Bengaluru/New Delhi, Sept. 22 -- For restaurant owners, the math of food delivery has become tougher to swallow. With Swiggy and Zomato forming a near-duopoly and charging commissions of up to 30%, little is left on the table-pushing small outlets and even chains to revive old-school playbooks of the 2000s: flyers, phone or WhatsApp orders and in-house delivery, all while staying visible on the aggregator platforms they can't afford to quit.

Bengaluru's well-known eatery Paradise Biryani, for instance, runs its own fleet for bulk orders even while listing on Swiggy and Zomato-sweetening direct deliveries with discounts of up to 40%. In Versova, a western suburb of Mumbai, old local favourite joints such as The Stomach dispatch staff to l...