On March 30th, food delivery service Deliveroo launched in Bristol. Already incredibly successful in London, they’ve now decided to branch out – offering Bristolians (only in certain postcode areas at the moment) the opportunity to have food from some of the city’s top restaurants delivered to their home or office.
Their restaurant list is certainly impressive, comprising a range of businesses such as CAU, Chomp, Beerd, Planet Pizza and Bagel Boy. The Deliveroo team promise speedy delivery and food travel time of no more than 7 minutes, ensuring that the food is still in great condition when it reaches your doorstep.
Registering with the Deliveroo website was simple – just a few personal details including our postcode – taking me to a screen that listed the available restaurants for my area plus the estimated delivery time for each.
With both of us suffering with stinking colds, we decided that something fiery yet flavoursome was the order of the day, and so we perused the menu from Tampopo in Cabot Circus, who have provided us with chilli-laden meals in the past. The Deliveroo system promised us a delivery time of a very reasonable 40 minutes, which was fine by us, and so we went for two portions of my personal favourite, their Singaporean Laksa Soup at £13.95 per head.
The Deliveroo system tacked on the flat rate £2.50 delivery fee, and gave us the option to include a driver tip, which you can add in multiples of £1.
Putting in the card details was easy enough, with the system telling us that details are securely stored with their payment processing partner using bank-grade encryption. We were surprised not to see the “Verified by Visa” box that is used by so many websites appear, but we’ll take their word for it that our details are safe…
All of the ordering was done via my iPhone, with the interface nice and easy to use. I was also impressed by the regular updates that I received by keeping the order tab open: I was told when the order had been accepted, when it was being prepared, when it was en route and when it had arrived, with the delivery driver’s name and mobile phone number listed on the screen.
That mobile phone number was pretty handy, as the guy phoned to double check our address, and I was aware of who it was that was calling. We were impressed with his friendliness too. Even more impressively, our food arrived with us just 22 minutes after ordering – we were surprised at just how quick it was.
The food was delivered in a Tampopo-branded paper bag, the soups in sturdy lidded cardboard tubs and accompanied with chopsticks, plastic forks and spoons and napkins. We were pleased to see that the soup had kept its temperature while being delivered, and that it was still in perfect condition when it arrived.
It really was the perfect dish for a cold: a fiery yellow coconut broth, complete with masses of thick noodles, two huge prawns, a number of mussels, tender squid and pieces of chicken, all dressed with sliced red onion, two massive slices of tofu, fresh lime, mint leaves and cucumber. The portion was generous for the price – and the level of chilli heat was much better than when I last reviewed their food.
Overall, we were really happy with the service received from Deliveroo – they stuck to their delivery time promise, their interface was simple to use and the food turned up in great condition. It was great to be able to enjoy food at home from a restaurant that’s not previously offered a delivery service, and we’ll certainly be using Deliveroo again.
Please note: our order was discounted, but this in no way impacted on our opinion. We were not obliged to write a positive review, and the venue did not see this review before it was put up on the site.
[…] Our first order – from Tampopo – was pretty impressive, and we were keen to see how different restaurants serving different types of food compared. […]
We ordered from Tampopo through Deliveroo – and while I was impressed by the speed, I thought the portions were very stingy for the price. An Asian sharing platter, Thai green curry with rice, Nasi Goreng & a Pad Thai came to ~£45. It was enough to feed 3 people, but no more. For £45 from a normal Chinese take away I’d expect to be drowning in food & leftovers.
Was pretty non-plussed.
[…] far, from food delivery service Deliveroo, we’ve ordered from Tampopo, GBK and Fuego, with the service that we’ve received having been very good indeed. In all […]