Delivery drivers and take away orders ruin restaurant meals

I agree. I also think it unhygienic because many of these drivers wonder into kitchens or place their filthy food boxes on tables or areas where there’s food. There needs to be separate areas for deliveries at least. The mopeds mounting and speeding on pavements is also a massive problem.

Did you say anything at the time!

YABU - it's not the drivers, but restaurant management surely? Even our small local takeaway has a back door and separate queue for them.
The ticket system includes All orders so there's no reason for them to have ignored you.

The equivalent in Malta is Bolt food. Last time I went there, a restaurant I like wouldn't take a booking for me, a single person eating by myself, so I ordered a meal to be delivered to my hotel. If I'd been able to eat there they'd have profited by my ordering drinks as well.

I think I am very fussy, because I find the idea of a fried breakfast that has been transported before I eat it pretty revolting!

The one that always amazes me is all the delivery drivers coming out of costa and starbucks. People must be paying so incredibly over the odds for really mediocre coffee and pastries.

I had that same experience a few years ago in a small town. Not noticed it much where I live as I mostly go out in the city where it happens but the restaurants are big enough to handle it.

Gosh, I've obviously been lucky in my choices. Didn't even think about it, but I've never been to restaurants who accept Deliveroo. Maybe smaller towns are less affected.

Yes! We complained about this once in a Wagamamas as the service was so, so bad. The restaurant wasn't busy, yet we waited so long for our meals (some on our table waited over an hour from ordering!). We could see the endless stream of drivers coming in to collect takeaways and it was clear the staff were prioritising those. They were very dismissive of our complaint and in the end very reluctantly gave us a discount from our meal (after first offering us a bottle of wine - none of us were drinking wine, and we wanted to leave, not stay for a glass of wine).

admittedly I use Uber eats for the smaller takeaways or macdonalds where there are several ways to go in and eat or takeaway anyway, but I would never knowingly use it for a proper restaurant.

Takeaway breakfasts are more popular now, many people don't drive or are too hungover to so get one from a greasy spoon or McDonalds etc. They must make a lot of money from the deliveries

I worked in a popular high St bakery/takeaway and there has been a big rise in just eat/delivered orders. The products are more expensive and there is a delivery charge top. The price can be almost double what you would pay by collecting it yourself.(so much for the cost of living crisis!!) I rarely go to McDonald's but now it takes much longer to get your order because they are prioritising delivery orders.
I think people will get.fed up of it all eventually and start patronising places that offer a traditional service

No you really aren’t BU.

I worked in hospitality and it’s so difficult for the restaurant staff as well and the reason I left my last job.

The owner insisted we take every delivery order and the chefs and front of house staff were under so much pressure to look after the people dining - in whilst preparing take away orders.

it’s impossible to keep everyone happy and focusing on diners and getting the takeaways out so they are still hot and delivered on time. I would often get complaints on both sides about waiting for food and quality of meals as the chefs were rushing to cook all the orders.

In my opinion if you want to provide takeaway at the same time as having people eating - in then you need enough staff to be able to cope with the demand of both.

if you had been received better service and staff were more attentive when you visited then you might not have been as aware of the number of takeaways going out. I found when people were sitting being ignored that they had nothing to focus on and started to notice how much time the takeaway side of the business takes up.

You should consider posting a review online, I think more people should do this as I’m sure staff would appreciate it. They have likely complained to the owners about being short staff, they won’t listen till it comes from paying customers.

Absolutely agree with this.

If you're eating out it's meant to be a treat, a bit of luxury and a pleasure - you are expecting to and happy to pay a little more for that. If it's spoiled by slow service and a queue of couriers in motorcycle helmets in the corner of the room is no pleasure at all.

We were in Zizzi recently and the above, coupled by the price and food that was worse than we could have cooked at home and not enough to fill us up has put us off ever going there again. I remember when Zizzi felt like a real treat.

My favourite local restaurant is very small with only a narrow aisle between tables. It used to be a very calm, intimate place. It's been totally ruined by firstly the constant delivery notices pinging away, then the delivery people constantly coming in and out with their huge bags. They barge through, knocking into tables and shoulders, and then end up forming a line from the collection point at the back right through the restaurant, so you are eating with delivery drivers' filthy bags right next to you! It's really off putting. This particular restaurant held out against deliveries for ages but have obviously gone with it now, and staff have no time anymore to give actual diners decent attention. I've noticed similar set ups in lots of the smaller local places I used to like.

Prices have gone up, service and food quality has gone down everywhere, bad mix between deliveries being more common and food/overhead prices being inflated. It's such a shame. If I go out to eat anywhere now that has the Just Eat or whatever stickers in the window, I always try to ask for a table away from entrances, kitchens and pick up points which I'm sure makes me look very picky. If I'm paying a small fortune to eat in though, I'd rather have a peaceful experience.

Waited 40 mins in a Pizza Express for our order recently. The waitress came over to apologise that the delay was because a large Deliveroo order had come in.

locally we have loads of clusters of scooters and bikes outside a run of restaurants. It's intimidating later in the evening to walk through (there has been fighting and cat calling). I also hate that the riders keep their balaclavas and motorcycle helmets inside. Restaurants don't seem to care that all this makes eating out a less than attractive prospect.

As usual total lack of regulation and unmitigated profit generation by these companies and instant gratification being the norm undermines the social contract of acceptable behaviour. (Lol that escalated from a late pizza! But it does make me cross).

I've been out twice in the last two weeks - once to a french bistro, and once to a street food place - and this was not my experience at all, I'm glad to say.

My local chippy always has delivery drivers coming in for orders, but when it's busy they have one staff member dealing with online orders and one dealing with people in the shop (the cooks do both).

A Thai place I go to has a separate door for delivery drivers and it's always quick to serve, regardless of how busy both the restaurant and the delivery orders are.

So it's entirely possible to manage both well - hopefully you'll find some better places to do to soon.

It might actually be better in really busy places - with lots of people eating-in - as they're staffed for it. The problem is most obvious when the restaurant is quiet and so the delivery orders outnumber the eat-in customers by far - as OP says, it starts to feel like you're eating in a takeaway shop. I can also imagine that the ratio of eat-in to delivery is higher in a 'destination' - people aren't going to my local high street just for the experience, so the number opting to eat the same food at home is probably higher.

Yes, this is really annoying at my local fish and chip shop too. Even ordering in advance but for collection doesn't solve it - they still prioritise the drivers. It's a 5 minute walk so I am very reluctant to pay for delivery!

The thing is the drivers are losing money as they wait so are likely to be more pushy/impatient and the shop doesn't want a huge load of them hanging around. But it does feel crap as a paying customer to be essentially ignored.

People are mad on Deliveroo as well. Mr Monkey looked after friend's shop one evening as a favour. It was a high end beer shop that sold bottles of specialist beer and some draft beer for takeaway or consumption on the premises.

He got a Deliveroo order at 8pm for two cans of coke and a packet of crisps this was in an inner London area that has plenty of corner shops and supermarkets open until 11pm or later. 🤷‍♀️

I've never experienced this.

But tbh a business needs to make money and in this lazy society, they will get more income from delivery than people coming in. It seems like sort of a don't hate the player hate the game situation.

I also haven’t experienced this and I’m in London and eat out pretty often. Maybe as a pp says they are using a separate door? But I haven’t had bad or delayed service.

I think quite a few places near me won’t do takeaway on a Friday or Saturday eve as they are busy enough in the restaurant.