Food delivery is such an integral part of my life. I have bouts of extreme laziness where I can’t bring myself to walk a block to the grocery store to get food . Five years ago the only easy option would be to have pizza delivered. Thanks to the laziness of millenials and the advancement of technology, a beautiful creation was born: DoorDash. What a time to be alive!
If you aren’t a millenial, you might be asking “what is DoorDash”. My answer would be the only form of sustenance after a hangover. All jokes aside, DoorDash is a food delivery service that lets you order takeout from your favorite restaurants. There are a plethora of restaurant options so you’re finally not limited to pizza. The best part is that you can order on your phone from the comfort of your home.
- Download: iOS and Google Play
- Price: Free
This app is incredibly straightforward. After downloading the app, you’ll have to set your location. This location will be set as the delivery location.
A list of restaurants will shown based on the location that you set. Restaurants are limited on the app based on distance. Each restaurant will show the rating, the delivery price, and the estimated time for delivery. You can search restaurants based on various categories such as top rated, fastest delivery, or top rated. In my experience, deliveries range anywhere from 30 minutes up to 90 minutes. Most of the food I order reaches my house in about an hour.
Tapping on a restaurant of interest will provide the menu. Clicking on various items in the menu will show the ingredients inside the dish along with potential add-ons. This is also where you’ll list special requests such as allergies, etc. For example, any burrito I get, I’ll make sure to write “no cheese, no sour cream”. Of the tens of burritos I’ve ordered through DoorDash, I have yet to get a messed up order.
The order will be added to a cart, where you can review your final order before checking out. This will show you the price and fees associated with your order. The fees include tax, delivery, and service fee. The reason a service fee is added is because some restaurants don’t pay DoorDash commission for each delivery. These restaurants are the ones where you will be charged a service fee.
After paying for your food delivery, the order will be send to a Dasher, who can be tracked on the app. DoorDash will show you real time progress of your order. This is a great feature to help you estimate when your food will be arriving. When the food is here, you’ll either get an alert or get a phone call from the Dasher.
DoorDash makes it incredibly simple to re-order your favorite dishes. Just go to orders and click on the restaurant you want takeout from. Scrolling down to the bottom will show you a Reorder option, so you don’t have to go through the process of picking your food again from the menu.
The only real downside is that DoorDash is expensive. You’ll be hit with a delivery fee and most likely a service fee, bumping up the cost of your food anywhere from $3 to $10. The price increases even more if you want to tip your dasher. You’ll essentially be paying for convenience. This might not be for everyone, especially people who are on a budget. I like to think of DoorDash as a convenient, luxury option when I’m feeling particularly lazy and I don’t mind spending the extra money.