When I was approached by menulog to try out their service, and was offered a voucher so I wouldn’t have to actually pay for my dinner, I thought “this is an offer too good to refuse”.
I mentioned menulog to a friend who is somewhat younger than me, and not only was she aware of it, she is a regular user (as it saves trips to the supermarket late at night when there are no groceries in the house).
Had my suspicion of online ordering been depriving me of something that could make life much simpler? Perhaps. There have been a few occasions where I had wanted to order some kind of home-delivered food, but hadn’t had enough cash on hand, and so I’d have to go out to an ATM anyway…
Menulog helps get around this by letting you pay with a credit card, or even with PayPal (as I was paying with a voucher, I haven’t tested the latter, but it’s listed as a payment option).
The mobile website is very comprehensive: go to the page for your capital city (e.g. Sydney Food Delivery), type in your postcode, and you’ll see a list of restaurants. I was surprised by how many restaurants there were. Out of the ones that would deliver to my suburb (just choose the suburb from the drop-down when you enter your postcode), there was a lot of Thai food, and quite a few pizza places. I chose pizza this time around.
Looking at the mobile website for a while, I felt that installing the app would be worthwhile, and tried that instead. It’s fast and intuitive, with a few moments of confusion towards the end: when you try and tap the top of the screen (an iOS standard move for “scroll to the top of the list”), it takes you back to the menulog home screen instead.
At times, the mobile app was a little confusing: when you have completed the process, it tells you your order has been placed, but then has a pop-up to try the app – this is clearly something they will work out in time.
Ignoring that minor confusion, the rest is super easy. Moments after placing the order, you receive an SMS confirmation including the delivery time and contact details of the restaurant, and then – ten minutes before they were due – the food arrives at the door like magic.
And here we have the finished product: pizza, ordered online (before the restaurant had even opened for the day), delivered to my place when I wanted it, ready to eat. Thanks for the chance to test out your service, menulog!