A Family Feast at Home with Deliveroo

When Deliveroo got in touch asking whether I wanted to try restaurant food at home, I could not say no, could I?

With a family of six, a tight budget and a busy schedule, we rarely venture to a restaurant for a meal, mostly because we cannot really justify the expense, but also because four loud children would probably destroy the atmosphere for most people having a night out. We only go for takeaways once every few months because they cost a fortune and you have to make a phone call, my least favourite thing in the world. In comes Deliveroo. It took me a minute to download the app and it literally saved me today.

We had no food in the fridge other than a bit of cheese and milk. My father-in-law extraordinaire (Poppy) was meant to come for a few days with Hubby’s sister and her family, but he surprised us by arriving a few days earlier instead, to the children’s pure delight. They adore their Poppy! As we were all happily catching up, cooking was out of the question and we looked into Deliveroo.

The app could not be easier to use. We had quite a lot of choice for a delivery at home, with 11 different restaurants, from Mexican to Italian to burgers to Pan Asian to Indian, to Giraffe. Some of the restaurants could even deliver within 20 minutes of ordering!

I had a look at the options available for different places. If you were ordering a delivery in Hampsted, you could choose between 51 different restaurants, but you could not get anything delivered where Poppy lives in Devon.

Once you have selected your restaurant, all you have to do is click on the items you wish to order as well as choose whether you want your food to be delivered as soon as possible or select the time of your choice.

Hubby went for a main course from Wagamama. He chose soba noodles in curry oil, mangetout, bok choi, red onion, chillies and beansprouts in a teriyaki sauce, garnished with sesame seeds.

Poppy chose Teriyaki Lamb with mushrooms, asparagus, kale and mangetout served on a bed of soba noodles in a pea, herb and wasabi dressing.  As soon as I clicked on those two items, they got added to the basket. Oh the excitement!  “Will they deliver that for free?” we wondered.

Finding information regarding allergens was a bit of a let-down, but I could not say I was surprised. When I pressed the ‘i’ sign, I was redirected to a message informing me that all dishes might contain allergens and advising customers to ring the restaurant directly for questions regarding the allergen contents of specific dishes.

I had to come out of the app and open my browser to look for the restaurant’s phone number. The gentleman I spoke to was really helpful. There are 7 dishes on the children’s menu that can be modified for Jumpy in Wagamama. They are happy to cater for allergies in the restaurant but not when food leaves their hands and gets delivered by a third party, so we had to find another option for Jumpy.

Giraffe is a safe option for Jumpy, so we went for the grilled chicken breast with baked potato wedges served with a cucumber and tomato salad . She would share with Wriggly. Beanie chose to have chicken breast in a soft toasted bun with baby gem and tomato served with skin-on fries for her and her brother.

I would have my favourite: halloumi and falafel burger with grilled red pepper, carrot, beetroot, mixed leaves, quinoa sprouts, hummus and tzatziki in a hand-crafted sesame & poppy seed bun with skin-on fries.

I also treated myself to white chocolate and passion fruit cheesecake. It looks like it had a bit of a tumble on the way, but it was still delicious.

I chose delivery at 6.45 p.m. and Deliveroo fee was £2.50 for each restaurant.

It took 30 seconds to add my card details by scanning the card.  I did not have to manually enter an address for delivery as the app could locate my phone and all I had to do was edit the address. We all have different tastes and we were quite pleased with the fact we could order from two different places.

You can keep track of your orders through the app and I received an email for each order giving my estimated time for delivery. I found that brilliant!

Two guys on bikes arrived exactly at the same time – 6.44 pm! That was rather impressive.

Not too shabby for a takeaway, hey!

I loved the service but I would suggest they add an option where you can exclude allergens on the app to make it easier for allergy sufferers or people on exclusion diets. I would also include the direct number for the restaurant on the app, so there is no need to get off the app, open your browser and look for the restaurant’s contact number.

I will definitely be using the app again, when we are in need of a treat at home.