Delivery drivers and take away orders ruin restaurant meals

[contentlycontent]

We don't eat out much, maybe once a month or less. When we do go, tends to be local independent restaurants. However our 4-5 most recent experiences are ruined by the revolving door of delivery drivers collecting takeaways and restaurant staff bending over backwards to meet their demand at the expense of those sitting there.

Yesterday we sat directly opposite the kitchen and watched orders for those eating in sit under hot lamps for upwards of 20 minutes whilst they packed order after order to give to the delivery drivers crowded round the door. We waited more than 15 minutes for a waiter to come to take our order, the food arrived at odd times with items missing and a couple of drinks forgotten entirely. The restaurant was at half capacity at this point.

I find it crazy that if I were to order a take away for the restaurant, it would be at my door in 30 minutes but when I am sitting right there, I spend more than half that time just trying to get their attention to place an order.

AIBU to think that the experience of eating out has ben destroyed as a direct result of the explosion of food delivery services?

And the driving experience. The scooters shooting around the roads is ridiculous.

And to add insult to injury, pretty much every single restaurant slaps on a 12.5% service charge for dining in when they prioritise service to those ordering takeaways!

Just score the service charge off the bill.

Yes absolutely! Both motorbikes a menace on the roads and the electric bikes on our local bike paths always cutting up my children and scaring them when they’re cycling home from school or activities

Totally agree @contentlycontent

I should do this more. It makes me feel so awkward doing it when staff are clearly busy but the reality is they’re not giving me the service

After yesterday, DH said maybe we just don’t bother going locally as we are equally happy cooking and should just stick to it for days out

I agree. It is infuriating. We were in a traditional greasy spoon type cafe on Saturday lunchtime (the type that does sandwiches, strong tea, omlettes, cooked breakfasts, jacket potatoes etc..) it was busy and the staff had to break off every 5 mins or so to prepare order for a constant stream of Deliveroo drivers (as an aside who the hell is ordering takeaway from a fairly basic greasy spoon?)

I feel for restaurants though as it is a way to earn more money in these hard times and it saved many places during covid.

I haven’t come across this. What type of restaurants are these?

All the restaurants/cafes in our town have Deliveroo/Uber Eats, from high end to McDonalds, to greasy spoons with the exception of one.

It's pretty common unless you're really rural

Completely agree , I went out with my dh recently to a restaurant and I really hated all the takeaway orders coming and going right near us , the service was ok but not great and then finally when it came to paying with my card I had an option of adding an 8 or 16 % service charge . I refused to pay it , I'm not paying extra for a very basic service in a restaurant that's already ruined by all the constant deliveries going past my table .

It's their management of the activity rather than the business model. Our local restaurant has pretty much a separate kitchen banging out the deliveries. The drivers come to a different entrance.

The owner invested because profits from the deliveries are outstripping the restaurant. The reality is deliveries are here to stay, our expectation to eat good quality meal at home has expanded and to be fair most of the thriving ones near me are on the more healthy offering.

Having food ready not brought to the table is due to bad staff training and probably under staffing.

YANBU we stopped to pick up a fish and chips. Couple of people in the queue thought we’d be home in a few minutes stood there for about half and hour like lemons while they prepared ticket after ticket for deliveroos. Not been back.

Yep. It may be less noticable in larger or fancier restaurants as they may have a separate door for Deliveroo orders to avoid the situation the OP describes but it is really common to pretty much every restaurant.

Yes I actively avoid our local independent restaurants that are on Deliveroo/uber eats for this exact reason. It drives me barmy when I can see my food and no one will bring it to me!

@OnionPond every type of restaurant in my local area - Indian, Chinese, Lebanese, Italian, dessert lounges are the ones we have visited since start of this year.

As @Ginmonkeyagain, I do wonder why so many people order certain types of food as take away for example, dessert lounge crepes and ice cream which would not travel to be nearly the same experience as dining in.

I appreciate it must really help support them during tough times but the way my last few experiences have been, they would be better off being just a take away shop

Agree. We went to a restaurant recently and the service was fine, but it was a small restaurant and every two minutes there were delivery drivers at the front door. It was a cold night so I was very aware of the door being constantly opened for the owner to hand over deliveries. It made the restaurant feel like a waiting room.

Yes, I know — I live in a city centre, and eat out a lot! I’m saying that I’ve never had the OP’s experience of being kept waiting in a restaurant with food for those eating in sitting for ages at the pass while the kitchen (and apparently front of house too?) serviced a backlog of takeaway orders. It sounds spectacularly poorly run if a waiter in an half-empty restaurant couldn’t even take an order while this was happening…?

Thats why I asked what kind of restaurants these were, if it’s happened to her multiple times.

I have heard of a couple slightly further away who have done this. Own area for deliveries and own kitchen. Excellent business model imo because deliveries are probably here to stay, just such a shame they are completely destroying our occasional treat

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.

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.

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. 🤷‍♀️

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.

@OnionPond yesterday's experience was certainly the worst in terms of service but it has been noticeably slower for a while. The never ending stream of delivery drivers opening and closing the doors, standing near our table waiting for food etc has been an ongoing issue since the start of the year.

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.

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.