How often do you use restaurant ordering services? (DoorDash, UberEats, Grubhub, etc.)

Never done it, can't imagine doing it.

I imagine this thread is showcasing contrasts in urban vs. exurban/suburban/rural disadvantages more than anything else.

― citation needed (Steve Shasta), Thursday, April 4, 2024 12:31 PM (twenty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Somewhat, but even when we were in brooklyn and queens, the nearest takeout place we liked was often a 15-20 minute walk, and especially when you have little kids and especially when it's not great weather and you are coming from work late, that makes a difference.

yeah actually when i think of lots of takeout i think of cities. mostly chinese food. but obviously the suburbs are all about it.

in the suburbs i think of pizza delivery.

the mayor of the town i live in calls it "rurban". which is a dumb word. and technically the town i live in is called a "city" but only 17,000 people live here and that just seems like a big town to me.

DoorDash was a lifesaver when I was recovering from surgery.

I feel like an alien reading this thread. At least 2x a week for me. Nearest real restaurants are 10 min ISH walk but nothing I would want take out from so delivery it is. I didn't realise that it was so uncommon.

2x a week is nothing to be ashamed of. I don't judge anyone for how they choose to spend their money tbh

i think it makes perfect sense for some! especially city folks. but for me it would just be dumb. everything is close by car. i can eat in or pickup if i want to go that route. though i try to limit eating out cuzza $$$. still trying to come to grips with $15 burritos in life.

I'd be slightly curious how many people used to habitually order delivery in the old school way but then stopped when the apps took over.

Xpost - my mind was blow by how expensive restaurants had gotten when I was in Boston last week.

xp my parents still do this! They will normally get takeaway for us when one of us is home and whichever one is being ferried home in the car from the bus or train has to call the place to arrange an order for pickup. I think they use the apps for when they’re home and want something but if someone is out and due home they’ll call the place so they can ask the person when it’ll be ready.

We don’t really get takeaway much just cos there aren’t many places good enough for how much it costs. Our favourite place to eat locally delivers but honestly it’s so much better in person. Used to do it more in London. I usually find a reason to get something when I’m home though cos the Chinese places at home are so much better than where I live now.

Broke the habit of doing it once a week to never now. Live in an area with a number of choices 5-10 mins away. An opportunity for a good walk and to wait around for whatever it is I choose.

And also the bin Chinese place is gone

There is a very good goat curry place.

I wish there were decent Turkish and Caribbean options near me but if I am in Dalston or Holloway I often pick up something for dinner. Actually this is a note to self to go get a Roti Joupa fix from their new place in Holloway.

I feel like an alien reading this thread.

Different life circumstances, eating habits and economic priorities will obviously lead to make different choices. If it makes good sense for your needs and desires then there's no shame.

I'm in the 'UberEats curious' camp but never used it. We cook most nights and if we have a takeaway (curry, Chinese or pizza maybe once a month) we order directly from the shop.

Never done this.
In the spirit of 'I don't even own a tv' will say that I haven't eaten food in or from a restaurant this century. Closest I've managed is getting chips from the local chippy once every couple of months. I did not have to phone ahead for my order.

DoorDash was a lifesaver when I was recovering from surgery.

― c u (crüt)

Yeah my roommate got hit by a car in late 2022 and spent most of 2023 with severe mobility challenges. Hell, *I* spent half of 2023 with sciatica that I managed by biking/scootering even the shortest distances. A nice evening walk wasn't in the cards.

maybe monthly. we don't have takeaway much more than that and most places don't have their own *independent* websites, are more than a ten minute walk away, and with two hungry kids in the house walking all that way and waiting for half an hour while the food is made is not the best idea. we always tip the deliverer obv.

I honestly didn't know you could order directly from shops at this point. I think a tired several years ago. Aimless - I wasn't ashamed lol. I am just surprised! I had never thought about it before but didn't expect people to say never, that's all.

I've done this 3 or 4 times over several years, but it really is too expensive for me to do again. The last time, I was dealing with some sort of crisis and UberEats'd a single Chipotle burrito just to have something to shove in my face. It came out to over $30. Like, what the fuck?

Before that, I had frequently ordered pizza delivery and sometimes Chinese. Those always seemed reasonably priced, but I don't go for either of those foods anymore. Maybe they're crazy expensive now too?

I mean the economics of single-meal delivery just don't make any sense, that's why it costs $30.

I mean yes a portion of that is probably the predatory middle man company too, but I'm also not sure restaurants would even bother to deliver you a single $12 burrito otherwise.

Question for those who get delivery, do you reheat the food?

I do for the pizza...but also usually only eat half of it there and then, the other half the next day (also reheated). There may be some 'two meals, better value' psychological nonsense to this alongside concerns over temperature.

Have done Doordash maybe 2 or 3 times and hated it, but we get pizza or chinese from places that have their own delivery staff once a month or so.

The most we engage with this kind of stuff is using Instacart for groceries once every couple of months. Even then we'll pick up the order curbside rather than getting delivery, just the timesaving of not having to do the actual shopping is a lifesaver when we're stressed & overscheduled.

I do Just/Uber Eat/Deliveroo probably somewhere between every 1-2 months, usually a couple of those are because my job sometimes gave us vouchers but I'm leaving that job next week. as others have said it's pretty expensive for 1 person so I tend to only do it if I've got visitors. I usually can't be bothered to wait so if I want a takeaway I just go to the chip or kebab shop

Probably once a month - also invoking the “busy family w/ school age kids and two working parents” clause here, and generous cash tips for the driver.

We have a few local businesses with their own riders still. Plenty of good food within walking distance but living in a congested inner city area it isn’t always super practical to do short hop drives. But I do prefer to pick up when I can, for the sake of freshness as much as any ideological reasons.

With two working parents and a baby, we get delivery a lot. I love to cook but it’s hard to do every day. Almost nowhere has their own delivery crew, I can think of one place, the ramen place down the street, although they run 3 or 4 brands of noodle shop from the same address and do some price discrimination - they really seem to be working the system to their advantage - also try the hainanese chicken ramen it’s really good.

Anyone else with their own ordering system is putting food in an Uber or using doordash for delivery. Tend to be higher end places where handing 30%+ to UberEats is more than sticking food in a cab.

I’m very central and we have a massive immigrant Chinese student population that comes with an expectation that anything can be delivered to the doorstep in 30 minutes. Hungry panda is the local Chinese oriented app and it’s a treasure trove of regional Chinese food, a lot of places don’t even have storefronts.

Last night we had Hunan food and whilst the pickled long beans and pork mince will be giving me spicy regrets all day long it was fantastic.

The plastic waste is a massive issue even if everyone has been mandated to standardise on polypropylene or compostable . There’s been a couple of mobs trying to get returnable standardised stainless steel containers going but without a mandate it will never get going.

I was just picturing a ramen tanker truck that pulls up to your house and you just open the spigot into your ceramic bowl.

I only accept noodles delivered like this

https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/japan-soba-delivery-old-photos-small.jpg

I remember thinking delivery sounded very decadent back in 2003: Where the hell my Chinese food at?

It also took me about 15 years before I came across General Tso's chicken in real life, which is lot less well-known in the UK.

Well, some of the restaurants I order from are 20 minutes' walk away, so it's not faster to walk there and back. The delivery people have motorized bikes that can get the food to me in five minutes.

Probably my unfamiliarity with the process, then, but this sounds like ghost kitchens at best to me, and almost certainly microwaved. In ordering direct a few times a year for two decades, I never encountered an independent restaurant or multinational pizza chain that could take an order, prepare the food, and have it delivered in five minutes. There are two in-town chains I’ve ordered from a couple of times where I live now, and it usually takes over an hour.

A lot of people don’t have one restaurant within two blocks of their home, let alone multiple options.

The only food place open at all past 9pm in my immediate neighborhood (or downtown afaik), post-lockdown, is a bar-that-does-pizza five blocks away. Walking 20-30 blocks to another neighborhood takes 15-20 minutes.

why are people weird about food like this

Pretty sure Josefa meant it takes 5 minutes to get it delivered not 5 minutes to get it ordered, made and delivered, pretty sure you knew that too

I meant that once the food is prepared and ready, the actual transport time to my door is about five minutes. You’re right that the preparation of the food may take considerably longer than that. A gyro wrap could be assembled in a few minutes - that’s an easy one - whereas a whole Peking duck could be half an hour.

xp sorta

can't afford this

Used to be plenty of places around did their own delivery, back in the 90s/early 2ks (well, pre Menulog et al). We'd often get pizza/pasta/chinese. From local places, not chains. But, I do live in a big foodie city too.

But no, I no longer use Menulog and wont use Uber/grubhub/wtf ever. Even when I did use menulog I'd only use it for the ease of ordering and speciifcally pick restaurants that said they had their OWN drivers. Why? Because to be blunt I dont trust gig economy drivers/delivery ppl not to get lost/be late/eat my food.

Anyway its all moot now, given one evening of medium pizzas and a box of chips between me, my bf and the kids can end up costing us $70.

I don't. I actually don't pick up food at all - restaurants are expensive here, so either I cook, or I want a full restaurant experience where I am sitting. It's also out of principle against laziness / "convenience" and because those delivery jobs suck. Easier of course because I live super central in a small town.

And yeah, I get mad at excessive wrapping at the supermarket, so a kilo of plastic to eat one lunch or dinner is anathema.

i do this whenever i want whoch is rarely

i probably use Just Eat about once a week because i'm a terrible person

I remember thinking delivery sounded very decadent back in 2003: Where the hell my Chinese food at?🕸

easy knowing who comes from money

wow uncalled for! Not my fault you grew up in the middle of nowhere/hanging from the stern of a fishing boat

fond memories of my dad thinking that ordering a takeaway was the height of fall of the roman empire decadence

mind you he also thought kebabs were some kind of enemy within immorality so