specific countries such as Taiwan, Vietnam, South Korea and China. There's even a subcategory just called "skewers."

There’s even an “American” section with all sorts of pizza shops, sandwiches and more.

fantuan logo
The Fantuan logo.

I went for some Chinese food and the delivery was fast and efficient.

Based out of two floors of offices in South Burnaby, Fantuan now has more than 50 full-time employees based in Vancouver and hundreds of thousands of registered users in Canadian cities. The company has also expanded into the U.S. market in Seattle, New York City and Los Angeles.

Fantuan has now expanded its app from food deliveries to other features, including self-pickup (with discounts), online reviews of the restaurants it delivers for, and online shopping in which users can order grocery items and have them delivered. The main focus, of course, is on delivering food – mostly Chinese food. Fantuan orders are roughly 60-per-cent Chinese food and 40-per-cent split between food from other Asian countries, such as Vietnam, Japan and Thailand, as well as fast-food outlets like Subway.

Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.