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    <title>Forem: Apoorva Ventra</title>
    <description>The latest articles on Forem by Apoorva Ventra (@apoorvaventra).</description>
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      <title>How to Set Up Zomato's MCP Server with ChatGPT (Complete Guide - No Whitelisting Issues)</title>
      <dc:creator>Apoorva Ventra</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Mon, 19 Jan 2026 12:01:51 +0000</pubDate>
      <link>https://forem.com/apoorvaventra/how-to-set-up-zomatos-mcp-server-with-chatgpt-complete-guide-no-whitelisting-issues-4iij</link>
      <guid>https://forem.com/apoorvaventra/how-to-set-up-zomatos-mcp-server-with-chatgpt-complete-guide-no-whitelisting-issues-4iij</guid>
      <description>&lt;h1&gt;
  
  
  How to Set Up Zomato's MCP Server with ChatGPT
&lt;/h1&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Want to order food through ChatGPT using Zomato's MCP server? Here's the quick way that actually works.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  What You Get
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;🔎 Restaurant discovery&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;📒 Menu browsing&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;🛒 Cart management&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;🥗 Order placement&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;💳 QR code payments&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  The Quick Solution (5 Minutes)
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Forget Claude Desktop and VSCode - they have OAuth whitelist issues. &lt;strong&gt;Use ChatGPT Developer Mode instead.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;
  
  
  Steps
&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. Enable Developer Mode&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Go to &lt;a href="https://chat.openai.com" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;ChatGPT&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Settings → Apps → Advanced Settings&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Toggle on "Developer Mode"&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. Create the App&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Click "Create App" button&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Add Zomato MCP server URL: &lt;code&gt;https://mcp-server.zomato.com/mcp&lt;/code&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Save&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2F67zvdw6w40x22cm8b2kk.png" class="article-body-image-wrapper"&gt;&lt;img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2F67zvdw6w40x22cm8b2kk.png" alt=" " width="429" height="767"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;3. Authenticate&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Login with your Zomato phone number&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Enter OTP&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Wait 10-15 seconds for redirect&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4. Test It&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Open ChatGPT chat&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Click tools icon (🔨)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Select "Zomato MCP Server"&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Try: "How much did i spend on my previous months orrders"&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Done! 🎉&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  Why This Works
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;ChatGPT's OAuth redirect URI (&lt;code&gt;https://chatgpt.com/connector_platform_oauth_redirect&lt;/code&gt;) is whitelisted by Zomato. Other clients like Claude Desktop and VSCode Desktop aren't - yet.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  Common Issues I Hit (So You Don't Have To)
&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;
  
  
  Node.js Version Problems
&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you try setting this up with Claude Desktop or VSCode, you might hit:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;code&gt;Cannot find module 'node:fs/promises'&lt;/code&gt; → Need Node v18+&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;code&gt;Cannot find module 'timers/promises'&lt;/code&gt; → Corrupted npm installation&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;code&gt;Cannot find module 'node:path'&lt;/code&gt; → Use Homebrew Node instead of NVM&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Solution:&lt;/strong&gt; Use Homebrew Node v24:&lt;br&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight js-code-highlight"&gt;
&lt;pre class="highlight shell"&gt;&lt;code&gt;brew &lt;span class="nb"&gt;install &lt;/span&gt;node
npm &lt;span class="nb"&gt;install&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nt"&gt;-g&lt;/span&gt; mcp-remote
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;/div&gt;



&lt;h3&gt;
  
  
  OAuth Errors
&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you see &lt;code&gt;Connection error: ServerError at registerClient&lt;/code&gt;, your client isn't whitelisted. Stick with ChatGPT.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  Working Config (For Future Reference)
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If Zomato whitelists other clients later, here's the config:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Claude Desktop&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;code&gt;~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json&lt;/code&gt;):&lt;br&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight js-code-highlight"&gt;
&lt;pre class="highlight json"&gt;&lt;code&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;{&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="w"&gt;
  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nl"&gt;"mcpServers"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="w"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;{&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="w"&gt;
    &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nl"&gt;"zomato-mcp"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="w"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;{&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="w"&gt;
      &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nl"&gt;"command"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="w"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s2"&gt;"/opt/homebrew/bin/npx"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="w"&gt;
      &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nl"&gt;"args"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="w"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;[&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="w"&gt;
        &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s2"&gt;"mcp-remote"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="w"&gt;
        &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s2"&gt;"https://mcp-server.zomato.com/mcp"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="w"&gt;
      &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;]&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="w"&gt;
    &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;}&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="w"&gt;
  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;}&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="w"&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;}&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="w"&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;/div&gt;



&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  Resources
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://github.com/Zomato/mcp-server-manifest" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;Zomato MCP GitHub&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Should out to AseemWangoo for the fix
&lt;a href="https://github.com/Zomato/mcp-server-manifest/issues/48" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;Detailed fix&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://modelcontextprotocol.io" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;MCP Protocol Docs&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  TL;DR
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;ChatGPT → Settings → Apps → Developer Mode&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Create app with &lt;code&gt;https://mcp-server.zomato.com/mcp&lt;/code&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Authenticate with Zomato&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Order food through ChatGPT&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;

&lt;p&gt;That's it. No Node.js debugging, no OAuth headaches.&lt;/p&gt;

</description>
      <category>node</category>
      <category>debugging</category>
      <category>chatgpt</category>
      <category>mcp</category>
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