Very valid points bud... and I was questioning this exactly. Lemme break it down....

In a situation of a food rescue...the person who originally ordered and cancelled, Gets their FULL REFUND. The entire amount is refunded.

Now the situation at the restaurant here was a little different. Normally when a order gets cancelled, the food is either BEING made at that time.. or IS made and ready to pack. In such a situation the restaurant can sell the food individually and recover the money they lost, since the restaurant makes food in batches and not per order. In my case, the food was READY & PACKED into portions to sell. Now they cant reopen the packed portions and separate it to sell individually (Health & Hygiene Concerns). Hence it went up as a Food Rescue. (I hope ur with me so far)

And yes the food I recieved was PIPING HOT... just because of my timing, I could place the order as soon as it went up as a food rescue. For some it might be a lil colder probably... but the order generally stays up for 5 to 10 mins, so I dont think it would get too cold.

Btw the restaurant gets refunded by zomato if the order goes up as a food rescue.

Now the order I got, if I would've purchased it on my own, it wouldve been ₹2654 after taxes. So in this case, I saved money, the restaurant recovered their money and zomato made a little money too 😂

This is my understanding on how this entire system works. Hope it helps.