By 
K.K.Rabbit has a lot to answer for. Not least the fact that they have ensured that our first post to ExpatFamilyGZ is a negative one. Oh KK Rabbit, I wanted to love you. I wanted to sing your praises and recommend you to everybody I knew but alas, the two hungry children on my couch, the untouched cutlery in my kitchen and the clean plates on my sideboard mean that I cannot. And here’s why.
K.K.Rabbit is a great idea. In a city where the majority of English speaking expats would find it hard to call a restaurant or takeaway and arrange delivery, K.K.Rabbit give you access to all of the menus you could ever need and, they say, will collect the food and deliver it directly to your door all for a reasonable fee.
We live outside of the city centre and so our delivery fees range for 54RMB (for a limited selection of just 4 ‘local’ restaurants) to 96RMB for a slightly large selection of more central establishments. Delivery times from the local restaurants range from 90 minutes 120 minutes depending on where you order from. So, not amazing swift, but good in a fix if you can’t be bothered cooking and know in advance.
We’re still settling in to life in Guangzhou and so K.K.Rabbit would have been useful to us for at least another few weeks. But unfortunately, they just don’t have the capacity at present to be reliable 100% of the time.
After ordering food for myself and my children this evening, the good folk at K.K.Rabbit let me wait for 30 minutes before calling me to tell me they wouldn’t be delivering my food. In their own words ‘the weather is not very good and you live a little bit far away’. I asked if I could maybe just wait a little bit longer, until the weather at their end cleared up (the weather was perfect here in Baiyun). The answer was ‘Yes, can you wait about 4 hours?’
Long story short, I asked if I could speak to a manager (no, none of the managers speak English, I’m sorry), I asked if they could send the food by taxi (yes, it will be an extra RMB100 and it will be delivered in about 3 hours, maybe 4) and finally, I asked how I could avoid this situation in the future (the answer was ‘don’t order food on Sundays or, if you do, order your evening meal before 4pm’).
In a last ditch attempt to at least elicit some sympathy from them I told them that I had ordered the food for my starving children, both of which were rubbing their tummies in eager anticipation of the food and that without the delivery they would both starve! K.K.Rabbits suggestion? If I keep them up until 9pm they would try their best to get the food to us.
I love takeaway food. I love restaurants that provide me with takeaway food. In my last country of residence my account at our local takeaway website ran into 5 figures or which even I was embarrassed.
But if I’m ordering a meal, it’s because I cant be bothered cooking. And if I can’t be bothered cooking it’s because I want to relax. Waiting to see whether or not the food I have ordered turns up at my door 4 hours later just doesn’t cut the mustard here.
Sorry K.K.Rabbit. I wanted to love you, but this is one new Guangzhou expat who won’t be visiting your website again anytime soon.
My Expat Family 