Which order-in app is the best?

The way things are going, we’ll hardly have to leave our homes in the future as everything you could possibly want will come right to your door. Phumlani S Langa and the #Trending team try out the leading food delivery apps.

There are few things I enjoy more than room service, but seeing as how I don’t live in a hotel, I like to replicate this at the crib through food delivery apps, so I decided to put some of the more popular ones to the test in a race.

The set-up
Right, so first of all I need a location where all three deliver to, as Mr D doesn’t service my hood of Kensington. Thanks for that by the way Mr D, really dope. I roped my editors Grethe Kemp and Rhodé Marshall into this, despite their December diet plans.

We use three different apps to order the same meal from the same restaurant. The apps in question are Uber Eats, OrderIn and Mr D. The meal is an original chicken burger and regular chips (R49.90) from Steers in Auckland Park. Marshall decides to use Uber Eats and Kemp tries out Mr D, leaving me with the newer and less popular OrderIn.

The test

We ready our selection and tally up the delivery costs: Uber Eats is R10; Mr D is R15; and OrderIn is R15. Uber is already ahead of the pack in terms of pricing and the engines haven’t even been turned on yet. It turns out that Mr D won’t let you place an order for anything less than R65, so Kemp ends up adding an extra buddy Coke to her order, pushing her total of R49.90 to R69.90.

We click the respective apps’ order buttons at the same time, at which point OrderIn lets me down immensely. Suddenly, they want a clearance code from my bank. Bro, what you mean clearance? I shop regularly online and this is the first time I’ve been asked for this. Just like that, my dream of dine-in dash victory is over.

Meanwhile, Mr D has already sent Kemp a message saying: “Lick your lips, we’re around the corner.” After just 12 minutes, Mr D has arrived with the order. Uber Eats is right behind and arrives in 15 minutes.

The verdict
Because of a banking error, OrderIn was immediately out the race. Mr D was the more expensive option as we had to increase the amount of food we bought and pay R5 more for delivery. Uber Eats was less pricey, but not as fast as Mr D, however, both were very efficient.

Really, the best app for you depends on where you are and whether it offers you the food you want.