Our story · Founded in Stretford
Eat local, order direct
My partner and I had ordered from the same local place a few times through one of the big delivery apps. One night we thought: why not just order from them directly? Turned out they did have their own website, and it was cheaper there, too. So we placed our order and hit submit.
Then nothing. No confirmation email. No “your order’s been received.” No way to tell if it had gone through at all. We ended up phoning the restaurant to check. The food was as great as ever, but the whole thing felt clunky next to the slick experience the big apps had trained us to expect.
I build websites for a living, so of course my first thought was: I could probably make something better than this. Out of curiosity, I had a go.
The more I built, the more I learned, and the more the curiosity turned into conviction.
I learned that the big delivery apps can take as much as 30% commission on every order. I learned that when you order through them, your details are never actually passed to the restaurant. The platform owns the relationship with the customer, not the business that cooked your food.
Then I started talking to local food businesses, and heard the rest of it. Payouts land on a delay, so the money a takeaway has already earned isn’t there when they need it to restock. I met owners taking orders over the phone, telling their customers: “You’ll find our menu on the app, but it’s cheaper if you come and collect.”
That’s a business quietly working around the very platform that’s meant to be helping it.
I also came across other platforms offering something similar to what I was building, but vague about what they actually charge, and tying businesses into contracts even while claiming there weren’t any.
So IndieMenu became more than an ordering page.
What we’re about
IndieMenu was founded in Stretford, for the independent food businesses that make a place feel like somewhere. The job is simple: connect local, independent kitchens with the customers (the regulars) who already love them.
No commission on orders
Not 30%, not 12%, not a penny. What your customer spends is yours. We charge one flat monthly fee and nothing more.
No hidden contracts
No tie-ins, no minimum term, no small print that says the opposite of a sales pitch. Stay because it's working, not because you're stuck.
Pricing you can read in one go
One number, on one page. If you have to email someone to find out what it costs, it is not really pricing.
You own the relationship
Your own site, your own menu, and your own customers. Their details come to you, not to a marketplace in the middle.
Eat local, order direct.
That’s the whole idea.
We wanted ordering direct to be easy, and we reckon plenty of other people want the same. So we’ve made it as simple as possible for a business to take back control of its orders, keep what it earns, and stay close to the regulars who keep coming back.
P.S. A word on the £49
It’s the fee, but it isn’t the point. IndieMenu is new, and paying for something before it’s proven itself is a big ask. So if £49 a month is a stretch right now, or you’d rather see what it does for you first, get in touch. I’d far rather get you on board and talk pricing once it’s bringing you real value. The goal matters more to me than the fee.